Simone Ashley wears Gucci coat, $17,700 (worn throughout); Tiffany & Co. HardWear by Tiffany earrings, $65,500 (worn throughout), bracelets, from top: $43,700, $54,000, $164,000 and price on application, and ring, $26,200.
At the time of our interview, there’s almost no information about the sequel’s plot. There has been no media screening. All there is to work with are wild internet theories based on paparazzi shots from set (which the cast quickly put a stop to by “wearing our sweatpants to set and only changing out of them at the last minute”, according to Blunt). There are a couple of mysterious film trailers that show Andy returning to Runway but we’re not sure why. All of this is to say that when an actor is sworn to secrecy about a role, as a journalist, you’re kind of stuck.
And Ashley won’t be tricked. We got a sneak peek at her character in a L’Oréal Paris x TDWP2 campaign that aired at the Oscars. Set in the Runway office, it sees Karan Soni mistake Kendall Jenner for Miranda’s new hard-to-look-at assistant who’s in desperate need of some makeup until Ashley enters and sets the record straight. “You are so fired,” she deadpans.
This seems like a way in: Ashley has been a L’Oréal Paris ambassador since 2024, so the campaign must have been a world-colliding experience. What was it like to be back in the Runway office? When gently pressed for details, she smiles like she’s spotted a crafty chess move and deftly deflects. “It was so fun and kind of surreal to go back into the Runway office months after we wrapped,” she offers. “I’ve worked with Kendall before and she’s such a professional — she’s so friendly, and another intelligent, amazing woman to work with.
“L’Oréal Paris is an incredible partnership,” she continues. “I’m in the company of some incredibly inspiring women who I’ve looked up to for a long time. So to be in the same brand ambassador family as them is amazing.” Move blocked.
And then, a miracle. A few days after our interview, the final trailer drops. Ashley’s publicist emails: the actor would like to chat again — she can say more now. Thank God.
“[The sequel] is a continuation of the story 20 years later, and we see the big changes that have happened in journalism, media, fashion and the world,” she shares. And there’s still more: Andy has returned to Runway to restore the magazine’s credibility in the midst of a scandal. Emily is now holding the luxury advertising purse strings that could save the magazine, and “we have to see how Andy and Miranda handle it”, Ashley explains.
As for her character, her name is Amari. “People are like, ‘Oh, she’s the new Emily,’ and I guess in theory she is,” Ashley says. “But I think what was funny about Emily Blunt in the first movie was that she was the first assistant but she was a nervous wreck — she really tries to pull it together and keep it contained, but it just keeps coming out in these really funny ways.” While Emily was battling her millennial good-girl complex, Amari — a gen Z — has no such issues. “She’s just so confident; she’s a bit of a badass,” Ashley says. “She’s so focused, and kind of mysterious.” Where the first film lacked diversity (much like the fashion industry at the time), Amari is the one who nudges Miranda in a new direction. “She’s the one Miranda turns to every now and then, and the only one who can talk to her and encourage her to take different routes given the industry and the world have changed.”
HAVING JUST TURNED 31 AND WITH A MOVE TO NEW YORK, A MAJOR ROLE IN 'THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2', A NEW ALBUM AND MORE SEASONS OF 'BRIDGERTON' IN THE BAG, SIMONE ASHLEY IS COMING INTO HER OWN. AND SHE COULDN’T BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT
PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID ROEMER
STYLED BY NAOMI SMITH
WORDS BY ALEXANDRA ENGLISH
Suddenly
Simone
f you want someone to keep your secret, tell it to an actor. Daisy Ridley had to sign an iron-clad NDA for Star Wars, Florence Pugh wasn’t allowed to utter a peep about Marvel’s Black Widow and Margot Robbie didn’t even tell her mum about the spoiler
in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood. It’s a little more surprising, though, that when Simone Ashley speaks to ELLE, she’s been sworn to secrecy about her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2, the sequel to the 2006 original movie starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
The last time we saw the Runway magazine team, including formidable editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Streep), wannabe journalist turned hapless assistant Andy Sachs (Hathaway), creative director Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) and first assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), Andy had thrown her phone into a fountain in Paris and left the high-fashion world behind. She’d landed a job as a ‘serious’ journalist and might have gotten back with her ex, Nate.
But when asked for specifics on the sequel, Ashley smiles politely and simply says: “I play Miranda Priestly’s first assistant.”
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The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in cinemas now.
EDITOR: JESSICA BAILEY
PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID ROEMER
STYLED BY NAOMI SMITH
WORDS BY ALEXANDRA ENGLISH
VIDEOGRAPHY BY AUSTIN NUNES
HAIR: GONN KINOSHITA AT THE WALL GROUP
MAKEUP: SAMANTHA LAU AT A-FRAME AGENCY
MANICURE: MO QIN AT THE WALL GROUP
FASHION ASSISTANT: JORDAN BOORMAN
PRODUCTION: GILLIAN AVERTICK AT INNER CIRCLE NY LA AND NICOLA HANRATTY
DAVID ROEMER IS REPRESENTED BY ATELIER MANAGEMENT.
Wearing Gucci and TIFFANY & CO. BEAUTY L'OREAL PARIS
This story appears in the june 2026 Issue of
LEFT Christopher Esber jumpsuit, $895, and top, $440; Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello shoes, $3710 (worn throughout). RIGHT Gucci jacket (with belt), $11,700, pants, $1690, and shoes, $1890 (worn throughout).
Isabel Marant coat, $2890; Tiffany & Co. HardWear by Tiffany bracelets, $50,500, $156,000 and price on application.
he Devil Wears Prada 2 is a coup for Ashley, who was slingshotted to fame in 2022 as the leading lady in season two of Netflix’s Bridgerton, Kate Sharma. Her season of Shonda Rhimes’ raunchy regency romance with love interest Anthony Bridgerton
(Jonathan Bailey) shattered the viewership records set by the first season.
She wasn’t an unfamiliar face to Netflix subscribers: for three seasons she played bubblegum-blowing mean-girl Olivia Hanan in Sex Education, the taboo-smashing series about teenagers discovering their sexuality.
For two sex-positive shows to be her first foray into the mainstream seems unlikely for Ashley, who was raised in the UK by first-generation Indian Tamil parents she’s described as strict and conservative. But she’s always been the family rebel, watching Tarantino films, listening to rock’n’roll and moving to Los Angeles alone at 17 to pursue acting. When she returned to England at 19, she scored her first gig, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance as a party girl in 2015’s Straight Outta Compton. The part was uncredited, but it was enough to propel her into a cascading series of roles.
T
LEFT Gucci dress, $5350, and bag, $3750. RIGHT Bottega Veneta dress, $31,240.
L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Filler Glass Skin Hydrogel Glow Mask, $14.99, Lumi Glotion Natural Glow Enhancer in Deep Glow, $39.99, and Lumi Bronze Le Stick Soleil Cream-to-Powder Bronzer in Toasted Sunlight, $30.99.
“[AMARI] IS JUST SO CONFIDENT; SHE’S A BIT OF A BADASS ... SHE’S THE ONE MIRANDA TURNS TO”
– SIMONE ASHLEY
ith Bridgerton, Ashley proved she had acting (and horseriding) chops, and also became a symbol of diversity and possibility for women of colour who’d never seen someone who looked like them leading a period piece so popular
in the West. That responsibility did not sit lightly with Ashley, who had started her own production company, Good Catch Entertainment, a year before as a way to close these gaps in the industry.
The first film she executive produced was last year’s romcom Picture This, which she’s described as the “Indian Bridget Jones”. She plays Pia, a thirtysomething who can’t get her life together and who has been told by a spiritual guru that she will meet the love of her life on her next five dates.
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Bridgerton also saw her become a fashion and beauty darling, sitting front row at fashion weeks and dazzling her fans with her red carpet looks. (She was one of the best dressed at this year’s Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in a shimmering silver dress with delicate silver peacock feathers by Tamara Ralph.)
She’s currently the face of the L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Filler Glass Skin range, and it shows: even through a screen, Ashley looks radiant. “Less is more for me,” she says of her regimen. “It’s about keeping hydrated and also getting enough sleep. People kind of overload their skin with things and then you’ve got to undo it at some point, so it’s easier to just take care of the basics.” That’s not to say she doesn’t ever indulge in makeup. “There’s a version of me who loves getting my heels on and putting on makeup and looking polished, but it’s also really nice to just be myself and give my skin a bit of a break.
L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Filler Glass Skin Liquid Cream, $59.99, Revitalift Filler Hyaluronic Plumping Serum, $59.99, Plump Ambition Hyaluron Lip Oil in La Nuit Sparkle, $29.99, Haute Couleur Khol Eyeliner, $19.99, and Infallible 3-Second Setting Mist, $29.99.
hen the call came for The Devil Wears Prada 2, or rather, an email, Ashley was bedridden with sinusitis. “I was really, really sick, and I was doing everything I could just to get on the Zoom [with the casting agent],” she says.
“I did the reading and didn’t hear back for a few weeks until I was working on something [else] and they called and said David [Frankel, the director, who also directed the first film] wanted to meet me.” She high-tailed it to a meeting room and tried to amp herself up by “watching YouTube clips of some of the best Rihanna moments”, she says, laughing. “I wanted to portray someone so confident and sassy, but who doesn’t come across as too mean — someone who can do it with a smile on their face. It gave me a confidence boost.” A few weeks later, she got the call saying she’d landed the role. “I burst out crying,” she remembers.
Ashley was 11 when the original film came out. “It’s just one of those perfect movies — I’ve watched it hundreds of times,” she says. Being on set with the actors she’d been watching since childhood was a trip. “My first scene was with Meryl, and we were filming in the Runway office cafeteria. I came in halfway through the day of filming for a big ensemble scene with a lot of background artists,” she says. “That was the first time I met Meryl, and I was just completely thrown in.”
Ashley made fast friends with the cast. “Stanley Tucci made me laugh all the time,” she says, “and Annie [Hathaway] is so sweet — she loves singing, so we would just sing stupid songs. Emily was just so wonderful and such a laugh.”
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McQueen jacket, $9945, and pants, $3430.
Asked for her top wardrobe picks, she nominates a Thom Browne look from the trailer, and “this Dolce & Gabbana black skirt and long-sleeved top”. There were also custom pieces made by the costume department. Through Amari, Ashley is bringing back the art of dressing for the office. “[She has] the balance between professionalism and what’s cool and expressive,” she says. “It’s completely the opposite of what I wear in real life … I’m usually in jeans and sneakers.” But it seems Amari left her mark. “I’m trying to step out of my comfort zone a bit,” Ashley says. “Especially living in New York, I’m trying to have a bit more fun [with fashion] and express myself more.”
Ashley moved to New York last year when filming for TDWP2 began, and her ELLE shoot is a love letter to her new home town. “New York just gives you a kick up the ass,” she says. “I love meeting new people and experiencing new challenges. There’s nothing quite like working in New York.”
LEFT Prada top, $3150, and skirt, price on application.
RIGHT Loewe dress, price on application; Tiffany & Co. HardWear by Tiffany necklaces, from top: $70,000 and $96,500, and rings: $11,500 (right hand) and $26,200 (left hand).
As Ashley celebrates her 31st birthday, she enters her biggest year yet professionally. She’s speaking to ELLE on a day off from filming Peaked, Molly Gordon’s directorial follow-up to Theater Camp about the popular girls at their 10-year high school reunion, also starring Laura Dern, Dua Lipa, Emma Mackey and Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie. “I’ve never really done a character like this before,” she says of her unnamed role. Again, the details are being kept vague. “There’s so much to it that speaks to human psychology and social dynamics and hierarchies; it’s been really interesting to explore with everyone,” she adds. “It’s so much fun. Molly is an incredible director and friend.”
LEFT Gucci jacket, $6150, and pants, $2980.
RIGHT Gucci jacket, $5750; stylist’s own briefs.
In early April, the same week she wrapped filming for Peaked, Ashley released her first EP, Songs I Wrote in New York. Singing was her first love as a kid before acting. “About four years ago I sat down with my team and was like, ‘I really want to release music,’” she says. For the past couple of years she’s been working with producer Fraser T. Smith (Adele, Stormzy) whenever she could squeeze in studio time. “Moving to New York in the summer really influenced me lyrically and it gave me such confidence in the sound I wanted to convey,” she says, adding that she wanted to capture joy. “Happiness is worth documenting. It’s such a moment in time.” The result is a work of soulful pop with electric beats, and the full album is set for release later this year.
And the cherry on top of it all? Netflix has confirmed there will be at least two more seasons of Bridgerton.
“I feel like I’ve had a bit of a boost … I’ve come to know myself and I’m comfortable in who I am,” Ashley says. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and self work to get there — it’s a forever journey — but I’m proud of myself. I’m just having fun, focusing on my work, taking care of myself and spending time with my friends. It’s a really big moment. I’m just trying to be present.”
Chloé top, $2509, and shoes, $1476; Tiffany & Co. HardWear by Tiffany bracelets, from top: $164,000, $54,000 and price on application, and rings: $11,500 and $26,200; stylist’s own briefs.
“STANLEY TUCCI MADE ME LAUGH ALL THE TIME AND ANNIE IS SO SWEET … WE WOULD SING STUPID SONGS”
– SIMONE ASHLEY