Zawe Ashton
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1984-07-25
    • Born Place: London, England, UK

Zawe Ashton

Zawedde "Zawe" Emma Ashton is a British actress, playwright, and director, born on July 25, 1984, in Hackney, London. The eldest of three children, her mother, Victoria, is Ugandan, and her father, Paul Ashton, is English; both were teachers. Her maternal grandfather was Paulo Muwanga, who served as President and later Prime Minister of Uganda. Ashton began acting at the age of six at the Anna Scher Theatre School and was a member of the National Youth Theatre before earning her degree in acting from Manchester Metropolitan University.Her career spans television, film, and theatre, beginning with childhood roles in shows like The Demon Headmaster. She achieved widespread acclaim for her main role as the charismatic, anarchic student Violet "Vod" Nordstrom in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Fresh Meat (2011–2016). Other notable TV roles include Katherine in Not Safe for Work (2015), Claire in the BBC/Netflix series Wanderlust (2018), and Journey Blue in Doctor Who (2014).In film, Ashton's credits include her nominated role as Joyce Carol Vincent in the docu-drama Dreams of a Life (2011), the thriller Blitz (2011), the psychological thriller Greta (2018), the horror-thriller Velvet Buzzsaw (2019), and the romantic comedy Mr. Malcolm's List (2022). Most recently, she gained international recognition for playing the antagonist Dar-Benn in the Marvel Studios film The Marvels (2023).Ashton is also an accomplished writer. She won the London Poetry Slam Championship in 2000, was Young Writer in Residence at the Contact Theatre in Manchester in 2006, and has written several plays, including her debut, Harm's Way. Her first book, Character Breakdown, a "factional" memoir about her experiences as an actress, was published in 2019. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2021. Ashton co-starred with actor Tom Hiddleston in the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (2019) and they have one child together.

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