Annaleigh Ashford

Annaleigh Ashford is an actress, singer, and dancer known for her starring roles in the Broadway productions of Legally Blonde, Wicked, and Kinky Boots. She also appeared on the Showtime series Masters of Sex.

Date of birth

She was born on 25 June 1985.

Family

Ashford was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Holli Swanson, an elementary school gym teacher, and Chris Swanson, a small business owner. Ashford participated in Kids Cross Country and track at the age of six, coached by her mother. 

Education & Early life

She was first enrolled and started studying at Kit Andrée's Dance and Performing Arts Center the same day she started the second grade. She acted and sang in numerous performances and competitions in her hometown. She graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in three years at the age of 16, and then attended Marymount Manhattan College, where she earned a degree in theatre in another three years at the age of 19. While attending Marymount Manhattan College, Ashford played both Rosa Bud in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Emma in Tell Me on a Sunday.

Love life

Ashford and fellow actor Joe Tapper were married at the Devil's Thumb Ranch in Tabernash, Colorado on July 29, 2013. On May 11, 2016, People announced that Ashford and Tapper were pregnant with their first child, a boy. Ashford and Tapper's son, Jack Clark Tapper, was born on September 8, 2016.

Net worth

Not yet established.

Other Denver credits include appearing in the ensemble of The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and Paint Your Wagon, as well as in Little Women as Amy March, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella as Ella, Grease as Sandy Dumbrowski, and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes.

She is known for her work on television as Betty DiMello on the Showtime period drama Masters of Sex, and on Broadway as Lauren in Kinky Boots (2013-2014) and her Tony Award winning performance as Essie Carmichael in You Can’t Take it With You (2014-2015).

In 2017, Ashford starred in the critically acclaimed, limited run revival of Sunday in the Park with George opposite Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ashford's other notable film and television credits include Unbelievable (2019), Bad Education (2019),and the FX drama Impeachment: American Crime Story.

In 2015 she released her debut album, a live album entitled Lost in the Stars: Live at 54 Below.

In February 2020, Ashford was cast as one of the two main lead roles for the situation comedy B Positive, in which she plays a woman who is the perfect match for a kidney donor, who happens to be a divorced father who she knows from the past. The series was green lighted by CBS on May 8, 2020 as a entry in the 2020-2021 television season.

Ashford was set to reprise her role as Dot/Marie in Sunday In The Park With George at the Savoy Theatre in London in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the run was postponed to 2021.