Biography
Ashleigh Ann Wood is a Canadian/American actor, writer, speaker, singer, acting coach, and philanthropist. Her mother is British Irish and has always been one of her greatest supporters always traveling with Ashleigh. Her father, Dr. Wood works with some of the most high-profile people and cases such as the Boston Marathon survivors, the Vegas shooting survivors, veterans dealing with PTSD, Child Abuse survivors, and The Innocence Project to name a few.
Her grandfather is English, coming from a long line of lawyers and served in the Navy. Her grandmother is French Canadian and a baker, baking some of the most beautiful birthday cakes and wedding cakes. Her grandparents have always been extremely supportive and loved her creativity. They were both artists who performed in bands entertaining troops. They often sang and played guitar with Ashleigh.
Ashleigh was an extremely shy child. Her mother noticed that Ashleigh lit up whenever they pulled a camera, video camera, or musical instrument out and thought maybe being in a creative studio with other kids might help her come out of her shell. It helped tremendously while she was in the studio. Ashleigh got her love of acting, dancing, and singing while taking dance, music, and acting at The Roland and Romain Studio in Toronto playing Debra Sue in Bye Bye Birdie, Sandy in Grease, Anne Frank in Anne Frank, and Becky Hatfield in Tom Sawyer. She went back to being the shy child when not in the studio or in front of the camera.
Ashleigh caught the eye of an agent and began doing commercials for McDonald's, Sony, Hyundai, Hamburger Helper, etc. while also doing ads for various companies such as Sears, Hudson's Bay, Ballet Canada, etc. She was asked to do a ballet shoot with the icon Karen Kane and hung on to the dress from the shoot for years because it was so beautifully hand-made just for her, thus came the love for clothes.
Ashleigh auditioned for director Michael O' Herlihy who put her in the role of Bobby Kennedy's daughter in Hoover vs Kennedys along side Jack Warren, Nicolas Campbell, and Heather Thomas. It was a great experience and introduction into acting because everyone especially Michael O' Herlihy and Nicolas Campbell were so engaging, full of great information and guidance. After she was wrapped, she said " I want to do more of this ".
She then went on to do parts in Top Cops, Friday the 13th, Shining Time Station, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues with David Carradine, Cat Walk with Neve Campbell, who was so nice to Ashleigh and made Ashleigh feel so comfortable on the first day of shoot. Director Bruce Pittman was a great supporter of Ashleigh's. She was on Hidden Room produced by David Perlmutter and Lewis B Chesler playing Marg Helgenberger's character as a child, another Hidden Room episode playing Ally Sheedy's character as a child. Ally was so sweet while going over lines with her and saving her a place at the lunch table every day. Shari Belafonte from Beyond Reality was charming and treated Ashleigh like a team member not a child. Ashley played Patrick Dempsey's little sister in a made-for-TV movie called Blood Knot alongside Kate Vernon and Margot Kidder. Patrick Dempsey was another sweet person always joking around with her constantly treating her like a big brother would and inviting Ashleigh everyday to join them all for lunch. Kate Vernon bought her the cutest floppy teddy bear at wrap that she has to this day, such a lovely gesture. The director from Blood Knot Jorge Montesi was wonderful. To this day, Ashleigh remembers the kind people that made her feel comfortable walking on to a new set and emulates that energy to the students she works with to this day.
Ashleigh's family moved to Florida eventually becoming American citizens. Ashleigh was so unsettled that she was missing her studio and acting so her parents signed her up for an acting competition with agents and casting directors judging. Ashleigh won the grand prize for the competition with the casting director for Seinfeld, Marc Hirschfeld, as one of her judges. He came up to her at the end of the competition asking her if she would feel comfortable enough to do her scene in front of the whole audience of contestants, families, and judges, which she agreed to do. He said he was impressed with her and told her to please keep in touch if she ever came to California.
Eventually Ashleigh went to California and played roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Jerry Bruckheimer's Without A Trace, and CSI Miami, Warner Bros' ER written by Michael Crichton, CBS's Joan of Arcadia, Nickelodeon's The Bros. Garcia, J.J. Abrams' Lost, Quintuplets, and others. She did a Disney cruise line commercial with John O'Hurley enjoying two back-to-back cruises while filming.
Ashleigh also worked on radio as a child news reporter a for Kids radio show for a few of years called Radio Aahs.
Ashleigh played Lauren Hadley, Elissa for 8 episodes on Disney Channel's Like Family, with great directors and writers like John Fortenberry and Dan Fogelman to name a few. On set they kept calling her " One-Take Ashleigh". Ashleigh said this was definitely one of the best experiences ever because it felt like a family.
Ashleigh has had some great experiences acting and passes these on to some of her acting students some of whom are children and shares the joys and pitfalls for young actors. She has experienced meeting and working with some wonderful people and has met some not-so-great real-life characters along the way.
Ashleigh continues to act traveling to wherever the work is, she speaks, teaches, hosts, does voice overs, as well as some philanthropy work along side her father Dr. Wood. She does videos and voice overs for all his projects and travels alongside him, speaking about her own life experiences. One day after her book is finished she would like to share it through a TED Talk.
Ashleigh has trained and done workshops with some of the best teachers, Sandy Marshall, Hank Stone, Herb Mandel, Paul Bengston, Angela Terry, Lori Wyman, Patti Robinson, Mel Johnson, Al Onorato, and Garrison True. Continuing to train whenever she has the opportunity.
Ashleigh graduated from the same performing arts school that Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Mandy Moore, Torrey DeVitto and others attended.
