Ashley Madekwe (; born 6 December 1983) is a British actress. She is well known for her roles as call girl Bambi in the

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

series ''

Secret Diary of a Call Girl ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'' is a British drama television series that aired from 27 September 2007 to 22 March 2011 on ITV2, based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous Belle de Jour. It stars Billie Piper as Belle, a high-end London ...

'', social climber Ashley Davenport on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

drama series ''

Revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

'' and the witch

Tituba Tituba Indian was an enslaved woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693. She was brought to colonial Massachusetts from Barbados by Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem Village. She was ...

in the

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran ...

series '' Salem''. In 2021, Madekwe was nominated for the

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film. This award ...

for her role in ''County Lines''.

Early life

Madekwe was born in South London, England into an interracial family. Her father is Nigerian and her mother is English. She grew up on a south London

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

and attended The Brit School at age 14. She attended the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...

in London where she gained a BA in acting. While attending the school, she appeared in numerous stage productions including ''

King Henry V Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the ...

'' as Princess Katherine and ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

'' as Catherine Earnshaw.

Career

Madekwe started her acting career with a film titled ''

Storm Damage ''Storm Damage'' is a 2000 British television drama film directed by Simon Cellan Jones, written by Lennie James, and stars Adrian Lester, Mona Hammond and Kate Ashfield. The film is about a young teacher who returns to the children's care home ...

''. In 2005, shortly after graduating from

she played 'Jade' in Shan Khan's

Prayer Room A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...

. Since then, she has made guest appearances on ''

Teachers A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

'', ''

Doctors Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

'', ''

Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

'', and '' Drop Dead Gorgeous''. Madekwe landed her first motion picture in the 2007

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

film ''

Cassandra's Dream ''Cassandra's Dream'' is a 2007 thriller drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Filmed in the United Kingdom, it was released in 2007 in Europe and in January 2008 in the United States. It was developed as a British-French-American co-p ...

'', opposite

Colin Farrell Colin James Farrell (; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in projects across various genres in both blockbuster and independent films since the 2000s, he has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award. ''The I ...

and

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

. Following that success, she played Elisha in the one-off

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

drama pilot ''

West 10 LDN ''West 10 LDN'' was a one-off BBC Three youth drama, written and created by Noel Clarke and directed by Menhaj Huda, first broadcast on 10 March 2008. The screenplay was based on the novel ''Society Within'', a short story collection by Courtt ...

'', and appeared in six episodes of ''

Trexx and Flipside ''Trexx and Flipside'' is a multi-platform British sitcom shown as part of BBC Three's spring schedule and produced by FirstLookTV with Executive Producer Will Hanrahan. It follows the story of Trexx and Flipside, two "wannabe hip hop stars". T ...

'' as Ollie. In 2008, she landed the role of Bambi on the

drama series ''

'', appearing in series two and three. Madekwe starred in the 2008 comedy film '' How to Lose Friends & Alienate People''. Her theatre credits include ''Little Sweet Thing'' by Roy Williams and ''Flight Path'' by David Watson. Madekwe made her official US debut in the 2009 drama series ''

The Beautiful Life ''The Beautiful Life'' (also known as ''The Beautiful Life: TBL'') is an American teen drama television series, which ran on The CW from September 16 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton, and ...

'', which only aired two episodes on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

before being cancelled. In February 2011, she was cast as

Ashley Davenport Ashley Davenport (February 12, 1794 – February 10, 1874) was an American farmer, merchant, county judge, high sheriff, and politician from New York. Life Davenport was born in Copenhagen, New York. He was a member of the New York State Sena ...

in the

drama series ''

''. After being a regular for the first two seasons, it was reported in late May 2013 that Madekwe would depart the series following a guest appearance in the first episode of the third season. She starred as Tituba in the television series '' Salem'' from 2014 to 2016.

Personal life

In June 2012, Madekwe married her long-time boyfriend, Israeli actor

Iddo Goldberg Iddo Goldberg ( he, עדו גולדברג; born 5 August 1975) is an Israeli-British actor born in Israel. He is known for his roles as Ben in ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'', Freddie Thorne in ''Peaky Blinders'', Isaac Walton in '' Salem'' and ...

. They have worked together on ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'' and he also had a role alongside her on the TV series ''Salem.''

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* *
Ashley Madekwe's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madekwe, Ashley 1981 births Living people 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses from London Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art English bloggers English film actresses English people of Nigerian descent English people of Swiss descent English stage actresses English television actresses Black British actresses People educated at the BRIT School British women bloggers