Ashley Benson

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Ashley Benson
Ashley Benson 2012.jpg
Benson at the 39th People's Choice Awards Red Carpet, January 11, 2012
Born Ashley Victoria Benson
(1989-12-18) December 18, 1989 (age 23)
Anaheim Hills, Anaheim, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress, model
Years active 1999–present
Website
www.ashleybenson.net

Ashley Victoria Benson (born December 18, 1989) is an American actress and model, best known for playing Abigail Deveraux on the soap opera Days of our Lives (2004–2007), Mia Torcoletti on the supernatural television series Eastwick (2009–2010), Hanna Marin on the mystery-thriller television series Pretty Little Liars (2010–present) and Brit in the crime thriller film Spring Breakers (2013).

Contents

Early life[edit]

Benson was born and raised in Anaheim Hills, Anaheim, California,[1] the daughter of Shannon (Harte) and Jeff Benson. She has an older sister, Shaylene. She started dancing competitively in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical at age four. She also enjoys singing, and has appeared in several choir groups and musicals. At age four, she was asked to audition to sing solo at four Christmas services at her church.[2] At five, she modeled in dance catalogs, and at 8 she was pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency and worked steadily in print thereafter. She made a brief appearance on 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."

Career[edit]

Career beginnings; Days of our Lives: 1999–2008[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.[3]

She played a witch disguised as a cheerleader in a 2008 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 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.[3]

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.[4] 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."[4] Nonetheless, she was "glad" to do her own stunts, even though she "wasn't expecting for it to be so hard."[5]

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.[6] 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.[4]

Pretty Little Liars; Eastwick: 2009–present[edit]

Benson starred in ABC's 2009 television series Eastwick.[7][8] 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 mystery-thriller, "Pretty Little Liars". She is the "diva" and it-girl of the group, having taken Alison's place as the most popular girl at Rosewood High in Alison's absence. Prior to Alison's death, Hanna was a bulimic girl who Alison frequently mocked for being overweight. Her parents divorced, Hanna lives with her mother. She feels betrayed by her father, who has remarried, and does not get along well with his new wife and daughter, Kate. When Hanna's mother falls upon financial hardship, she steals thousands of dollars, which Hanna is forced to keep a secret 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.[9]

In January 2012, Benson was casted into the drama-comedy film Spring Breakers, after Emma Roberts dropped out due to creative reasons.[10] The film centered 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.[11] The film co-starred Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and James Franco. Filming took place in March and April 2012, and Spring Breakers was released in March 2013.[12]

Benson became the face of evening-wear designer Faviana in January 2013.[13]

In the January 21, 2013 episode of How I Met Your Mother, Benson appeared as Carly Whittaker, Barney Stinson's half-sister who dated Ted Mosby.

Personal life[edit]

In 2011, Benson started dating singer Justin Bieber's former "swagger coach" Ryan Good.[14] In 2013, after months of speculation, Benson confirmed in an interview with Seventeen that she and Good were no longer a couple, but still remained good friends.[15]

Filmography[edit]

Ashley Benson at the "Just Dance 4", Launch Party in October 2012
Film
Year Title Role Notes
2004 13 Going on 30 Six Chick
2005 Neighbors Mindy Short film
2007 Bring It On: In It to Win It Carson Direct-to-video; lead role
2008 Bart Got a Room Alice
2008 Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal Brooke Tippit TV film; lead role
2010 Christmas Cupid Caitlin Quinn TV film; lead role
2012 Spring Breakers Brit Lead role
2013 Paranoia Kate Wright
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2002 Nikki Dancer "Working Girl" (season 2: episode 18)
2002 The District Melissa Howell "Explicit Activities" (season 3: episode 3)
2002 The West Wing Girl "Game On" (season 4: episode 6)
2004 Strong Medicine April "Cape Cancer" (season 5: episode 4)
2004–2007 Days of our Lives Abigail Deveraux Regular role
2005 7th Heaven Margot "Tangled Web We Weaved" (season 9: episode 17)
"Hungry" (season 9: episode 19)
2005–2006 Zoey 101 Candice "Quinn's Date" (season 1: episode 8)
"Spring Break-Up" (season 2: episode 10-11)
2006 The O.C. Riley "The Summer Bummer" (season 4: episode 6)
2008 CSI: Miami Amy Beck "Bombshell" (season 7: episode 5)
2008 Supernatural Tracy Davis "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester" (season 4: episode 7)
2009–2010 Eastwick Mia Torcoletti Series regular
2010–present Pretty Little Liars Hanna Marin Lead role
2011 CollegeHumor Originals Female 1 "Secret Girl Language" (season 1: episode 151)
2012 Punk'd Herself "Heather Morris" (season 9: episode 9)
2013 How I Met Your Mother Carly Whittaker "Ring Up!" (season 8: episode 14)
Music videos
Year Title Role Notes
2002 "True Love" Schoolgirl Lil' Romeo video
2007 "That Girl" NLT video
2010 "BlackLight" One Call video
2012 "Honestly" Ryan Follesé's love interest Hot Chelle Rae video

Awards[edit]

Year Award Category Work nominated Result
2011 Young Hollywood Awards Cast To Watch (with Troian Bellisario, Lucy Hale and Shay Mitchell) Pretty Little Liars Won

References[edit]

  1. ^ News: Anaheim Hills teen stars in cheerleading movie. OCRegister.com. Accessed 2012-01-31.
  2. ^ "Ashley Benson: Biography". TV Guide. Retrieved April 25 2013. 
  3. ^ 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. 
  4. ^ 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. 
  5. ^ "Interview: Ashley Benson from Bring It On: In It To Win It - Page 1". FANBOLT.com. December 10, 2007. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
  6. ^ "Ashley Benson: Learning New Things". myLifetime.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
  7. ^ Eastwick cast PopTower
  8. ^ Eastwick bios, Mia[dead link] ABC.com
  9. ^ "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. 
  10. ^ Liliana says: (2012-02-03). "Ashley Benson Replaces Emma Roberts in Spring Breakers With Selena Gomez". Bsckids.com. Retrieved 2013-02-07. 
  11. ^ "Rachel Korine (Yes, Harmony’s Wife) Joins ‘Spring Breakers’ | The Playlist". Blogs.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2013-02-07. 
  12. ^ "Girls Gone Wild - Page". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2013-02-07. 
  13. ^ Stone, Rachel (7 January 2013). "Ashley Benson is The New Face Of Faviana". Retrieved 7 January 2013. 
  14. ^ Kraemer, Kristen (23 September 2011). "Ashley Benson and Ryan Good Are Totally Dating, And We Have Proof (Pics)". Teen. Retrieved 19 March 2013. 
  15. ^ Hayner, Chris E. (19 March 2013). "Ashley Benson splits with Ryan Good: 'Work is my boyfriend'". Zap2it. Retrieved 19 March 2013. 

External links[edit]

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