Still only 37, yet with some incredible acting roles under her belt, Aimee Ffion Edwards is right up there among Britain’s best actresses and has every right to be considered among Newport’s finest.
Aimee-Ffion Edwards was born in Newport on November 21 1987.
Edwards is fluent in English and Welsh having attended the Welsh-speaking schools Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd (Newport Welsh Medium Primary School) and Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllw (Torfaen Welsh Medium High School). She played for a local youth rugby team, the only girl on the boys’ team, until she was 14. She would often go from her ballet lessons to rugby matches. She studied A-level drama and later joined the National Youth Theatre of Wales.
In an interview with Buzz magazine she talked about her upbringing in Newport “My family on both sides are working class. Both my parents grew up on council estates. Dad left school at 15 and got an apprenticeship in engineering which meant one day, he could own his own house. My grandparents also moved in so I grew up with a strong sense of loyalty and care for those closest to you. I am one of five kids and we all feel a responsibility to look out for each other.”
She is well remembered in Christchurch, at the church she was invited to sing on special occasions as she was training to be a classical singer. At the same time she appeared on the Pop Idol inspired S4C show Wawfactor deploying her classical singing talents and finished runner up. Her eventual,television breakthrough came when she played the character Sketch in the landmark E4 series Skins in 2008. She played a girl who was from a poor background and obsessed with fellow character Maxxie. Her character appeared in seven episodes in 2008.
In Wales Online she commented about the role in a 2015 interview “ I was still doing a paper round until I was about 17, so the pay I got from that show seemed like a small fortune – I wasn’t really sure how to even begin spending it.”
She also appeared briefly in Casualty, before receiving her second break in popular crime show Luther, starring alongside Idris Elba as sex worker Jenny Jones in the second season.
Edwards also began a successful on-stage career. In 2009, she performed in Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem at the Royal Court Theatre. Soon after in 2011 she made her Broadway debut, also in Jerusalem. She has since appeared in plays such as The Recruiting Officer, Fireface and Trelawny of the Wells.
A further major role came in her direction in 2013 as she played Esme Shelby-Lee in the hit Brummie BBC drama Peaky Blinders. She repeated the role in 2014 and 2021. Edwards’ character marries into the family through John Shelby. According to one report “ She may have little to do with the criminal side of the family, but her character certainly leaves her mark on the show.”
She went on to play roles in Wolf Hall, Loaded and Detectorists, the latter of which she appeared in between 2014 and 2015 and demonstrated her versatility as a comedy actress with an excellent West Country accent. She said ““I loved it – it made me laugh but never went, ‘Boom, here’s the punchline’, it was just so subtle and well-written.”
In 2022, she voiced Ranni the Witch in Game of the Year ELDEN RING, one of the best-selling games of all time.
She joined the second series hit Apple TV series Slow Horses in 2022 playing Shirley Dander. It follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5, called Slough House the purgatory for “slow horses” who’ve made career-ending missteps. She is alongside a brilliant cast including Jackie Lowden, Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott-Thomas. Her character, played with such authenticity, has become a mainstay in this exceptional series. Slow Horses Season 5 is set to debut on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, with the first two episodes, followed by one episode per week through October. Season 6 is expected to follow in 2026, and Season 7 is expected to follow in 2027.
In a Flickering Myth interview she said “There’s so much stuff that I really enjoy. I really love the scenes with lots of the slow horses and Slough House. I just think they’re so brilliantly written and the dynamics between all the characters, they’re just so important. I think from what I’ve heard, it’s those scenes, those mundane, boring, bickering scenes, are often the ones that people love the most.”
In 2025 she starred in the feel good film Mr Burton playing Richard Burton’s sister Cis Jenkins in fine fashion.
Quietly and impressively Aimee Ffion-Edwards has worked so hard to build a such an incredible body of work. She is a credit to herself and her home city.
Upcoming projects at the time of writing
Martin Compston and Aimée-Ffion Edwards are set to take on lead roles in Paramount Plus’s upcoming thriller series, The Revenge Club.Set to star as Callum and Emily in the new series The Revenge Club is set to focus on a divorce support group and its members who go from merely seeking therapy and clarity post-break ups to wanting to make their dreams of revenge a reality.
ITV has announced a powerful new true crime drama for its upcoming slate, with ‘Believe Me‘ set to delve into the horrifying case of serial sex offender John Worboys. The four-part series comes from BAFTA and RTS award-winning screenwriter Jeff Pope (A Confession, Little Boy Blue) and his production label Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios.’Believe Me’ centres on the real-life stories of three women who were victims of Worboys, known by the media as the “black cab rapist”, and their tireless pursuit of justice in the face of devastating police failure. Leading the cast are Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders), Miriam Petche(Industry), and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods), playing the women who were drugged and sexually assaulted by Worboys after being picked up in his taxi. Daniel Mays(Des, The Long Shadow) stars as Worboys himself.
2018 – Rare involvement in campaign to save the Gwent Levels from the planned M4 relief road
She said, “W.H Davies’ words are so apt at this time. Coming from Pill, Newport, I’m sure he would have spent time enjoying the very landscape that is under threat and this would have inspired his poetry. The Gwent Levels is such a special and enchanting place, full of wildlife, history and culture. Building a new M4 motorway through it will not solve anything. It would simply destroy something we should all be proud of and cherish, not just for its wildlife but for the people and the city of Newport and the rest of Wales.
I urge people to join the fight to save the Gwent Levels while they still have the chance and hope that decision-makers honour their commitment to protect Wales’ natural environment for future generations.”
“Leisure” by WH Davies, read by Aimee Ffion Edwards here