Bashy

Bashy, also known as Ashley Thomas, achieved early UK grime scene recognition with his 2007 release, ‘Black Boys.’ This track gained attention for promoting black role models and led to his ambassador role for the Stop the Knife campaign. In 2008, he contributed the theme song ‘Kidulthood to Adulthood’ to the film Adulthood. His debut album, Catch Me If You Can, released in 2009, earned him two MOBO Award nominations, including Album of the Year. In 2010, Bashy made a guest appearance on Gorillaz’s album Plastic Beach, collaborating on ‘White Flag’ alongside UK rapper Kano and the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music.

In 2019, he co-starred in the NYPD Blue reboot. He headlined Amazon Prime’s Them in 2021, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. He subsequently starred in The Ipcress File (2022) and was cast as Mr Jaggers in the 2023 adaptation of Great Expectations, earning a Royal Television Society Programme Award nomination in 2024. He also took the male lead in Hulu’s Black Cake (2023) and joined The Serpent Queen (2024).

Demonstrating ongoing versatility, Bashy re-engaged with his musical roots, releasing his album Being Poor is Expensive in 2024, which went on to win the MOBO Award for Album of the Year and Best Hip Hop Act in 2025. In the same year, he received an Ivor Novello Award nomination for ‘How Black Men Lose Their Smile’. Looking ahead, Bashy is slated to appear in the Netflix political series Hostage and the Channel 4 crime thriller In Flight, both set for 2025.