Ashley Frances Hoffman

The youngest of three and the only girl, Ashley grew up in Willowbrook, IL, a suburb of Chicago. Born with congestive heart failure, but fully healthy by the age of 12 due to a major surgery, Ashley came to appreciate just how precious life is and vowed to make the most of it through artistic pursuits. With her parents encouragement, she set her sights on becoming a professional ballet dancer. Her training took her to summer programs at Juilliard and the American Ballet Theatre, then high school at Virginia School of the Arts, before majoring in dance at Indiana University. Once completing one year at IU, she moved to Zurich, Switzerland to embark on more growth and professional opportunities as a ballerina. After dancing with the Los Angeles Ballet and LA Opera, and in music videos such as Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off," she ventured into an Improv class where she discovered a passion for acting that needed to be nurtured. Upon meeting acting coach Sal Romeo, she dove into scene study and accepted the call to explore herself further as a storyteller. Drawing from the physicality and artistry already achieved through years of dance, she pushed further to hone her craft. With the discipline developed studying ballet, she has continued her training with great teachers Deborah Aquila, Stan Kirsch, and at Diana Castle's The Imagined Life. In 2018, her passion for ballet and acting were married as she portrayed famed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in the play "Little Swan." Written by Allie Costa and directed by Andy McQuade, the play explored Anna's rise to fame and reflections on it at the end of her life with a dance performance of the legendary Dying Swan to close the play. Later that year, she became part of the Block Theater's Monday Night Living Room Series as Sarah in Brent Askari's "Bending Reeds,' directed by Tom Lazarus. She lives in Los Angeles. She is also a New York and Chicago local hire.