Clare Ashitey is an English actor/writer who has appeared in a variety of television shows, from drama to comedy. She attended the Theatre Centre Stage School of Performing Arts (TSCA) in Birmingham while also learning at The Arts Council of Yorkshire. After graduating, she became a member of the British Dramatic Union for two years, before joining the cast of the BBC’s gritty TV sitcom “Doyle’s Army”. Her first major role was in a stage play entitled “The Ciderplace” as the manipulative Madame Defarge, but her career spanned four decades with various honors such as a BA in Communications and Marketing at the University of Wales, AEA in London, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent.
In 2021, she returned to her stage roots, reprising heronde as an actress in a revival of her hit TV show entitled “Webitol”. Though Ashitey’s acting repertoire has changed over the years, she is best known for her starring role as the cynical and foul-mouthed Foreign Service Intelligence Agent Naeida Hussain in the crime-fighting TV series “Ops”, for which she received three Emmys. Her most recent foray into theater was in the musical-action film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opposite Helena Bonham Carter and Edie Falco.
Clare Ashitey was born in Liverpool, England, where her father worked as a clerk in a printing firm. Following her parents’ marriage, Clare moved with her mother to her grandmother’s native Nigeria. Here, she met and married Richard Ashitey, who was a British citizen. Clare grew up in Africa, and her relationship with Richard led to the formation of a child inside Richard’s life – her son Eric.