Biography
Date of Birth
18 December 1989, Long Beach, California, USA
Birth Name
Ashley Victoria Benson
Nickname
Ash
AshBenzo
Benzo
Height
5' 5" (1.65 m)
Mini Biography
Ashley Victoria Benson was born on December 18, 1989 in Anaheim Hills, California, to Shannon (Harte) and Jeff Benson. She has Irish, English, and German ancestry. She has been dancing competitively since she was 2 with hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. She has been singing since she was about 5 and she hopes to pursue that, along with her acting. Ashley started modeling at the age of 5 for dance catalogs. Ashley was then pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency at the age of 8. She worked steadily in print and is still with the Agency. At the age of 10, she wanted to pursue acting. Ashley went on to do 35 commercials, and then on to theatrical roles. Acting was now Ashley's passion. Ashley put all her focus into acting, which left little time for modeling and dancing, anymore. Ashley's most recent role is "Hanna Marin" on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars (2010). Ashley also had a cameo in Romeo Miller (aka Lil Romeo) and Solange's music video for the song "True Love". She did a photo shoot with Britney Spears for Vogue Magazine. She is in NLT's music video, "That Girl".
Trivia
Younger sister of fellow actress Shaylene Benson.
In April 2005, signed a 3-year contract with Days of Our Lives (1965).
Ashley was born two months early weighing 2 pounds 8 oz. She was in ICU for a month. Her parents were told she would need heart surgery on Christmas Day. Prayers were answered when her parents went in Christmas Day and were told by doctors that her heart had closed up. Ashley never needed any surgeries. She was released to go home at 4 1/2 pounds after being hospitalized two months. She has been healthy ever since!.
Her father has English and German ancestry. Her mother's family is from Ireland.
Is best friends with Pretty Little Liars (2010) co-star Shay Mitchell.
She was the inspiration for the physical look of teenage "Jean Grey" in the 2008 comic book, "X-Men Origins". In addition, Sasha Pieterse, her co-star in Pretty Little Liars (2010), inspired the physical look of an adolescent Jean Grey.
In Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008), she beat Carissa Capobianco by giving her two slaps and two punches.
Made her acting debut in a 2002 Salon Surprise Barbie Doll commercial.
Quotes
I love good old-fashioned black or white Converse. I have a few pairs. And they are all really dirty. I can't have clean Converse - I go in the dirt and run around!
My first celeb crush was Hanson. I loved all three of them. My sister and I would always fight, and whenever they would come on the TV, we would always give them a kiss on the TV. And I also had a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Every time he would come on the screen, he was like my boyfriend. I was such a nerd like that.
I know what it's like to be left out... I certainly went through a period of time where I got made fun of and people were so mean to me, so I can really relate to that.
I love Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman - those are the careers I want. My ultimate goal is to win an Oscar; I've been practicing my acceptance speech since I was ten!
I've seen a lot of people - for example, Lindsay Lohan - who got into the wrong crowd. I always have my eye on what I want. And I don't want anything to distract me from that.
I love doing comedy.
My skin is really sensitive, so I don't use too much on it. I'm actually really bad at washing my face. I get so lazy at night so I usually buy the Neutrogena wipes and it gets all the makeup off and its easy and that's the way to go. I hate washing my face, so I always use the wipes.
My beauty icon is Angelina Jolie.
When I was little I used to dance and model and that was fun. But I was always the person that was goofing off and I would memorize every line in every movie that I saw. And at recess that's what I would do, I would talk to my friends and recite movies.
Boys like it when you're mean. That's what I'm best at. I make them feel so bad about themselves, all out of fun.
I love Rihanna's new album, Skrillex, and Norah Jones...even though they're all very different. I'm a big fan of rock, pop, jazz - practically every type of music except country. I'm just not into that one so much.
I get really cool gifts, and I know this sounds really lame, but I think one of the best gifts I've ever received was the Easy Bake Oven when I was younger. When I was little, I loved to bake! I want to get one now so I can make weird mini desserts for people.
A lot of sequins for New Year's! Red, green, white - I fail at all of that because I'm always in black. But for Christmas, I do love wearing cute dresses with tights and a pair of boots.
I love guys who know how to dress. I love the motorcycle boots, and I love the skinnier jeans with jackets and scarves. Anybody who gets his clothes at All Saints, that's my guy.
People will make mean comments. People are going to say that you're fat, that you're this, that you're that. You just have to be comfortable in your own skin.
I don't want to be with someone boring because I'm always laughing. I like to play jokes on people and be sarcastic.
I have one good girlfriend and then most of my friends are guys. Which I love, because they're just like so easygoing and I love to play like Xbox and just chill out when I'm not working, so boys are probably the way to go for me.
I was a good student, but I didn't like school.
I don't think I could live with anybody. I had roommates, and it's not for me. I like my space!
My personal style is edgy but at the same time classic...like Chanel meets Alexander McQueen. I also love jeans and T-shirts, with boots or tennis shoes. My closet is mostly black, gray, and white. I'm most comfortable in deep colors with leather jackets.
I always get offered the pretty, popular girl roles, but I want to do something dark, really challenge myself and get out of my comfort level.
Everything I do is unfabulous. I'm the most normal person. I love walking everywhere and going to hole-in-the-wall places, like nail shops, because they do the best job. And I go to vintage stores rather than high-end boutiques, because I like to dress different from other people.
Since I was young, I've been through a lot of different phases: punk rock one day, then tomboy the next day, then edgy and chic the day after that, then ultra-girly the day after *that*, and then gothic the day after THAT. I was just weird, like, crazy-goofy; so were my two best friends.
Faviana is a line that girls can feel super-glamorous in. A lot of their designs are kind of based off of what celebrities wear on the red carpet!
I didn't go to high school, but when I did go to school, I was actually in the group made up of cheerleaders; I just wasn't one of them. But I hung out with a bunch of different kids.
