Ashley Johnson
Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress. She became known as a child actor for her role as Chrissy Seaver on the sitcom Growing Pains. As an adult, her television roles include Amber Ahmed on The Killing and Patterson on Blindspot. She has appeared in films such as What Women Want, Fast Food Nation, The Help, and Much Ado About Nothing, and is a cast member on the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role. She became the president of the show's charity branch, the Critical Role Foundation, upon its launch in 2020.
Johnson provided the voice and motion capture of Ellie in The [Last of Us (video game)|The Last of Us], The Last of Us: Left Behind, and The Last of Us Part II. She also voiced animated television characters Gretchen Grundler on Recess, Terra on Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, Jinmay on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Gwen Tennyson in the Ben 10 franchise, Renet Tilley on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shiseru on Naruto: Shippuden, Tulip Olsen and Lake on Infinity Train, and Pike in The Legend of Vox Machina, as well as the video game characters Gortys in Tales from the Borderlands and Petra in Minecraft: Story Mode and its sequel.
Johnson has won two BAFTA Games Awards for Performer, winning once each for her performances in The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind and is the only person to have won the award more than once. She also received multiple nominations for her performance in The Last of Us Part II.
Early life
Ashley Johnson was born on August 9, 1983, in Camarillo, California, the daughter of former test pilot Nancy and exploration ship captain Cliff Johnson. She has an older brother named Chris and an older sister named Haylie, both of whom have also worked as actors. Her sister later married singer and musician Jonny Lang. Her father was often away for months at a time and would bring back souvenirs from countries such as Japan. He started a new job nine days after Johnson was born and subsequently moved the family to Franklin, Michigan, where they lived for a few years before returning to California and settling in Los Angeles. Johnson attended school in nearby Burbank when her acting career allowed but otherwise had an on-set teacher. She later studied violin and piano at the International School of Music in Glendale. When she was 16, her father died of complications from hepatitis C and cancer of the liver and lungs. Johnson needed a back brace for three years due to scoliosis and kyphosis, which affected her during her high school years.Career
Johnson's career began at age six, when she played the role of Chrissy Seaver on the sitcom Growing Pains from 1990 to 1992. The character's age was accelerated from a toddler between seasons for plotting purposes. By the time she was 12, Johnson had been in the casts of eight television series. She later reprised her role as Chrissy in The Growing Pains Movie and Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers. In the one season series Phenom, she played the mischievous younger sister of a rising teenage tennis star. She appeared in the 1994 sitcom All-American Girl, which also lasted for only one season. She played DJ's overbearing girlfriend Lisa in the Roseanne episode "The Blaming of the Shrew". During the 1995–96 ABC lineup, she played Gracie Wallace in the sitcom Maybe This Time. She played Alex Marshall in the 2000 comedy What Women Want. In 2008, she became a regular on the drama Dirt as Sharlee Cates. In 2009, Johnson appeared in "Omega", the first-season finale of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.In 2012, she appeared in The Avengers as Beth, the waitress who is saved by Captain America. She was intended to appear in future films as his newest love interest, but that plan was shelved and instead actress Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter character became involved with Rogers. Although her role was minor, the Blu-ray edition of The Avengers contains some deleted scenes that expand her role in the film and further her interactions with Rogers. From 2015 to 2020, Johnson played FBI forensic specialist Patterson in the NBC drama series Blindspot.
As a voice actress, Johnson's earlier roles included Sean in the English dub of The First Snow of Winter, Gretchen Grundler on Disney's Recess, Terra in the second and fifth seasons of Teen Titans, Jinmay on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! and Gwen Tennyson in the Ben 10 franchise. A major voice role came when she provided the voice and motion capture for Ellie in the PlayStation action-adventure game The Last of Us, which was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. She won a video game BAFTA for Best Performer, a VGX Award for Best Voice Actress, and a D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Character Performance for her role in the game. On March 12, 2015, she won another BAFTA for Best Performer for the same role in the game's downloadable content, The Last of Us: Left Behind. In 2015, she voiced Petra the Warrior in Minecraft: Story Mode by Telltale Games and Mojang. In 2016, she voiced Tulip Olsen in the pilot for Infinity Train and reprised the role for the series in 2019, additionally voicing Lake and the Steward.
In 2020, Johnson reprised the role of Ellie in The Last of Us Part II. For her performance, she was nominated for Best Performance at The Game Awards 2020, for Outstanding Achievement in Character at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and for Best Performer in a Leading Role at the 17th British Academy Games Awards. She portrayed Ellie's mother, Anna, in the live-action adaptation of The Last of Us. On her performance in the adaptation, The Daily Beast commented that "with less than 10 minutes of screen time, Johnson gives us one of the best scenes of The Last of Us".
Johnson appeared in several Geek & Sundry shows, including playing occult specialist Morgan on the web series Spooked, as well as the Alhambra and Dead of Winter episodes on the board gaming web series TableTop. In 2015, she began playing Pike Trickfoot on the Dungeons & Dragons actual play show Critical Role; in 2018, she began playing Yasha Nydoorin in the show's second campaign. Critical Role was both the Webby Winner and the People's Voice Winner in the "Games " category at the 2019 Webby Awards; the show was also both a finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019 Shorty Awards. After becoming hugely successful, the Critical Role cast left the Geek & Sundry network in early 2019 and set up their own production company, Critical Role Productions. Soon after, they aimed to raise $750,000 on Kickstarter to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. In November 2019, Amazon Prime Video announced that they had acquired the streaming rights to this animated series, now titled The Legend of Vox Machina; Johnson reprised her role as Pike Trickfoot. In late 2020, she was made president of the Critical Role Foundation, the studio's charity branch. In June 2021, she was added to the cast of Exandria Unlimited, an anthology spinoff of Critical Role. Three months later, she served as gamemaster for The Nautilus Ark, her own one-shot episode on the Critical Role channel. In October 2021, Johnson's Exandria Unlimited character Fearne Calloway returned in Critical Roles third campaign.
Johnson set up a photography company called Infinity Pictures with Mila Shah, her childhood best friend who works as a production assistant and occasional actress; there have been no updates on the company for many years, though it is still registered as active as of 2022. Johnson and Shah also co-hosted a podcast called Wildly Hot & Bothered, which ran for 13 episodes from 2012 to 2014. In 2015, they created and starred in Little Things, a web miniseries on YouTube about two friends living in Los Angeles and their habit of making awkward everyday situations even worse. The series was not released on YouTube until 2018.
Personal life
The first campaign of Critical Role began two years prior to the start of the series as a one-off, simplified Dungeons & Dragons game for Liam O'Brien's birthday. The players enjoyed the game so much that they continued to play it and brought in additional friends, including Johnson, who joined in the second game. After Felicia Day heard about the private home game from Johnson, she approached the group about playing it in a live-streamed format for Geek & Sundry.Johnson enjoys singing and can play the guitar, piano, violin, and cello; she occasionally posted covers of songs on her SoundCloud page until late 2012. Her performance as Ellie in The Last of Us Part II included acoustic guitar covers of "Future Days" by Pearl Jam, "Take On Me" by A-ha, "True Faith" by New Order, and "Through the Valley" by Shawn James. She also joined co-star Troy Baker to perform a cover of Johnny Cash's rendition of "Wayfaring Stranger", which plays over the end credits of the game. She later provided vocals for the Critical Role theme songs "Your Turn to Roll" and "It's Thursday Night".
In 2012, Johnson began dating writer and musician Brian W. Foster, who also went on to host the Critical Role after-show Talks Machina. Johnson was first introduced to Foster by Troy Baker when working on The Last of Us; Foster and Baker were then roommates. The couple announced their engagement in December 2018. In May 2023, it was reported that Johnson had separated from Foster and filed a restraining order against him, citing abuse and threats. All videos and mentions of Foster were wiped from the online profiles of Critical Role. In October 2023, Johnson and six other women filed a lawsuit against Foster that alleged assault, domestic violence, gender violence, sexual battery, stalking, civil rights violations, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1990–1992 | Growing Pains | Chrissy Seaver | Main role | |
| 1992 | Kids Incorporated | Girl in audience | Uncredited; episode: "The Boy of La Mancha" | |
| 1993 | Men Don't Tell | Cindy | Television film | |
| 1993 | The Town Santa Forgot | Granddaughter | Television special | |
| 1993 | Timmy's Special Delivery: A Precious Moments Christmas | Holly, additional voices | Television special | |
| 1993–1994 | Phenom | Mary Margaret Doolan | Main role | |
| 1994 | All-American Girl | Casey Emmerson | Main role | |
| 1995 | Annie: A Royal Adventure! | Annie Warbucks | Television film | |
| 1995 | Roseanne | Lisa | Episode: "The Blaming of the Shrew" | |
| 1995 | What a Cartoon! | Mina | Episode: "Mina and the Count: Interlude with a Vampire" | |
| 1995–1996 | Maybe This Time | Gracie Wallace | Main role | |
| 1996–1999 | Jumanji | Peter Shepherd | 40 episodes | |
| 1997 | Moloney | Kate Moloney | 3 episodes | |
| 1997 | Wings | Rebecca | Episode: "Ms. Write" | |
| 1997–2001 | Recess | Gretchen Grundler | 129 episodes | |
| 1998 | ER | Dana Ellis | 2 episodes | |
| 1998 | Kelly Kelly | Maureen Kelly | Main role | |
| 2000 | The Growing Pains Movie | Chrissy Seaver | Television film | |
| 2001 | What About Joan? | Jody Bradford | Episode: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Joan" | |
| 2002 | Ally McBeal | Serena Feldman | Episode: "Heart and Soul" | |
| 2002 | The Guardian | Betsy Fortunato | Episode: "Sacrifice" | |
| 2002 | Lloyd in Space | Violet | 4 episodes | |
| 2002 | Providence | Daphne Wallace | 3 episodes | |
| 2002 | Roswell | Eileen Burrows | 2 episodes | |
| 2002 | Touched by an Angel | Natalie Tate | Episode: "Bring On the Rain" | |
| 2003–2004 | Married to the Kellys | Shari | 2 episodes | |
| 2004 | Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers | Chrissy Seaver | Television film | |
| 2004–2006 | Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! | Jinmay | 12 episodes | |
| 2004–2006 | Teen Titans | Terra | 7 episodes | |
| 2004–2010 | King of the Hill | Emily, Jamie | 7 episodes | |
| 2005 | The X's | Kimla | ||
| 2006 | Lilo & Stitch: The Series | Gretchen Grundler | Episode: "Lax" | |
| 2007 | Heartland | Rebecca Colton | Episode: "Mother & Child Reunion" | |
| 2007 | Monk | Susie the Maid | Episode: "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service" | |
| 2007, 2014 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Dreama Little, Brothel Girl | 2 episodes | |
| 2008 | Dirt | Sharlee Cates | Recurring role | |
| 2008 | The Mentalist | Clara Tennant | Episode: "Seeing Red" | |
| 2008 | The Middleman | Eleanor Draper | Episode: "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation" | |
| 2008 | Raising the Bar | Elise Denton | Episode: "Hang Time" | |
| 2008–2010 | Ben 10: Alien Force | Gwen Tennyson, additional voices | 45 episodes | |
| 2009 | Cold Case | Graces Stearns | Episode: "The Crossing" | |
| 2009 | Dollhouse | Wendy, Caroline, Hayden Leeds | 2 episodes | |
| 2010 | Funny or Die Presents | Girlfriend | 1 episode | |
| 2010 | Lie to Me | Valerie | Episode: "Beat the Devil" | |
| 2010–2018 | Drunk History | Various | 3 episodes | |
| 2010–2012 | Ben 10: Ultimate Alien | Gwen Tennyson, additional voices | 52 episodes | |
| 2011 | In Plain Sight | Sarah Collins, Sarah Peterschwim | Episode: "Something A-mish" | |
| 2011–2012 | The Killing | Amber Ahmed | Recurring role ; special guest | |
| 2011–2013 | Pound Puppies | Amelia, Toyo, Gina, Giblet, Kid #1 | 6 episodes | |
| 2012 | Drop Dead Diva | Veronica Kramer | Episode: "Road Trip" | |
| 2012 | Private Practice | Kelly | Episode: "The Time Has Come" | |
| 2012–2014 | Ben 10: Omniverse | Gwen Tennyson, additional voices | 21 episodes | |
| 2013 | Masters of Sex | Flora Banks | Episode: "Fallout" | |
| 2013–2019 | Teen Titans Go! | Terra | 6 episodes | |
| 2014 | Garfunkel and Oates | Jane | Episode: "Speechless" | |
| 2015 | Naruto: Shippuden | Shiseru | English dub; 6 episodes | |
| 2015 | Stalker | Stephanie Beekman | Episode: "My Hero" | |
| 2015–2017 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Renet | 6 episodes | |
| 2015–2020 | Blindspot | Patterson | Main role | |
| 2019–2020 | Infinity Train | Tulip Olsen, Mirror Tulip / Lake, Steward | 20 episodes | |
| 2021 | Close Enough | Kristen | Episode: "Where'd You Go, Bridgette?" | |
| 2021 | Family Guy | Lisa | Episode: "Customer of the Week" | |
| 2022–present | The Legend of Vox Machina | Pike Trickfoot | Main role; also executive producer | |
| 2023 | The Last of Us | Anna | Episode: "Look for the Light" | |
| 2025 | The Mighty Nein | Yasha Nydoorin, additional voices | Main role; also executive producer | |
| Purple |