Ashley Johnson

Ashley Suzanne Johnson (born August 9, 1983) is an American actress.

Ashley Suzanne Johnson was born in Camarillo, California, on August 9, 1983, the daughter of former test pilot Nancy (née Spruiell) and exploration ship captain Cliff Johnson.

She is of Norwegian descent.

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 and 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.

She became known as a child actress for her role as Chrissy Seaver on the sitcom Growing Pains (1990–1992).

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 (1993–94), 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 also voiced animated television characters Gretchen Grundler on Recess (1997–2001), Terra on Teen Titans (2004–2006) and Teen Titans Go! (2013–present), Jinmay on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (2004–2006), Gwen Tennyson in the Ben 10 franchise (2008–2014), Renet Tilley on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Shiseru on Naruto: Shippuden (2015), and Tulip Olsen and Lake on Infinity Train (2019–2020), as well as the video game characters Gortys in Tales from the Borderlands (2014) and Petra in Minecraft: Story Mode (2015–2016) and its sequel (2017).

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 becoming 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.

She has appeared in films such as What Women Want (2000), The Help (2011), and Much Ado About Nothing (2012), and is a cast member on the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role (2015–present).

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.

As an adult, her television roles include Amber Ahmed on The Killing (2011–2012) and Patterson on Blindspot (2015–2020).

In 2012, she appeared in The Avengers (also directed by Whedon) as Beth, the waitress who is saved by Captain America.

She was intended to appear in future films as his newest love interest (as implied in a brief scene in the film), 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.

As a voice actress, Johnson is known for providing the voice and motion capture of Ellie in The Last of Us (2013), The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), and The Last of Us Part II (2020).

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 on Ben 10: Alien Force and future versions of 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.

She became the president of the show's charity branch, the Critical Role Foundation, upon its launch in 2020.

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.