Ashley Avis was born in Chicago, IL on January 27th, 1987... and, well, that's not really important.

Hello there, I'm Ashley, and I'm not going to pretend to write my bio in Narrator 3rd Person ... because, well, it's boring. I'm an in-my-twenties actress presently residing in the glorious city of New York. I moved up here about two and a half years ago to attend college, and [er, more] importantly be in a position to pursue the absolute loves of my life. Acting and writing.

Thus far, it's been a gloriously wild ride (much like my driving, thank goodness for the Metro). I've been fortunate to find success in the theatre and film mediums, working on ABC's All My Children pretty regularly as well as getting to play the bad-guy Vadim's Russian girlfriend in Paramount's 2007 feature We Own the Night. I also was part of the cast of The Magnificent Cuckold, directed by Paul Bargetto over the summer of 2007 at The Connelly Theatre.

But that's also rather sleepy, 'cuz you can find that on my resume.

I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was fascinated by lizards as a child, and for likely the entirely of a year I chased them around in my backyard and literally clipped them to my ears (my mom thought I was incredibly odd). By age six or so, I had found my first passion. I would always concoct stories in my head, and around that age began penning them on paper. I've carried around a "Little Black Notebook" ever since. I have yet to finish one of my novels, but I'm getting pretty darn close with a screenplay.

Ages seven to sixteen were filled with horses, regional theatre, and playground drama as I was the "weird kid" with the overactive imagination.

A pageant in Ghana, one fateful run-in with a Martial Arts guru in Starbucks, and a photographer-referral later, I was on a plane to New York City to spend my first summer pursuing the industry at age sixteen. I landed my first agent by accident, via my little blonde (and brilliantly hilarious) brother Ricky randomly telling him a joke in the Waldorf Astoria. I ended up recording my first professional series of songs with Warner Brothers after getting lost on the subway and seeing "this dude" who "looked like a record producer" and handing him my business card (before I knew that randomly tapping strangers in the city was potentially rather dangerous).

While the WB dude got fired and I've lost touch with the Martial Arts Guru, I feel like I'm on track. I'm pursing my love of acting with a wonderful manager, my love of writing with none other than Backstage (click to read!), and dancing my heart out five days a week at The Ballroom Foundation (I'm also, er, a professional ballroom dancer, forgot to stick that in there).

I also like massive amounts of chocolate and new friendships.

Thanks for reading, whomever you are ... now I must flee ...
the world is waiting, and I'm very much in need of a massive cup of coffee.

-- Ashley Avis