Ashley Banjo
Ashley is the creative director, choreographer and lead dancer of Diversity for whom he creates, produces, and choreographs all their UK tour shows and performances. Over 18million viewers saw Ashley and Diversity win Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 and since then they have toured the world, and sold-out numerous tours, theatres, and Arenas – their most recent tour, “SOUL”, has sold out throughout the UK for over 80 nights!
Aside from Diversity, Ashley has pursued many solo screen projects including the hit TV shows Got to Dance, Secret Street Crew and Big Town Dance for Sky 1; joining Zoe Ball to host BBC1 prime time show Can’t Touch This, and ITV1’s The Void, Dance Dance Dance as well as developing, creating and hosting numerous ITV1 specials including Diversity Steal the Show.
Flirty Dancing, the show Ashley helped develop, as well as host and creatively direct, has wowed the world – since its debut on Channel 4 in 2019, it has aired in numerous territories around the world, including Ashley hosting the American version, Flirty Dancing US for Fox Television in America.
Whilst sitting as a Judge on ITV1’s juggernaut Dancing on Ice since 2018, Ashley has also taken on the combined role of Presenter, Creative Director & Executive Producer on another national treasure and iconic show for ITV1 – The Real Full Monty. Year on year since 2017, this BAFTA & Rose D’Or show has seen numerous celebrities bare all to raise Cancer awareness and encourage testing for men and women alike. In further recognition of its success, Ashley & the show has gone on to win the International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment Programme.
In 2020 Ashley returned to Britain’s Got Talent, this time as Judge, sitting in for the injured Simon Cowell. He and Diversity also staged the incredible and moving performance, “Hindsight 2020” – whilst the majority of the UK applauded this ground-breaking routine, some people saw differently and 24000 of them complained to OFCOM…however, the UKs majority spoke when the performance won the UKs highest accolade, BAFTA Television Award for ‘Must See Moment of 2020’.
Leading on from this, Ashley authored a documentary for ITV1 called “Britain in Black and White” exploring his experience throughout the storm of complaints, and the how / why racism exists in Britain and to get the right conversations started. He has also taken part in the groundbreaking hit series DanceMonsters for NETFLIX.
Most recently, Ashley has launched the incredibly successful podcast Brothers Uncovered alongside Perri Kiely and his brother, Jordan. Whilst continuing with his many Diversity projects and tours, Ashley has also co-hosted The Pride of Britain Awards since 2021 alongside Carol Vorderman.
