Ashley Benson

Ashley Victoria Benson (born December 18, 1989) is an American film and television actress, and model. She is known for her role as Abigail Deveraux in Days Of Our Lives (2004–2007), Carson in Bring It On: In It To Win It, and her role as Mia Torcoletti in Eastwick.

She currently portrays Hanna Marin in Pretty Little Liars.

Life and career
Ashley Benson was born and raised in Anaheim Hills, California. At age 3, she started dancing competitively in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical. Benson also enjoys singing, and has appeared in several choir groups and musicals. At age 4, she was asked to audition to sing solo at four Christmas services for her 2,500 member church. At 5 years old, she modeled in dance catalogs, and at age 8 was pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency and worked steadily in print. She has also performed in NLT's music video "That Girl".

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 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. 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.

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).In December 2009, Benson was cast as Hanna Marin in the TV series Pretty Little Liars based on the book series by Sara Shepard. In an interview she calls her character Hanna a 'Queen Bee.'Benson has reveled on her Twitter account that she will be co-starring in a movie named Ex-mas Carol with Chad Michael Murray and Christina Milian According to Zap2it, Christmas Cupid will be an ABC Family Original Movie and will be about "a comatose girl who visits her Christmas past, present, and future." She is currently working on a new movie with Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens called Spring Breakers.

Trivia

 * Both Ashley Benson and co-star Tyler Blackburn had appearances on Days of Our Lives.
 * She met her future costar Lucy Hale at the age of 15 through Myspace from mutual friends of theirs.
 * Ashley was born two months early weighing 2 pounds 8 oz. She was in NICU for a month. Her parents were told she would need heart surgery on Christmas Day. Prayers were answered when her parents went in Christmas Day and were told by doctors that her heart had closed up. Ashley never needed any surgeries. She was released to go home at 4 1/2 pounds after being hospitalized two months. She has been healthy ever since!
 * The theme song for Pretty Little Liars "Secret" by The Pierces was suggested by her. Since she's fan of their music and told the producers and creator claiming, "It's so spooky and eerie and it's perfect for the show." So they took up the song on her suggestion.
 * Her first acting job was in a Dominos Pizza commercial.
 * She has done a photo shoot with Britney Spears for Vogue magazine.
 * One of Ashley's funny experiences on getting recognized is when she was buying ice cream at McDonalds with her cousins when the lady at the counter asked her "You look really familiar. Are you Abby on Days Of Our Lives?" Then she made Ashley sign a McDonald's bag.
 * She has an older sister Shaylene.
 * Ashley's favourite actors include Robin Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellwegger.
 * Ashley appeared in Lil Romeo and Solange music video for their song True Love.
 * Ashley is afraid of heights.
 * Ashley loves Glee, and is friends with Glee actor Chord Overstreet.
 * Ashley was in the music video for "Honestly" by Hot Chelle Rae. She was the over obsessive girlfriend of the lead singer for the video.
 * Both Ashley and Lucy play the younger siblings of the character's Barney and Robin, who are engaged, making Lucy and Ashley's characters in-laws.