'Bridgerton' Season 2 Casting News: Simone Ashley to Play Female Lead Opposite Jonathan Bailey

Big casting news for the second season of Netflix’s hit series Bridgerton was just announced!

Simone Ashley has landed the lead female role in season two of the Shondaland show, based on the novels by Julia Quinn.

Season two will follow Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and his search for love. Deadline reports that Simone has been cast as his romantic interest Kate Sharma.

“Newly arrived in London, Kate is a smart, headstrong young woman who suffers no fools — Anthony Bridgerton very much included,” the outlet reported. The character in the Bridgerton book series is named Kate Sheffield, but the television series will have the character be from Indian descent.

Click inside to read about the future of Simon and Daphne on the show…

Deadline also reports that Jonathan and Simone are succeeding Rege-Jean Page (Simon) and Phoebe Dynevor (Daphne) as the show’s new leads, though we still don’t know what sort of presence they’ll have in the upcoming season.

The second season of Bridgerton is going to begin filming this spring in London and more casting announcements are expected to come in.

For those that aren’t familiar with Simone, make sure to check out the Netflix series Sex Education. She plays the role of Olivia Hanan on the show! You can also see Simone in the limited series The Sister and season three of Broadchurch.