Simone Ashwini Pillai was born on March 30, 1995, in Chamberley, Surrey, England. She was born to Indian Tamil parents Latha and Gunasekharan Pillai, and has one older brother. Her family was a household of academics, but Simone learned early in her life that this was not a field she was interested in. If she didn’t find a subject exciting in school, she would rarely manage to concentrate on the work for that subject. Her brother helped her study, but she early understood that her passion was in the creative fields. “I was the only non-academic in my family. Music, film, photography and art were my fortes.” However, her parents were hesitant about her pursuing a career in the creative arts early on. “They’re first generation. They came from India to this country, so they didn’t really have a life where they could choose to be whatever they wanted.” Still, despite their initial hesitations, Simone states that “My family has always been incredibly helpful and supportive.”

Simone has always been highly independent, and moved out from her parents house at the age of 16. She also spent some of her teen years with relatives in California, aspiring to find acting work in The United States. During her upbringing, she took classical music, opera and piano lessons, and she attended Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead for sixth form. Later she went on to train in acting at the Arts Educational School in West London.

Simone started out her acting career with guest appearances in a string of British television series. In 2016, she portrayed Zuhra in two episodes of the show Wolfblood. That was followed up with a one-episode guest spot on Guilt the same year, before a small role on the popular drama Broadchurch in 2017. In 2017 and 2018 she could be seen in guest roles on the shows Strike, the Italian L’ispettore Coliandro, Doctors and Casualty. Simone also made her feature film debut in 2018, with a small role in the film Boogie Man. However, she revelead on the talk show Ellen in 2022 that she earlier had a small cameo in the film Straight Outta Compton in 2015. She followed up Boogie Man with a prominent role in Kill Ben Lyk (2018), portraying one of the many characters named Ben Lyk. Her next feature film was a short scene in the 2019 film Detective Pikachu.

In 2019, Simone landed a recurring role as Olivia Hanan in the first season of Netflix’s Sex Education. Olivia was a member of the clique The Untouchables, and appeared in almost all episodes of the show. It went on to receive critical acclaim for its ensemble cast, writing, directing, production values, and mature treatment of its themes, and it was a massive viewership success with over 40 million viewers streaming the first series after its debut. Simone reprised her role for two more seasons of the show, before revealing in March 2022 that she would not be returning for the fourth season. Despite not returning, she claims that “Sex Education was really life-changing. I’m so grateful for that show. I learnt so much in my craft and as a person.” In 2020 she appeared in four episodes of the ITV psychological thriller miniseries The Sister as Elise Fox.

In February 2021, it was announced that Simone had landed the role of leading lady Kate Sharma opposite Jonathan Bailey in the second season of Netflix’s romance period drama Bridgerton. Of her character, loosely based on Kate Sheffield from the Bridgerton book series, miss Ashley states; “Kate’s a go-getter. She will speed right ahead, but she’s also smart and admirably strategic. I’d like to think I can be like that as well.” Simone originally auditioned over zoom in 2020, and once she was told she wad won the part she had to keep it a secret for a few weeks before it was revelead officially. The season became number 1 on Netflix’s rankings of its most-popular English language-TV series of all time, undoubtfully largely due to Simone and Jonathan Bailey’s incredible chemistry and talent. During a FYSEE Netflix event on May 15, 2022, Simone, Nicola Coughlan and Charithra Chandran were in attendance to reveal that the third season of the show would focus on the love story between characters Penelope and Colin Bridgerton.

Following her standout performance in Bridgerton, Simone took the fashion scene by storm. Considered one of the main IT girls and fashion darlings of 2022, miss Ashley has been spotted wearing designers such as Moschino, Versace, Prabal Gurung and Chanel.

So what’s up next for Simone? In 2023, she will have a (currently undisclosed) role in the highly anticipated The Little Mermaid. She has also confirmed that she will return in Bridgerton’s third season, stating she’s “a Bridgerton girl now“. Several fashion magazines have claimed her as the new “IT girl”, and with her passion for the arts, rare talent and unique looks, we are sure Simone will continue to grace our screens for many more years to come…

Biography was last updated: May 22, 2022