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Royal Television Society Awards Nominees: Gary Oldman, Bella Ramsey

Mar 7 2024

TV review: Black Mirror; Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Peter Andre; This is Justin Bieber

Dec 11 2011

Early life

Thomas was born in Hammersmith, West London. His mother is of Jamaican heritage and his father is of Dominican heritage.³ He attended St. Mary's of the Angels RC Primary School. Aged 8, his family moved to Kensal Rise, in the London Borough of Brent. He attended Cardinal Hinsley High School,⁴ where he excelled in drama studies. Thomas then went on to join the BRIT School for Performing Arts as a theatre student.⁵

Before finding acting and music success Thomas worked as a postman for the Royal Mail and later as a London bus driver during his early twenties.⁶

Career

Music

By his late teens, Thomas was a part of the UK’s emerging grime scene, rapping on pirate radio stations.

In 2007, Thomas released the song "Black Boys".⁷ With frequent reports of shootings and stabbings on news bulletins, and with the media focusing on the lack of role models in black communities, Thomas felt that the British inner-city youth could be reminded they had a number of positive role models they could look to for inspiration.⁸

In 2008, Thomas started working on Adulthood.⁹ Noel Clarke, the writer and director of Adulthood, first encountered Thomas when he was passed a copy of The Chupa Chups Mixtape, which contained samples from Clarke's previous film, Kidulthood.¹⁰ Clarke was impressed with what he heard and disregarded concerns around the copyright infringement instead finding a way for Thomas to work on the official soundtrack for Adulthood.¹¹ Thomas delivered the film's theme song Kidulthood to Adulthood.¹²

Thomas released his debut album, Catch Me If You Can in 2009.¹³ The album was nominated for the 2009 MOBO Award for Album of the Year.

In 2010, Thomas featured on the song "White Flag" by Gorillaz from their critically acclaimed album Plastic Beach.¹⁴ The song saw Bashy feature alongside UK rapper Kano and the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music.¹⁵

In 2013, Thomas stepped away from music to focus on his acting career full time.

Thomas released his first full-length album in 15 years, Being Poor is Expensive, on 12 July 2024.¹⁶ The album received critical acclaim and won the 2025 MOBO Award for Album of Year. Bashy also won the MOBO Award for Best Hip Hop Act that same year.¹⁷ His song How Black Men Lose Their Smile was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.

Acting

Thomas landed his first role in 2010 as Rager in British flick, Shank,¹⁸ an independent action film set in a decaying future London. He then went on to feature as Smoothy in the movie 4.3.2.1. that same year.¹⁹ In April 2010, BBC Learning launched Off By Heart Shakespeare, a recital contest for secondary school pupils,²⁰ and Thomas was asked to play the role of Shylock from The Merchant of Venice.²¹

In 2011, Thomas played the part of Mental Mickey in Cockneys vs Zombies.²² Later that year, he played Tyrone Jones in The Veteran.²³ His first television role came in the winter of 2011, in the Emmy award-winning series Black Mirror, by Charlie Brooker for Channel 4 as Judge Wraith in the episode "Fifteen Million Merits".²⁴

In 2012, Thomas played the lead role in The Man Inside, opposite Peter Mullan, David Harewood and Michelle Ryan. His next film was My Brother the Devil,²⁵ which received critical acclaim, winning awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival.

In 2013, he played the recurring character Jermaine Newton in Top Boy , a role he reprised in 2019 after it was announced that Netflix was to revive the British drama series.²⁶

Early in 2015, Thomas guest-starred in the BBC series The Interceptor. Thomas' next TV appearance would be as Gil in the short-lived fantasy drama Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands for ITV in January 2016. Thomas signed up to the ensemble cast of A Hundred Streets released the same year.²⁷

Early in 2016, it was confirmed Thomas was to appear as Calvin Hart in the HBO limited series The Night Of directed by James Marsh and Steve Zaillian.²⁸ In March 2016, Thomas was set as a lead role in the 20th Century Fox Television reboot of franchise series 24 as Isaac Carter.²⁹ Early in 2018, Thomas played the brother of Luca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) in the legal drama The Good Fight, airing on CBS All Access.³⁰ Later that year Thomas starred in Skin, the film won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards.

In 2019 it was announced Thomas would co-star in the NYPD Blue reboot.³¹ That same year Thomas was set to headline the Amazon Prime horror series Them;³² for his performance he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination.³³ In 2021, Thomas starred in the British limited series The Ipcress File on ITV. In February 2022, the cast for the Steven Knight's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations for the BBC was announced,³⁴ with Olivia Colman cast as Miss Havisham, Fionn Whitehead cast as Pip and Thomas cast as Mr Jaggers, becoming the first black actor to play the role; for his performance he received a Royal Television Society Programme Award nomination.³⁵ Later that year, Thomas had been cast as the male lead in the Hulu drama series Black Cake opposite Adrienne Warren and Mia Isaac.³⁶ In 2023 Thomas joined the cast of The Serpent Queen as Alessandro de Medici.³⁷ In March 2024 Thomas was cast in the Netflix political television series Hostage as Dr Alex Anderson, alongside Suranne Jones, filming began that month with the working title The Choice.³⁸ In November 2024 it was announced Thomas had been cast in the Channel 4 crime thriller drama series In Flight.³⁹

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes/EPs

• Ur Mum Vol One (2005)
• The Chupa Chups Mixtape (2007)
• Bashy.com (2008)
• The Fantasy Mixtape (2010)
• The Crunchie Mixtape (2011)
• The Great Escape EP (2012)
• Mixtape Legend Compilation (2013)

Singles and music videos

Guest appearances

• "Clones" – 2006 (by Akira the Don)
• "Time Is Right Remix" – 2009 (by Frisco, also featuring Jme and Black the Ripper)
• "She Likes To" (England Top 10) – 2009 (by Wiley)
• "White Flag" from Plastic Beach – 2010 (by Gorillaz, also featuring Kano)
• "Dead Butterflies" – Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (by Gorillaz, also featuring Kano and Roxani Arias)
• "4,3,2,1" – 4.3.2.1 OST (Bashy featuring Paloma Faith and Adam Deacon)
• "It's All Love" (Remix) – 2012 (by Scorcher, also featuring Talay Riley, Kano and Wretch 32)
• "Bad Boys Don't Cry" – 2013 (by Loick Essien)

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

External links

• Official website
• Bashy at IMDb

References

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2. Barzey, Whelan (18 April 2021). "The rapper who's gone from driving London buses to starring in an Amazon Prime TV show". -www.mylondon.news/. https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/rapper-whos-gone-driving-london-20402398 ↩

3. Fevre, Juliette (21 October 2021). "Top Boy actor Bashy returns to Harlesden school to surprise pupils". -www.kilburntimes.co.uk//. https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/education/ashley-thomas-visits-former-harlesden-school-8427634 ↩

4. Fevre, Juliette (21 October 2021). "Top Boy actor Bashy returns to Harlesden school to surprise pupils". -www.kilburntimes.co.uk//. https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/education/ashley-thomas-visits-former-harlesden-school-8427634 ↩

5. Fevre, Juliette (21 October 2021). "Top Boy actor Bashy returns to Harlesden school to surprise pupils". -www.kilburntimes.co.uk//. https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/education/ashley-thomas-visits-former-harlesden-school-8427634 ↩

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