Cassie Layton

Cassie Layton is a Sri Lankan-British interdisciplinary artist who works under the moniker Toulip Wonder. She first trained on the BA Acting course at RADA before studying for an MMus in Popular Music at Goldsmiths, University of London. As a performer and musician, Cassie has appeared at venues worldwide, including the Barbican, Cafe OTO, Tate, London ICA, Young Vic, Royal Court, and the Hollywood Bowl. She is also the voice behind several leading video game characters, such as Lady De Sardet in Greedfall, Ashera in Xenoblade Chronicles III, and Zero in Final Fantasy XIV.

She is currently a PhD student in an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership between the National Archives and the Royal Northern College of Music. Her PhD research, Sounds & Silences in the Archives of Empire, embeds her as an artist within the National Archives to decolonise Colonial Office records through sound and multimedia works. Her research focuses on archival reclamation for marginalised communities and sonic interventions that may enable colonial legacies to be challenged and healed. Her supervisors at RNCM are Dr Sam Salem and Dr Rodrigo Constanzo.