Ashley had his first experience in front of the camera as an X Factor finalist with boy band The Risk shortly after graduating from Cambridge University.

After leaving the music show during the live finals, he was asked to front a documentary on life in the care system and his own experiences in care. It was this experience working on the BBC Three documentary that sparked his ambition to become a journalist.

Ashley has fronted films for the Victoria Derbyshire programme about the care system, the discrimination suffered by children with facial deformities, and was the lead reporter on the Grenfell Tower fire.