Ashley Banjo

Ashley Modurotolu Banjo (born 4 October 1988), is an English street dancer, choreographer and actor. He is leader of dance troupe Diversity, who won the third series of Britain's Got Talent. Banjo was a judge on the Sky1 talent show Got to Dance and co-presenter of the Saturday night BBC game show Can't Touch This.

Ashley Banjo
Banjo interviewed by UK Gossip TV at the National Television Awards in 2020
Born	Ashley Modurotolu Banjo (1988-10-04) 4 October 1988 Leytonstone, London, England
Occupation	Dancer, television presenter, actor
Years active	2009–present
Height	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Spouse(s)	Francesca Banjo
Children	Rose Adura Banjo & Micah Grace Banjo
Current group	Diversity
Dances	Street dance

Ashley has been a judge on the ITV show Dancing on Ice since January 2018.

Personal life

Following winning Britain's Got Talent in 2009, Banjo took a break from his schooling to concentrate on his dancing. He said that "from the age of 14, I started to teach myself routines". Ashley went to a private school in Billericay (St. John’s) where he was head boy and still holds the high jump sports day record.[1] Banjo has been in a thirteen-year relationship with Francesca Abbott, who is a member of another dance troupe called Out of the Shadows. They announced their engagement on 2 October 2014.[2]

Ashley Banjo is an Official Ambassador of the United Dance Organisation.[3]

His brother, Jordan Banjo, is also a dancer in Diversity.

Diversity

In 2007, Ashley and his younger brother Jordan formed Swift Moves with nine of their friends, before later changing their name to Diversity. He was given the nickname 'Chosen' by his fellow Diversity members. In their first year together, they won the Street Dance Weekend 2007 competition before deciding to enter Britain's Got Talent.

Britain's Got Talent

Main article: Britain's Got Talent

In 2009, Diversity won the third series of ITV talent show Britain's Got Talent. All the judges heavily praised their performances throughout the competition, with Ashley's choreography being described by Amanda Holden as "genius". In the final referring to their winning performance, judge Simon Cowell said "If I was going to give marks on that, that is the only performance tonight I would give a 10 to."

After receiving "yes" votes from all three judges in their audition, Diversity went on to compete in the first semi-final on 24 May, losing the public vote-decided first place to Susan Boyle but winning the judges' vote against Natalie Okri. In the final six days later, Diversity were announced as the winners, beating Boyle and Julian Smith (who came second and third respectively). As winners of the competition, Diversity received £100,000 (around £9,090 per member) and went on to perform before Queen Elizabeth at the Royal Variety Show on 7 December 2009.[4]

Post Britain's Got Talent

Subsequently, Diversity were nominated in the Dance section of the final South Bank Show awards and won an award at the Pride of Britain Awards[5] He pulled a ligament in his leg during the 2nd run of diverisitoys which made him unable to perform on the last two shows of Diversity's Christmas tour.

In 2012 Diversity did their first arena tour called "Digitized – Trapped in the Game". Ashley Banjo choreographed, produced and directed the tour. Diversity sold out the O2 arena with a standing ovation.

In 2013 Ashley choreographed a third tour for Diversity called Limitless. The tour ran from 30 November to 16 December.[6][7]

Television work

Ashley was a judge on Sky1's dancing talent show Got to Dance for all five series. Diversity appeared as guest performers at least once every series. In total they did nine performances on the show.[8] In 2015, he presented Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller with Ashley Banjo.

In 2016, Banjo co-presented Can't Touch This, a Saturday night game show for BBC One, alongside Zoë Ball.[9] In 2017, Banjo was a judge on the new ITV series Dance Dance Dance, presented by Alesha Dixon and Will Best.

Since January 2018, Banjo has been part of the judging panel on Dancing on Ice, starting with its tenth series in 2018.[10]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1996	Barrymore	Himself
2009, 2016	Britain's Got Talent	Himself
2010	StreetDance 3D	Aaron
2010–2014	Got to Dance	Himself as a judge
2011	The Real Hustle	Himself
	The Magicians	Himself
	The Apprentice	Himself
	Text Santa	Himself
2012–2014	Ashley Banjo's Secret Street Crew	Himself
2012	Celebrity Juice	Himself
	The Cube	Himself, won £20,000 to split between NSPCC and Beatbullying
2013	Stella	Himself, episode 2.7
	Celebrity Juice	Himself
	Jordan and Perri's Ultimate Block Party	Himself
2014	Ashley Banjo's Big Town Dance	Himself
	Stars at Your Service	Himself
	This Morning	Himself
	Release the Hounds: Jingle Hell	Himself, team won £12,000 to split between NSPCC and Beatbullying[11]
2015	Diversity Live	Himself
	You're Back in the Room	Guest
	Perspectives Michael Jackson's Thriller with Ashley Banjo	Himself, presenter
2016	Can't Touch This	Himself, co-presenter
2017	Diversity Presents Steal the Show	Himself
	Dance Dance Dance	Himself as a judge
	All Round to Mrs. Brown's	Himself, guest
2017—	The Real Full Monty	Himself, co-presenter[12]
2017	Catchphrase: Celebrity Special	Himself, contestant
	Pride of Britain Awards	Himself, roving reporter
	A Night for the Emergency Services	Himself, presenter
2018—	Dancing on Ice	Himself as a judge
2019—	Flirty Dancing	Himself, presenter[13]

References

1. McGarry, Lisa (24 May 2009). "Britain's Got Talent: Can Diversity Beat Flawless?". Unreality TV. Archived from the original on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
2. "Ashley Banjo on twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. Leach, Ben (30 May 2009). "Diversity beat Susan Boyle to win Britain's Got Talent". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 June 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
5. "Diversity nominated in Arts award". BBC News. 7 January 2010. Archived from the original on 14 January 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
6. "Limitless tickets". Retrieved 25 November 2013.
7. "Limitless". Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
8. "Jordan and Perri talk about Diversity performances". Retrieved 1 February 2014.
9. "BBC game show hosted by Zoe Ball wraps up filming in Titanic Quarter's T13: Can't Touch This set to return to Belfast". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
10. "Dancing on Ice confirms Ashley Banjo as judge for 2018 series". Digital Spy. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
11. "Release The Hounds". facebook. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
12. "Press Releases".
13. Flirty Dancing Stand Up To Cancer special: Everything you need to know

External links

• Ashley Banjo on IMDb