Jenny Ash | |
|---|---|
| Born | United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Documentary film director and writer |
| Years active | 2000s–present |
| Notable work |
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| Website | www |
Jenny Ash is a British film and television director and writer. [1] Ash has directed major feature documentaries across various genres for broadcasters such as Sky, Channel 4, the BBC, ITV, and the History Channel. [2] Some of her notable films include The World's Biggest Murder Trial: Nuremberg (Channel 5, 2020), Bin Laden: The Road to 9/11 (Channel 4, 2021), and Flight 149: Hostage of War (2025). [3] [4] In 2021, Ash became the first documentary director to win the WFTV Best Director Award. [1]
Ash began her directing career in British television drama, working on series such as Waterloo Road (BBC One), Personal Affairs (BBC Three), and Missing (BBC One). [5]
Her early documentary work included Dolly Parton: Platinum Blonde (BBC One), and The Pity of War (ITV), a drama-documentary starring John Hurt as the poet Siegfried Sassoon. She also directed for the 2010 Emmy-winning series America: The Story of Us (History Channel), which focused on slavery and the Civil War. [6] As a writer on the History Channel's America: The Story of Us (2010), Ash shared a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. [7]
Ash directed the ITV drama-documentary The Pity of War (2016), starring John Hurt, about the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. [8] [9] She also directed Gary Younge's political road-trip documentary Angry, White and American (2017, Channel 4). [10] The documentary, which discussed race and identity in the United States, was nominated for the Grierson Awards. [11] In addition, Ash has produced a series of short anti-war films for Channel 4 featuring actors Sean Bean, Gemma Arterton, Stephen Graham, and Sophie Okonedo. [12]
In 2019, Ash produced the film 100 Vaginas for Channel 4. [13] Its companion film, Me and My Penis was released in 2020 on Channel 4. [14] [15] The following year, The World's Biggest Murder Trial: Nuremberg (2020, Channel 5), which was nominated for Royal Television Society and Banff awards. [16]
In 2020, she directed Bin Laden: The Road to 9/11 (Channel 4), a three-part series that traced Osama bin Laden's radicalisation through the accounts of those who knew him personally. [17]
Ash's feature documentary Flight 149: Hostage of War (Sky Documentaries, 2025) premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival (SXSW Festival). [18] The film investigates the controversial landing of British Airways Flight 149 in Kuwait on the eve of Saddam Hussein's invasion, and the subsequent detention of the flight's passengers and crew. [19] [20] [21]
In addition to her film and television work, Ash has directed commercials for companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Google, British Airways, LG, BT, Always, Tena, and the Rwandan Genocide Museum. [22]