Zawe Ashton

Zawe Ashton is a British actress and playwright who grew up in Hackney, London, and started training at the Anna Scher Theatre School at six before joining the National Youth Theatre and earning an acting degree from Manchester Metropolitan University. She drew notice as Vod in the Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat and as Katherine in Not Safe for Work, taking the Creative Diversity Network's Best Breakthrough On-Screen Talent prize for the Fresh Meat part. On screen she led Dreams of a Life (2011) as Joyce Carol Vincent, which brought her a British Independent Film Award nomination for Most Promising Newcomer in 2012, and she appeared in St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009), Blitz (2011), Nocturnal Animals (2016), Greta (2019) and Velvet Buzzsaw (2019). She played Dar-Benn in The Marvels (2023). On stage she has appeared in Othello at the Globe and in Betrayal in London and on Broadway, and she wrote plays including Skunk.