Simone Ashley & Hero Fiennes Tiffin's 2025 Rom-Com Is A Prime Video Streaming Hit

If you're not familiar with Simone Ashley at the moment, you soon will be. The British actor who first popped as the Untouchable Olivia in the Netflix comedy "Sex Education" has rocketed to streaming stardom as Kathani in Chris Van Dusen's period romance "Bridgerton," also for Netflix. The entire (quite large) "Bridgerton" ensemble just earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama (losing to "Shōgun"), and Ashley has confirmed that she will return for season 4.

If that's all Ashley had going on in her life, that'd be more than enough to confirm that she is a star fast on the rise. She's also in the cast of this summer's highly anticipated Brad Pitt racing flick "F1" from "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski, and is currently recording her first album with renowned producer/songwriter Fraser T. Smith. There's no guarantee that all of this is going to vault Ashley onto the Hollywood A-list, but, having been one of Variety's "Brits to Watch" four years ago, she seems to be arriving right on schedule.

And there's no better evidence for this than the fact that she stars in what is currently the top-rated film on Amazon Prime Video.

According to FlixPatrol, Prarthana Mohan's rom-com "Picture This," which stars Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Luke Fetherston, and Anoushka Chadha, debuted at the top of the streamer's list of most viewed films, beating out "My Fault: London," "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Smile 2." Given that no one here is a big name aside from Ashley (Fiennes Tiffin is from a family with big names like his uncles Ralph and Joseph), you can pretty much credit Ashley for the movie's popularity.

The plot of "Picture This" centers on single gal Pia (Ashley), who, while attending her sister's engagement party, learns from a guru that one of her next five dates will wind up being her true love. He sadly can't get more specific about this, so Pia has to rely on vibes and lord knows what else to determine which of these guys is the one she's meant to be with. Free will is tricky like that.

"Picture This" currently holds a 50% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (Variety's Courtney Howard found it "Sweet, silly, and sincere," while The Guardian's Adrian Horton opined that "it's neither offense nor memorable), but the Popcornmeter is far more charitable with a 71% favorable rating. It doesn't sound like the kind of movie that will end up on Ashley's clip reel should she make good on her superstar promise, but it's no embarrassment either.