Ashley Benson Biography

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 (2012).

Early life

Benson was born and raised in Anaheim Hills, Anaheim, California, 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. 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

Career beginnings; Days of our Lives: 1999"2008

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.

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:

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

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. 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.

Eastwick; Pretty Little Liars: 2009"present

Benson starred in ABC's 2009 television series Eastwick. 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.

In January 2012, Benson was cast in the film Spring Breakers, after Emma Roberts dropped out due to creative reasons. 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. 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.

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

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

In 2011, Benson started dating singer Justin Bieber's former "swagger coach" Ryan Good. 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.

Filmography

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
2008	Bart Got a Room	Alice
2008	Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal	Brooke Tippit	Television film
2010	Christmas Cupid	Caitlin Quinn	Television film
2012	Spring Breakers	Brit

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Nikki	Dancer	Episode: "Working Girl"
2002	'	Melissa Howell	Episode: "Explicit Activities"
2002	'	Girl	Episode: "Game On"
2004	Strong Medicine	April	Episode: "Cape Cancer"
2004"2007	Days of our Lives	Abigail Deveraux	Role held: November 12, 2004 " May 2, 2007
2005	7th Heaven	Margot	2 episodes
2005	Zoey 101	Candice	Episode: "Quinn's Date"
2006	'	Riley	Episode: "The Summer Bummer"
2008	CSI: Miami	Amy Beck	Episode: "Bombshell"
2008	Supernatural	Tracy Davis	Episode: "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester"
2009"2010	Eastwick	Mia Torcoletti	Main cast
2010"present	Pretty Little Liars	Hanna Marin	Main cast
2012	Punk'd	Herself	Episode: "Heather Morris"
2013	How I Met Your Mother	Carly Whittaker	Episode: "Ring Up!"

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	CollegeHumor Originals	Female 1	Episode: "Secret Girl Language"

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Role
2002	"True Love"	Lil' Romeo	Schoolgirl
2007	"That Girl"	NLT
2010	"BlackLight"	One Call
2012	"Honestly"	Hot Chelle Rae	Ryan Follesé's love interest

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	Young Hollywood Awards	Cast to Watch (with Troian Bellisario, Lucy Hale and Shay Mitchell)	Pretty Little Liars
	Youth Rock Awards	Rockin' Actress " TV