Ashley D. Merritt

Ashley was born in Dallas, Texas and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Starting from when she was six years old, Ashley has always enjoyed performance-related activities including dancing, figure skating, participating in beauty pageants, and playing the violin. With a strong passion for performing, as a child Ashley always found joy in choreographing dances and putting on reenactments of Mad TV sketches at sleepovers. She started acting professionally when she was ten years old in local television commercials and industrials in Oklahoma City.Ashley played violin in the school orchestra from elementary school through high school from ages 8 to 17. Academically, she was a strong student with her favorite subject being history. She loved learning about the origins of humanity and about ancient civilizations. She retired her Olympic-bound figure skating career pursuit just before entering high school, as the schedule was much too rigorous to allow for her other interests. Most of her focus was on the orchestra at school and she received superior ratings at state orchestra competitions. She also danced and participated in pageants outside of school. Ashley was the Junior Representative for the National Honor Society chapter of her high school. She was also in French Club and still speaks some French.Ashley attended her first three years of college at Oklahoma University and completed her last two years at the University of Texas at Dallas. She initially went to OU to study Petroleum Geology on scholarship, but eventually moved back to Texas and changed her major to Art and Performance with a focus in dance, communication and film, graduating with a Bachelor's in Art and Performance in 2014. Ashley was a featured dancer and Public Relations chair for UT-Dallas dance ensemble and was also selected to attend the prestigious American College Dance Festival both years.Ashley moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 2015. Shortly thereafter, she booked a lead role - a pilot sizzle reel for Blake's World. She considers working on the set of Dirty Grandpa with Zac Efron and Robert De Niro a career highlight, and found working with director Dan Mazer incredibly inspiring. Ashley was nominated for "Best Promising Actress in a Film" by the Nollywood and African Film Critics' Awards at the African Oscars in 2014. She continues to book exciting projects to build her career as an actor in Hollywood. Show less «