British actress Zawe Ashton has just entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dar-Benn, a Kree warrior and central villain in the female-led sequel The Marvels, in which she faces off against Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan.

But in real life, Ashton has been connected to the sprawling MCU for several years, and is no stranger to the life of a supervillain. She has been in a relationship with Tom Hiddleston, a.k.a. Loki, the God of Mischief, since 2019.

Here's what we know about Ashton's career and relationship.

She's a major TV star in the UK.

As a child actor, Ashton had roles in several popular TV shows including The Demon Headmaster and the medical dramas Casualty and Holby City. Her big break on-screen came in Fresh Meat, a British sitcom following six university housemates which ran from 2011 to 2016. She played the foul-mouthed, hard-partying radical Violet "Vod" Nordstrom, who fast became a hugely popular breakout character.

At the same time, she played Deborah in the BBC mystery drama Case Histories, based on Kate Atkinson's detective novels. Since then, Ashton has led the workplace sitcom Not Safe for Work, co-starred with Toni Collette in the miniseries Wanderlust, and played Oona in three episodes of The Handmaid's Tale. She also appeared in a 2014 episode of Doctor Who—a rite of passage for most British TV actors.

Her film career is also pretty impressive.

While The Marvels is certainly the biggest blockbuster on Ashton's resume to date, she has already worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, appearing in the thrillers Nocturnal Animals with Amy Adams and Aaron Taylor Johnson, Velvet Buzzsaw with Jake Gyllenhaal, and Greta with Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz.

Her most recent movie was Mr Malcolm's List, a Regency romance co-starring Oliver Jackson Harper.

She met Hiddleston while treading the boards.

Ashton is a certified thespian, having acted in stage productions of Othello, Salome, and The Maids. Most notably, she played Emma in the 2018 West End and 2019 Broadway revival of Betrayal. The play also featured Daredevil actor Charlie Cox, while Avengers starTom Hiddleston, who was then at the height of his Marvel fame, played Ashton's husband on the stage.

In a case of life imitating art, the two started dating, and got engaged in 2022.

They became parents in 2022.

In June 2022, the couple announced that Ashton was pregnant, and October they welcomed their first child together. However, as with their relationship, they have kept details of family life private.

"I feel like every single person who does this job has to figure out ways to keep their working life and their personal life as compartmentalized as possible," Ashton told Cosmopolitan in August of that year. "I think, like anything, it starts with intention. Everything I do in my work is intentional... I try to make everything I do in my life as intentional as possible, meaning just being conscious."