Ben Ashenden is a British-Irish actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is half of the duo The Pin, with Alexander Owen. Together they co-wrote and starred in ''Deep Cover'' to critical acclaim. As an actor, he is best known for his appearances in ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology series, anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Most episodes are set in near-future dystopias containing Science fiction, sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. The series i ...

, Stath Lets Flats'' and ''

Jurassic World Dominion ''Jurassic World Dominion'' is a 2022 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael (filmmaker), Emily Carmichael from a story by Derek Connolly and Tre ...

.''

Early life

Ashenden was born in

Watford, Hertfordshire Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construct ...

, and grew up in

Radlett Radlett is a large village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 10,060. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and forms part of the civil parish of A ...

. His father is a builder and his mother is a bookseller. He has one sister. He went to the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Boys and performed with the Chicken Shed Theatre Company before studying

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

Career

Ashenden met his double-act colleague, Alexander Owen, at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. They co-wrote/performed (with Joey Batey, Joe Bannister, Mark Fiddaman and Simon Haines) the sketch show ‘Good Clean Men’. Ashenden and Owen then performed with the

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

, as part of the first troupe to tour America, in a show directed by Liam Williams and Daran Johnson. Upon graduation the pair took their sketch act, The Pin, to the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. Their most recent show, ''The Pin: Backstage'', was described by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as “one of Edinburgh’s most dazzling comedy shows”, and is now in development with Sonia Friedman Productions. They made four series for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, picking up nominations at the 2017 Writers' Guild Awards. and Radio Academy Awards, and winning the BBC Radio Award for Best Comedy. As an actor, his film credits include ''Bridget Jones Baby'', ''Sulphur and White'', and ''Horrible Histories: The Movie''. His TV credits include '' Avenue 5'' (

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

), '' The English Game'' (

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

), ''W1A'' (

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

), '' Stath Lets Flats'' ( C4), ''Brotherhood'' (

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

), ''Plebs'' (

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

) and

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

Christmas special, ''Cinderella: After Ever After''. As a writer, he co-created the animated series ''Oi, Leonardo!'' for

BBC3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

, and has written for

shows ''Walliams and Friend'' and '' Tracey Ullman's Show'',

's Famalam], and Showtime (TV network), Showtime’s ''Who is America?'' In 2020 The Pin released “The Special Relationship” an 8-part series on

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

, co-starring

Fred Armisen Fereydun Robert Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and writer. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, he co-created and co-starred in the IFC sketch comedy series '' Portlandia''. He also co-created ...

Cecily Strong Cecily Legler Strong (born February 8, 1984) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2022. She is the longest-tenured female cast member in the show's histor ...

, Jamie Demetriou, Lolly Adefope and Kate Berlant. It largely repurposes sketches from their Radio 4 show within the context of a fictionalised attempt to break into the New York comedy scene. In early 2025, he featured in Black Mirror, episode 2, season 7: Bête Noire. In 2025 it was announced by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

that he and Alexander Owen had been commissioned to write ''Bill's Included,'' a

sitcom series starring

Rob Brydon Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He gained prominence for his roles in film, television and radio. He was appointed Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order ...

, with Babycow productions producing.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
The Pin
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

.
Ben Ashenden
on Hamilton Hodell. * The Pi
official website

The Pin on Radio 4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashenden, Ben Male actors from Watford British male film actors British male stage actors British male television actors British male comedians Comedians from Hertfordshire People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School People from Radlett Living people 20th-century births