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Ashley Rickards

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Ashley Rickards
Rickards at the Media Access Awards on October 16, 2014
Born
Ashley Nicole Rickards

Sarasota, Florida, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actress
  • director
Years active2005–present

Ashley Nicole Rickards is an American actress, known for her role as Jenna Hamilton in the MTV comedy-drama series Awkward,[1] and as Samantha "Sam" Walker, a troubled young girl in The CW's teen drama series One Tree Hill. She also starred in the 2011 independent drama film Fly Away as Mandy, an autistic girl.

Early life and acting career

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Rickards was born in Sarasota, Florida. She grew up on a horse farm that catered to children with special needs.[2] She attended a local Montessori school where, at age 13, she had her first experience of acting in an opera production.[3] Rickards graduated from high school at age fifteen[4][5] and is a member of Mensa.[6] After attending a local talent showcase, organized by Lou Pearlman, Rickards traveled to Los Angeles where she eventually gathered a team of representatives.[3][7] Upon graduating, Rickards began to appear in a number of minor roles, while child labor laws restricted the number of hours she was able to work.[5] After making a number of guest appearances and shorts, she landed the role of Samantha Walker, a runaway foster child, in the sixth season of The CW's One Tree Hill.[5] Although not aware of the show before auditioning, Rickards found that she "learned so much from acting techniques to different ways of shooting things".[8] Her character did not return the following season, while in the same year she had a bit part in her first feature film, Gamer.

Rickards spent much of 2009 attending auditions while a proposed lead role in the film Dirty Girl fell through.[9] In 2010, she appeared opposite Jimmy Smits in an episode of the legal drama Outlaw while she also auditioned for the lead role in the MTV series Awkward. Initially rejected, her manager Adam Griffin sent the producers a tape Rickards had made for Fly Away "to show how she can do anything".[10] The actress landed both roles and filmed the pilot for the MTV series prior to Fly Away, a feature where she played a girl with severe autism.[11]

As the lead in Awkward, Rickards' profile began to rise and she was also given the opportunity to direct an episode.[12] In 2012, she had a minor role in the moderately successful comedy Struck by Lightning and another coming-of-age film Sassy Pants.[11] In 2014 Rickards moved into the horror genre with a lead role in At the Devil's Door and as a teenage daughter in A Haunted House 2.[13][14] In 2015, she filmed the fifth and final season of Awkward.[15] In August 2016 it was announced that Rickards would play Rosalind "Rosa" Dillon/The Top in the CW series The Flash.[16][17] She also featured in the first season of comedy series Ctrl Alt Delete that aired in 2019.[18]

Other activities

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In 2011, Rickards helped to launch the Project Futures Somaly Mam Foundation, which works to prevent and end human trafficking and sexual slavery in Southeast Asia.[19] In March 2015, she published a book A Real Guide to Getting It Together Once and For All.[20]

Over the course of her career, she has also appeared in various music videos such as The Fray's "How to Save a Life", The Format's "She Doesn't Get It" and M83's "Claudia Lewis".

In 2015 she published the book A Real Guide to Really Getting It Together Once and for All (Harlequin).[21][22]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
2006 Web Journal Now Janet Short film
2007 Spoonfed Bridgette Short film
2009 Gamer 2Katchapredator
2011 Fly Away Mandy
2012 Struck by Lightning Vicki Jordan
2012 Sassy Pants Bethany Pruitt
2014 At the Devil's Door Hannah
2014 A Haunted House 2 Becky
2014 Behaving Badly Kristen Stevens
2017 The Outcasts Virginia Van Der Camp
2017 Antisocial.app Jessie
2018 Pretty Little Stalker Mallory
2020 Smiley Face Killers Alana

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2006 Everybody Hates Chris Girl Episode: "Everybody Hates Superstition"
2007 CSI: NY Young Lindsay Monroe Episode: "Sleight Out of Hand"
2007 Zoey 101 Molly Talbertsen Episode: "Dance Contest"
2007 Ugly Betty Sharra Episodes: "Grin and Bear It" and "A League of Their Own"
2008–2009 One Tree Hill Samantha "Sam" Walker Recurring role
2008 Entourage Candice Episode: "The All Out Fall Out"
2010 Outlaw Tracy Vidalin Episode: "In Re: Tracy Vidalin"
2011–2016 Awkward Jenna Hamilton Main role; also directed episode: "Listen to This"
2011 American Horror Story: Murder House Chloe Stapleton Episodes: "Halloween (Part 2)" and "Piggy Piggy"
2015 Robot Chicken Jenna Hamilton / Betty Cooper / Ashley Episode: "Cake Pillow" (voices)
2015 Scream Jenna Hamilton Promotional campaigns for season 1
2016–2017,
2021–2022 		The Flash Rosalind "Rosa" Dillon / The Top Recurring role
2017 Dimension 404 Susan Hirsch Episode: "Chronos"
2019 Ctrl Alt Delete A'sha 6 episodes

Music videos

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Year Title Role Artist
2006 "How to Save a Life" Girl The Fray
2007 "She Doesn't Get It" Love interest The Format
2013 "Claudia Lewis" Girl M83

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Work Result
2011 Arizona International Film Festival Best Performance Fly Away Won[23]
2012 Critics' Choice Television Award Best Actress in a Comedy Series Awkward Nominated
2012 Teen Choice Award Summer TV Star: Female Awkward Nominated

References

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  1. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (November 14, 2011). "MTV Sets Premiere Date for 'I Just Want My Pants Back' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  2. ^ Plank, Alex (August 16, 2011). "Autism Talk TV 15 – Fly Away – Interview with Janet Grillo and Ashley Rickards". Autismspeaks.org.
  3. ^ a b Riley, Jenelle (July 21, 2011). "Ashley Rickards of MTV's 'Awkward' Shows Her Acting Range". Backstage.
  4. ^ Chelsea Lately. Season 5. Episode 129. August 31, 2011. E!.
  5. ^ a b c Martin, Denise (July 19, 2012). "Awkward.'s Ashley Rickards on Latin Boys, Reverse Method Acting, and Idolizing Chris Colfer". Vulture. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  6. ^ Gach, PJ. "The Best, Worst and the WTF of the MTV EMAs 2011 Red Carpet Style". Betty Confidential. Desha Productions, Inc. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  7. ^ McNary, Dave (February 1, 2013). "Berlin: 'The Pact' helmer wraps haunted house pic". Variety. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  8. ^ "Ashley Rickards from One Tree Hill Talks On-Set Style!". Seventeen. August 10, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  9. ^ "April 2008 news item" Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Warner Loughlin Studio news item
  10. ^ McNamara, Tara (September 14, 2012). "Adam Griffin: Manager learned from his young charge". Variety. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Radish, Christina (July 19, 2011). "Ashley Rickards Interview AWKWARD". Collider. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  12. ^ "Awkward's Ashley Rickards Says Making Out on Set Is Not Sexy". ELLE. October 22, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  13. ^ "Ashley Rickards Tells Us How She Played Possessed In 'At The Devil's Door'". MTV News. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  14. ^ "A Haunted House 2 Interviews with Marlon Wayans, Jaime Pressly, Ashley Rickards". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  15. ^ "MTV's Awkward to End After Season 5". TVLine. October 8, 2014. Archived from the original on October 8, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  16. ^ "Ashley Rickards Will Take a Villainous Turn on The Flash". ComingSoon.net. August 18, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  17. ^ "The Flash's Newest Villain, The Top, Will Make Your Head Spin". E! News. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  18. ^ Robinson, Chauncey K. (June 7, 2019). "'CTRL ALT DELETE': Normalizing abortion rights one laugh at a time". People's World. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  19. ^ "Somaly.org press release Archived December 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine List Rickards as one of the participants at the LA launch, no other mention of her involvement after that.
  20. ^ Olya, Gabrielle (March 21, 2015). "Ashley Rickards Reveals Her Long Struggle with 'Dark, Secretive World' of Eating Disorders". people.com.
  21. ^ Gaffney, Adrienne (September 23, 2014). "Ashley Rickards: "I've Been the Bitch and the Overweight Girl"". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  22. ^ Losgar, Maxwell (April 2, 2015). "'Awkward' Star Ashley Rickards Has a New Book About Getting It Together". Teen Vogue. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  23. ^ "2011 Arizona International Film Festival". Film Festival Arizona. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
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