From ‘Heartstopper’ to pop star, Bash Croft is ready to carve out his own lane

Sebastian ‘Bash’ Croft is already an established actor with well over a dozen film and TV credits. When he was 14, he appeared in Game of Thrones as the younger version of Sean Bean’s slain hero Ned Stark, a role so top-secret he had to conceal it from his classmates. Then at 20, he rose to prominence in queer coming-of-age series Heartstopper as Ben Hope, the closeted school bully who has a clandestine relationship with Joe Locke‘s Charlie Spring. But now, the 24-year-old is keen to reintroduce himself as an “acoustic-leaning singer-songwriter” – one with serious pop smarts.

READ MORE: Why ‘The Traitors’ is easier if you play video games

Croft, who has already played a few intimate gigs and supported Lewis Capaldi in London’s Hyde Park this summer, has identified his gap in the market. “What I feel is important [to me] as an artist is making big, accessible pop songs from a queer perspective,” he says. Croft notes that there are “currently a lot of pop girls” doing interesting things – Sabrina Carpenter, Zara Larsson and Charli XCX, to name just three – but points out that their male counterparts aren’t necessarily giving the same energy.

“A lot of male pop stars – especially straight male pop stars – wouldn’t call themselves pop stars,” he says. “They say they make country music or rap music or whatever, and so there’s something kind of interesting to me about trying to be a pop girl.” Of course, Croft knows he can never be a pop girl – mainly because he is male, but also because his music skews a little more indie. On his debut single ‘Tokyo’, released last November, he reflects on a messy relationship over gently strummed guitar chords.

Still, on his upcoming debut EP ‘The Great Forever’, he lacquers his post-breakup confessionals with elegant layers of pop polish. “I was like, ‘What happens if I try and hold myself to the standard of a pop girl?’ That could lead to some interesting tensions with the acoustic, singer-songwritery music I was making [to begin with],” he says. Croft’s new single ‘Pretty People’, out today, is a shimmering earworm with a stylishly choreographed music video – a sure sign his ‘pop boy’ era has begun.

We’re sitting in a meeting room at Croft’s PR agency in central London, where he’s flanked by a publicist tapping away on a laptop. Though Croft is articulate and well informed – he describes himself accurately as “earnest” – he’s probably a bit nervous about discussing his biggest gig yet. By the time you read this, he’ll have been watched by nearly nine million people on The Celebrity Traitors 2026 premiere. Last year’s inaugural series was a rare watercooler hit for the BBC, so there are high hopes for this year’s sequel, in which Croft competes against the likes of Michael Sheen, Little Mix‘s Leigh-Anne Pinnock and The Last Of Us star Bella Ramsey.

What made him take on this high-profile challenge? After all, he could get ‘murdered’ by a mate – like poor old Paloma Faith – or tripped up at the finish like Nick Mohammed. “I think the opportunity to be on a show where I can be myself and not play a character was quite appealing,” Croft replies. “And I love the game. I mean, my birthday last year was doing The Traitors: Live Experience with friends. 

Bash Croft as Ben Hope in ‘Heartstopper’ season two. CREDIT: Netflix

Croft won’t be drawn on whether this gave him an edge – in fairness, he’d likely be blacklisted by the BBC if he let slip anything major – but it sounds as though he played the game unselfconsciously. “I once tried to curate how I’d be perceived, and I wanted to be perceived as this, like, ‘serious actor,'” he says. “But there’s something so liberating about just doing the things that genuinely interest and excite you” – like The Celebrity Traitors –  and then letting other people decide what that makes you.”

So, while we’re discussing image curation, let’s ask the obvious question – why has he decided to release music as “Bash Croft” when he’s billed as “Sebastian Croft” on screen? “Sebastian’s such a formal name; it feels like an actor,” he says. “And Bash is what my mum, friends and partner call me. It’s the most intimate version of me.”  It’s also a name that will look great on merch and venue marquees. “If I imagine this dream world that I’m trying to reach towards, where I’m this pop star, the idea of ‘Bash’ just feels… bigger,” Croft says. “It has space for me to grow into.”

Though he doesn’t turn 25 until December, Croft is a seasoned pro who’s been acting professionally since he was a kid. At primary school in Oxford, he was “super-dyslexic” and “rubbish at sports”, but had plenty of energy, so his parents enrolled him in Saturday acting classes. This led to a role in a local production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! and then to an open casting call for the West End production of Oliver!, which was directed by BAFTA-nominee Rupert Goold.

Clearly a natural, nine-year-old Croft bagged the iconic title role, which he shared on a rotation with three other child actors, then picked up further West End experience in Les Misérables and Matilda. It was a pretty incredible start to his acting career, but Croft brushes it off today with a modest shrug: “There’s such a small pool of kids who can do that work.”

He was always ambitious, though, and began landing small film and TV roles as a teenager. Could he appreciate, at 14, that appearing in Game of Thrones was an absolutely massive deal? “I think I could,” Croft replies, “because it was the biggest show [at the time] and I couldn’t tell anyone at school.” After touching down in Belfast, he almost felt as though he was being “snuck” onto set. “I remember walking into Winterfell and there were, like, 200 extras,” he says. “And then the next room was a massive ship set. The scale was insane.”

His breakthrough as an adult actor came six years later when he was cast as cruel, closeted Ben Hope in Heartstopper. “I wasn’t fully out when I did [the first season], and I was really afraid of doing a show that I knew would get attention around [the cast’s] sexuality,” Croft says today. Around six months after the Netflix series premiered in 2022, his co-star Kit Connor blamed persistent online speculation for “forcing [him] to out himself” as bisexual before he was ready. 

Croft’s experience was a little smoother. “I was scared at that point of what it meant to be an out actor and whether it would affect my career,” he confides. “But actually, what I found was that [LGBTQ+ representation] was the most meaningful part of the whole Heartstopper experience.” In 2023, he and fellow actor Connor Jessup founded Queer Was Always Here, an online community that raises money for LGBTQIA+ refugees and displaced people. Their *Queer Boy charity T-shirt was a huge hit at Pride events this summer.

Since then, Croft has appeared in films including the 2024 teen romcom How To Date Billy Walsh, plus last year’s rollicking historical drama series Dope Girls. Going forward, he sees no reason why he can’t balance acting assignments with building his musical brand as Bash Croft. “I mean, I’d love to go and make some films [at some point], but my hope is that the two things can be in conversation with each other,” he says. “I’ve been an actor for 17 years and I’m only just putting out my first EP. So right now, music is what I’m really focused on.”

Bash Croft’s new single ‘Pretty People’ is out now. ‘The Celebrity Traitors’ continues tonight (October 2) at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer

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