SEX EDUCATION Star Simone Ashley Joins Netflix's BRIDGERTON Season 2
Simone Ashley, known for her roles in Broadchurch, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, and Sex Education, has joined the cast of the hit Netflix series Bridgerton for its second season. Ashley will play Kate, the female lead opposite Jonathan Bailey in the Regency-era period drama series based on Julia Quinn’s romance novels.
Deadline reports, “The second season will chronicle the pursuit of a suitable marriage for the eldest Bridgerton sibling, Anthony (Bailey), as chronicled in the second book of Quinn’s Bridgerton series, The Viscount Who Loved Me. Ashley will play Anthony’s romantic interest, Kate Sharma. Newly arrived in London, Kate is a smart, headstrong young woman who suffers no fools — Anthony Bridgerton very much included.”
Bridgerton will continue to break conventions on race in the upcoming season. “Anthony’s love interest (named Kate Sheffield in Quinn’s novel) and her family were conceived by the series’ producing team as being of Indian descent in a continuation of the reimagined, multi-racial world of early 1800s London high society created in Season 1, which included several major Black characters, including the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) and Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel).”
It sounds like Ashley will be a solid addition to the cast. What do you think of her playing Anthony’s love interest?