With a background in Art and Animation, Welsh-born Ashley Way began his directing career in 2002 with the family film HOODLUM & SON, starring Ron Perlman and Robert Vaughan for Sky/Showtime, filmed in South Africa. Ashley also wrote the screenplay, which told the story of a boy reunited with his gangster father whilst on the run from the mob in 1930’s dust-bowl USA.

He returned to his native Cardiff to direct three seasons of the gritty BBCWales drama BELONGING, and all four episodes of the award-winning period drama CALON GAETH (Small Country, Best Drama, BAFTA Cymru Award) filmed in the Welsh-language and starring Tom Ellis and Mark Lewis-Jones. Other notable credits include prime-time British television shows DOCTOR WHO, TORCHWOOD and MERLIN for BBC, and STELLA for SKY.

In 2011, Ashley was BAFTA-nominated for his work on THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES and in 2015 he won Best Director (Fiction) for the Welsh miner’s strike drama Y STREIC A FI (The Strike and Me) at the BAFTA Cymru Awards, which also won Best Television Drama.

This was followed by two episodes of Kurt Sutter’s medieval epic THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER for FOX, starring Stephen Moyer, Mathew Rhys and Katey Sagal.

Ashley’s recent TV credits include the last two episodes of RIPPER STREET for Tiger Aspect/Amazon, the explosive finale of MARS, Ron Howard’s docu-drama series for National Geographic/Disney, as well as three episodes of Antoine Fuqua's crime drama ICE for Audience Network, starring Donald Sutherland and Ray Winstone.

Ed Power - The Telegraph - ★★★★ “The final episode of Ripper Street was a beautiful, melancholy conclusion”

Rebecca Lea - Den of Geek - ★★★★★ “a bold, surprising finale that feels like a perfect farewell to a series…the construction of the episode is a thing of beauty, slipping back and forth through time seamlessly and with great poignancy…Emotional, meticulous, and wonderfully performed, it is an excellent note to end on”

He returned to South Africa again, directing on Left Bank’s sci-fi show, ORIGIN, for YouTube Red/Sony, before heading to Spain to helm three episodes of the Netflix comedy-thriller WHITE LINES.

Ashley directed all five episodes of prime-time surveillance thriller VIEWPOINT for Tiger Aspect and ITV. Some reviews of Ashley’s work on the show:

Lucy Mangan - The Guardian - ★★★★ “… an intense, stylish, emotionally intelligent and psychologically plausible thriller that controls itself beautifully while still delivering the goods.” 

Boyd Hilton - BBC Radio 5 Live- ★★★★ “…this is a very well made, brilliantly acted thriller”

Sean O'Grady - The Independent - ★★★★ “I loved the dark, claustrophobic feel of the piece"

Emily Baker - iNews - ★★★★ “[Viewpoint] created an opportunity to discuss important issues surrounding controlling behaviour and violence against women with nuance and subtlety.”

In 2022, Ashley was lead director on the new Netflix limited series Who Is Erin Carter? (fka PALOMINO) filmed in Barcelona, directing the opening four episodes of the female-led action thriller, starring Evin Ahmad and Denise Gough. On release it became the streamer’s number 1 show in 55 countries across the globe.

John Anderson - Wall Street Journal “one of the many virtues of the series is its ability, largely thanks to director Ashley Way, to keep straight what will—quite suddenly and pronouncedly—go wildly askew”

Judy Berman - Time “an addictive, old-school action drama… the show’s production values are high without feeling ostentatious. There’s a refreshing minimalism to the fight scenes”

Christmas 2023 saw the release of Men Up, a 90 minute BBC film about the world’s first medical trials of Viagra, directed by Ashley for Quay Street and Boom. The drama/comedy is written by Matthew Barry and Exec Produced by Nicola Shindler and Russell T. Davies.

Lucy Mangan - the Guardian ★★★★★ “Tonally, it’s a masterpiece by writer Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way that never undercuts or overeggs a moment… Men Up is a lovingly made thing, full of delicately poised performances”

Rachael Sigee - iNews ★★★★★ “Men Up was a triumph. The little blue pill might not have been magic, but the drama certainly was”

Helen Stewart - Sunday Times ★★★★★ “Funny and good-hearted, with moments of divine directorial inspiration”

Benji Wilson - The Telegraph ★★★★ “this touching true-life drama is filled with humour and humanity.”

The Observer “brilliant”

Daily Mail ★★★★★

TV times ★★★★★

Wales Online ★★★★★