Biography
Noel Ashman is an multi-award winning movie producer, movie director, a world renowned nightclub owner, special events expert, entrepreneur, and an occasional actor. Ashman has owned some of the most famous and exclusive nightclubs in the world, including Veruka, Studio 54, NA, The Plumm, and The Leonora. It was during his high school years that Ashman developed an interest in nightlife promotion and management. At the age of only 13, he organized his first all-ages party to great effect. From that point forward, he has been consistently creating exciting and exclusive evening entertainment. In those early days, Ashman promoted and hosted parties at the hottest clubs of the time, including The Tunnel, Nell's, Tatou, The Plaza hotel, Club USA, Maxim's, The Roxy, Expo, Palladium, M.K., Rouge, Crane Club, Red Zone, and Danceteria in Manhattan, and out in the Hamptons at Conscience Point, Life's a beach and Amazon. Ashman also was a promotional Director of the very popular club Life. Simultaneous with his nightclub business activities, Ashman partnered with several major corporate brands such as Range Rover, Jaguar, and Sephora, among others. Once he became an undergraduate student at Boston University, he commuted on weekends from Boston to New York City to manage various club events he had successfully popularized. Ashman graduated from Boston University with a degree in Economics in 1993 and was well poised to venture into club ownership. Ashman opened his first club as an owner in 1996, which he named Veruka, after the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character of the same name. The club quickly became world renowned for its strict door policy and celebrity clientele and was the first club to have bottle service in the USA, an innovation in nightclub management largely credited to Ashman. Veruka is widely considered to have been the hottest club of its time with the most celebrity attendance of any club since the original Studio 54 in the '70s. Enjoying ten years of popularity among celebrities, Veruka attracted an endless list of regulars such as Michael Jordan, Mick Jagger, Derek Jeter, Steven Spielberg, Prince, Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Goldie Hawn, Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Strahan, Christina Aguilera, Kid Rock, Jared Leto, Russell Simmons, Heather Graham, Sean Penn, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., David Bowie, Nicolas Cage, Debbie Harry, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, and Sarah Jessica Parker etc. Furthermore, it was a favorite, long-standing hangout for the New York Yankees. Next, Ashman was a partner in Studio 54 for a brief term; and he then followed that venture by acquiring the former Nell's space, along with his partners Chris Noth, Samantha Ronson, Damon Dash, among others. For five years from 2004 to 2009, in this space at 246 West 14th Street, Ashman owned and operated two clubs, NA and The Plumm. The Plumm was famous for having many surprise celebrity performances, as well as attendees . These performances included Guns N' Roses, Kid Rock, Public Enemy, Norah Jones, Patti LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, Run-D.M.C., Q-Tip, David Bryan of Bon Jovi, Joel Madden, and Mark Ronson, among many others. He also owned The Leonora with partners Michael Strahan, Simon Rex, and Damon Dash. Besides being a club owner & entrepreneur, Ashman has an extensive career as a film producer. He is a Co-Owner of Co-op, a production company with partners Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Redford, and Peter Facinelli, among others. The first film that Ashman produced was Speedway Junky which he Associate Produced and starred Daryl Hannah and executive produced by Gus Van Zant. Ashman went on to produce 16 movies to date including Never Again starring Jeffrey Tambor & Jill Clayburgh, Gotti starring John Travolta, Clinton Road starring Ice T and Eric Roberts & Reprisal starring Bruce Willis. Ashman also produced the Off-Broadway play, The Dog Problem, by David Rabe, In 2015 Ashman starred in Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig, a biographical crime documentary of the wild '90s nightlife of New York City & in 2016 also acted in the 2016 indie-cult vampire/zombie film Vamp Bikers Tres playing the character Blitz. Ashman has been featured in many books on nightlife, film, entertainment and pop culture, including Anthony Bourdain's 2000 best-selling non-fiction book, Kitchen Confidential. Additionally, he is often called-upon to comment on nightlife events, entertainers, and entertainment-related topics on TV and in print and has been referred to as a pop culture icon.
