Ashley Suzanne Johnson (born August 9, 1983) began her acting life as a child actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver on the sitcom Growing Pains. As she became a teenager, she started voice acting and became a lot more popular. Her roles include her star-making turn as Ellie in The Last of Us and its sequel, but also Terra in Teen Titans (2003), Gretchen Grundler in Recess, Gwen Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force, Petra in Minecraft: Story Mode and Tulip Olsen/MT in Infinity Train. Often paired with Greg Cipes, leading him to call her his "cartoon girlfriend" as their characters are frequently lovers.
On TV, she played the forensics scientist Patterson for five seasons of the NBC series Blindspot. She's part of Joss Whedon's Production Posse, having appeared in Dollhouse, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and (most infamously) The Avengers (2012) as the waitress who gets saved by Captain America. Reportedly, her character was set to have a bigger role in the MCU, but this was ultimately scrapped. Beginning in 2015, she appears alongside other voice actor and friends in Critical Role, a popular Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play show.
She attends the International School of Music, where she studies Violin and Piano; and also plays guitar and cello. When not acting or studying music, Johnson co-runs the photography company Infinity Pictures, with her friend, production assistant Mila Shah. She loves to snowboard and surf, was taught to sail by her father, and she is an avid video game player. She was formerly in a relationship with Brian Wayne Foster, former host of Critical Role's Companion Show Talks Machina.
Her older sister Haylie is also a former actress.
Ashley Johnson's Roles
Live-Action Film
- Annie: A Royal Adventure! - Annie
- The Brothers Solomon - Patricia
- The Avengers (2012) - Beth the Waitress
- Lionheart - Nicole Gaultier
- What Women Want - Alex Marshall
Live-Action Television
- Blindspot - FBI Agent Patterson
- Cold Case - Grace Stearns '66
- Growing Pains - Christine Ellen "Chrissy" Seaver
- Lie to Me - Valerie
- The Last of Us (2023) - Anna Williams
- The Mentalist - Clara Tennant
Video Games
- Date Everything! - Beau
- Dispatch - Brainbook
- Minecraft: Story Mode - Petra
- Stray Gods - Calliope
- The Last of Us/The Last of Us Part II - Ellie Williams
- Tales from the Borderlands - Gortys
Web Video
- Critical Role - Pike Trickfoot (Campaign 1), Yasha Nydoorin (Campaign 2), Fearne Calloway (Exandria Unlimited/Campaign 3), and Vaelus (Campaign 4)
Western Animation
- Among Us (2026) - Purple
- Ben 10: Alien Force/Ben 10: Ultimate Alien/Ben 10: Omniverse - Gwen Tennyson (teenager; also adult form in the latter series), Sunny
- Family Guy - Lisa
- Infinity Train - Tulip Olsen, MT
- Jumanji: The Animated Series - Peter Shepherd
- King of the Hill - Emily the hall monitor
- The Legend of Vox Machina - Pike Trickfoot
- The Mighty Nein - Yasha Nydoorin
- Maxine's Christmas Carol - Billy
- Mina and The Count - Mina (pilot only)
- Pound Puppies (2010) - Toyokoshimo, Amelia, Giblet
- Recess - Gretchen Grundler, Ashley T.
- Reprises role of Gretchen in Lilo & Stitch: The Series
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! - Jinmay
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) - Renet
- Teen Titans (2003)/Teen Titans Go! - Terra
Johnson's career provides examples of:
- Fiery Redhead: For some reason, she voices a lot of these, even though she isn't a redhead herself.
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LGBT+ Periphery Demographic: Developed one particularly after playing lesbian/bisexual characters in franchises like The Last of Us and Critical Role. - Metalhead: While her taste in music is rarely discussed, if at all, she has worn several metal t-shirts on Critical Role and outside of it, such as those of Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Sabbath, and even Testament. The official "Orphanmaker" shirt
◊ for one of her Critical Role characters, Yasha, is also evocative of similar shirts from extreme metal bands. - Remake Cameo: In The Last of Us (2023), she plays Ellie's mother, Anna.
- Role Reprise: In LEGO Marvel's Avengers, Ashley not only reprises her brief Avengers role as Beth the Waitress, she even gets her own stash of sub-quests for the player.
- Those Two Actors: She has been in many works with actor Greg Cipes, often being cast as his character's love interest.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: She started out acting and voicing sitcom characters such as Chrissy Seaver and Gretchen Grundler, but after her Star Making Roles as Terra and especially Ellie, she became known for much more serious works.
- Tomboyish Voice: As noted above, she can make her voice sound deeper to suit her more tomboy characters.
- Woman of a Thousand Voices: As her roles in cartoons show, she is capable of changing her voice to suit her characters well.
