Ashley Benson
Ashley Benson at the 39th People's Choice Awards, Red Carpet 2012
Born | Ashley Victoria Benson (1989-12-18) December 18, 1989 (age 23) Anaheim Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation | Actress, Dancer, Model
Years active | 2002?present
Website
www.ashleybenson.net

Ashley Victoria Benson (born December 18, 1989) is an American film and television actress and model. She is best known for her role as Abby Deveraux on Days Of Our Lives, and Hanna Marin on Pretty Little Liars.

## Early life[edit]

Ashley Benson was born and raised in Anaheim Hills, California.[1] She has an older sister, Shaylene (a Laker Girl) and her parents are Shannon and Jeff Benson. She started dancing competitively in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical at age 4. She also enjoys singing, and has appeared in several choir groups and musicals. At age 4, she was asked to audition to sing solo at four Christmas services for her 2,500 member church. At 5 years old, she modeled in dance catalogs, and at age 8 was pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency and worked steadily in print. She made a very small appearance in Zoey 101 in the episode Quinn's Date. She has also performed in NLT's music video "That Girl", One Call's music video "BlackLight" and Hot Chelle Rae's music video "Honestly." She's also dating Ryan Good, who is Justin Bieber's Stylist "Swag Coach"

## Career[edit]

In 1999, Benson started pursuing an acting career. She began working and appearing on a number of commercials, but quickly made the transition into film and television. In 2004, Benson signed a three-year contract with the daytime television series, Days of our Lives, and on November 12, 2004 began her role as Abigail "Abby" Deveraux, the oldest child of supercouple Jack Deveraux and Jennifer Horton, until May 2, 2007. She explained that, because of the number of episodes filmed a day, "you can't really mess up; you have to know all of your lines", and that she did not get a break from work.[2]

She played a witch disguised as a cheerleader in a 20014 episode of the CW series Supernatural. In films, she was one of the "Six Chicks" in 13 Going on 30, and appeared as Carson in an installment of the Bring It On series, Bring It On: In It to Win It. To land the lead role, she had to terminate her contract with Days of our Lives:

> I got off it, I mean I had talked with the producers about doing this film, and they weren't going to let me do it. I had passed up a lot of other good opportunities this. I really want to do this film. I had just passed up so many opportunities where I could have done a film. So this big thing just came up, and I ended up getting to do this. I'm happier that I got off the soap though. I mean I give all my credit to them, because I have learned so much from being on soap operas and working with amazing actors who've been on there for like thirty, forty years. It was an honor to work with them. It's definitely given me all my background. But getting off the soap opera helped me a lot too, because I can move on to bigger and better things. So I am definitely thankful I got to be on a soap opera though, but yeah?[2]

She recalled working on a movie set instead of a soap opera set "definitely weird", because she would spend days working on one or two scenes, whereas on the Days of our Lives set, she filmed two or three episodes a day.[3] For Bring It On: In It to Win It, she had to attend cheerleading practice, which was "hard for [her], because [she is] afraid of heights."[3] Nonetheless, she was "glad" to do her own stunts, even though she "wasn't expecting for it to be so hard."[4]

In 2008, she appeared in the Lifetime TV movie Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, where she played head cheerleader Brooke of the Fab Five, which is based on a true story which took place at McKinney North High School in Texas. She "loved" working with her onscreen mother Tatum O'Neal, from whom she learned about acting.[5] Furthermore, she was excited to land a supporting role in Bart Got a Room, which aired mainly on film festivals in 2008 before having a limited release in 2009, because it allowed her to work with William H. Macy.[3]

Benson starred in ABC's 2009 television series Eastwick.[6][7] The show was based on John Updike's novel, The Witches of Eastwick, and the 1987 film adaption of the same name. Her character, Mia, was the teen-aged daughter of Roxie Torcoletti (Rebecca Romijn). The series was short-lived and only lasted 13 episodes before ABC cancelled the series due to low ratings but has since gained a cult following.

In December 2009, Benson was cast as Hanna Marin in the ABC Family Teen Drama television series Pretty Little Liars based on the book series by Sara Shepard. The series premiered to a successful 2.47 million viewers with Benson's performance being praised by critics. The series third season premiered on June 5, 2012. The role is considered Ashley's breakout role. In 2010 Benson starred in the Made-for-Television film Christmas Cupid with Christina Milian and Chad Michael Murray which also aired on ABC Family.[8]

In January 2012 Benson replaced Actress Emma Roberts in the Drama Comedy film Spring Breakers after Roberts dropped out due to creative reasons.[9] The film centers on four college students who are arrested and bailed out by a drug and arms dealer who sends them out to do some dirty work on Spring Break.[10] The film stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and James Franco. Filming took place in March and April 2012.[11]

She was seen in an episode of Punk'd alongside Joe Jonas, who was supposed to get punked but he saw one of the cameras and figured it out.[citation needed]

Ashley Benson at the "Just Dance 4", Launch Party in October 2012

## Filmography[edit]

Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes
--- | --- | --- | ---
2004 | 13 Going on 30 | Six Chick |
2005 | Neighbors | Mindy | Short film
2006 | Zoey 101: Spring Break-Up | Candice | Video
2007 | Bring It On: In It to Win It | Carson | Video
2008 | Bart Got a Room | Alice | Mother Goose Parade
2013 | Spring Breakers | Brit |

Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes
--- | --- | --- | ---
2002 | Nikki | Dancer | Episode: "Working Girl"
2002 | District, The The District | Melissa Howell | Episode: "Explicit Activities"
2002 | West Wing, The The West Wing | Girl | Episode: "Game On"
2004 | Strong Medicine | April | Episode: "Cape Cancer"
2004-2007 | Days of our Lives | Abigail Deveraux | Recurring role
2005 | Zoey 101 | Candice | Episode: "Quinn's Date"
2005 | 7th Heaven | Margot | Episode: "Tangled Web We Weaved" Episode: "Hungry"
2006 | O.C., The The O.C. | Riley | Episode: "The Summer Bummer"
2008 | Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal | Brooke Tippit | TV movie
2008 | CSI: Miami | Amy Beck | Episode: "Bombshell"
2008 | Supernatural | Tracy Davis | Episode: "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester"
2008 | Mother Goose Parade |  | TV movie
2009-2010 | Eastwick | Mia Torcoletti | Series Regular
2010 | Christmas Cupid | Caitlin Quinn | TV movie
2010-present | Pretty Little Liars | Hanna Marin | Lead role
2011 | CollegeHumor Originals | Female 1 | Episode: "Secret Girl Language"

Music videos
Year | Title | Artist
--- | --- | ---
2002 | True Love | Lil' Romeo (featuring Solange)
2007 | That Girl | NLT
2010 | BlackLight | One Call
2012 | Honestly | Hot Chelle Rae

## References[edit]

1. ^ News: Anaheim Hills teen stars in cheerleading movie. OCRegister.com. Accessed 2012-01-31.
2. ^ a b "Interview: Ashley Benson from Bring It On: In It To Win It - Page 3". FANBOLT.com. December 10, 2007. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
3. ^ a b c "Interview with Ashley Benson, October 2007". TheStarScoop.com. October 2007. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
4. ^ "Interview: Ashley Benson from Bring It On: In It To Win It - Page 1". FANBOLT.com. December 10, 2007. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
5. ^ "Ashley Benson: Learning New Things". myLifetime.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
6. ^ Eastwick cast PopTower
7. ^ Eastwick bios, Mia[dead link] ABC.com
8. ^ "ABC Family Announces Additional Casting for its Upcoming Pilots "Melissa Joey," "Untitled Michael Jacobs Project" and "Pretty Little Liars."". ABC Family Press Release. December 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
9. ^ http://www.bsckids.com/2012/01/ashley-benson-replaces-emma-roberts-in-spring-breakers-with-selena-gomez/
10. ^ http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/rachel-korine-yes-harmonys-wife-joins-spring-breakers
11. ^ http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/girls-gone-wild

## External links[edit]

- Official website
- API at the Internet Movie Database
- Ashley Benson at AllRovi

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to API.

Authority control | VIAF: 103039955

Persondata
Name | Benson, Ashley
Alternative names |
Short description | Actress, model
Date of birth | December 18, 1989
Place of birth | Anaheim Hills, California, U.S.
Date of death |
Place of death |