Billy was born in Stoke-On-Trent to a school-teacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons, his older brother Sam being a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds Billy admits in interview to not being interested in further education and worked instead at the local Stephen Joseph theatre in community-based projects involving dance and acting. After a year at drama school he then enrolled at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2013. Having appeared at Bristol in 'The Little Mermaid' his next stage appearance was in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre's production of Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and a year later was reunited with Bristol Old Vic, the director and Ms Manville in a scorching production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' alongside Jeremy Irons - another Bristol Old Vic alumnus - Hadley Fraser and Jessica Regan, more than holding his own with his older, more experienced co-stars. After a couple of small roles in television drama Billy's first substantial lead came in the youth-orientated murder mystery 'Glue' in 2014, opening the first scene in memorable style as he rolled nude down stacks of grain in a barn. In 2016 he was in another murder mystery 'The Witness For the Prosecution' as the defendant accused of killing his wealthy benefactress, by which time he had filmed his first forays into cinema, Chekhov's 'The Seagull, 'The Sense of an Ending'' and 'On Chesil Beach' with Saoirse Ronan.