Happy birthday to Ashley Rickards. Whilst native Floridian Rickards is a relative newbie, she’s already had a few notable television roles along, of course, with her extended stint on Awkward. In season 1 of American Horror Story, she played cheerleader Chloe Stapleton, one of the high school kids that was murdered by Tate who came back as a member of the ‘Dead Breakfast Club’ for revenge on Tate on Halloween night. It was seriously creepy stuff and was one of the underpinnings of Tate’s whole story arc in the murder house.
American Horror Story was a great place for Ashley to begin her television career as the show can do no wrong, going on to scoop everything from Emmy’s to People’s Choice awards, completely well deserved if you ask us! Around the same time, Ashley was cast as the lead in Awkward. Centered around the trials and tribulations of a student at southern Californian high school, it’s a great, meaty role and one that any teenager can relate to. Ashley’s character Jenna initially feels invisible and looks for different ways to express and assert herself. It’s empowering stuff, and we’ve loved watching Jenna’s romantic entanglements, friend fallouts and how she deals with clueless parenting.
Of course it’s a delight to see the role delivered with Ashley’s pitch perfect comic timing. She even got to try her hand at directing an episode of the new fourth season, and she’s keeping viewers guessing about her on again/off again onscreen romance with Matty as she promised in a recent interview that ‘As much as it is them figuring it out, it’s also not all about Jenna in terms of them not working it out properly’. Ashley has already been nominated for a Critics’ Choice and a Teen Choice award, so she’s racking up a nice resume for somebody celebrating her twenty second birthday. Congrats Ashley, and keep up the good work!