Ashley Thomas (actor)

Ashley Thomas (born 4 February 1985), also known by his stage name Bashy, is an English actor and rapper.

Early life

Thomas was born in Hammersmith, West London, the first born of a Jamaican mother and Dominican father. He attended St. Mary's of the Angels RC Primary School. Aged eleven, his family moved to Kensal Rise, northwest London and he attended Cardinal Hinsley High School. Thomas attended The BRIT School for Performing Arts as a theatre student.

Before becoming an actor and musician, Thomas worked as a postman for the Royal Mail and later as a London Bus driver.

Musical career

Black Boys

In 2007, Thomas released the song "Black Boys". With frequent reports of shootings and stabbings on news bulletins, and with the media continuously focusing on the lack of role models in black communities, he felt that the nation's inner-city youth needed a reminder that they had a number of positive role models they could look to for inspiration. His début single provoked controversy as some critics called the track racist. This prompted the governing body Ofcom to investigate.

Adulthood

In 2008, Thomas started working on ''Adulthood''. Noel Clarke, the writer and director of ''Adulthood'', first encountered Thomas when he was passed a copy of The Chupa Chups Mixtape, which contained samples from Clarke's previous ''Kidulthood'' film. Clarke was so impressed with what he heard that his thoughts soon drifted from copyright protection to finding a way to record the Adulthood theme song. He asked Thomas to submit a track to be included on the official soundtrack, and Thomas delivered "Kidulthood to Adulthood". Thomas also curated music from other artists for Clarke to consider. Subsequently, Clarke asked Thomas to act as a music supervisor for the entire film.

Catch Me If You Can

Thomas released his debut album, ''Catch Me If You Can'' in June 2009. "Hiphop.com" rated the album "good" and stated, "''Catch Me If You Can'' is a debut album that perfectly demonstrates how hip hop has become the world's local music. With vocal accents, lyrical references, swagger and varied production styles that will take a minute for the non-Brit to get their head around, much of this likable and well-intentioned set still deserves wider attention."

Acting career

Thomas landed his first role in 2010 as Rager in British flick, '' Shank'', an independent action film set in a decaying future London. He then went on to feature in ''4.3.2.1.'' that same year.

In April 2010, BBC Learning launched Off By Heart Shakespeare, a recital contest for secondary school pupils. For the project launch, Thomas was asked to play the role of Shylock from ''The Merchant of Venice''.

Early in 2011, Thomas signed on to play the lead role in '' The Man Inside'', opposite Peter Mullen, David Harewood and Michelle Ryan. Later that year, he was part of an ensemble cast in ''Cockneys vs Zombies'', taking up the role of Mental Mickey.

Thomas' first television role came in the winter of 2011, in the Emmy award-winning series ''Black Mirror'' by Charlie Brooker for Channel 4 as Judge Wraith in the episode "Fifteen Million Merits". Thomas' next film was ''My Brother the Devil'' which received critical acclaim, winning awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival.

In 2013, played the recurring character Jermaine Newton in ''Top Boy '', a role he would reprise in 2019 after it was announced that Netflix would revive the British drama series.

Early in 2015, Thomas guest-starred in the BBC
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