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 stra...