Ashleigh was born in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia. She grew up on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. She was always a natural performer as a child and decided she wanted to pursue acting when she found her love for theater during her schooling years. After high school, she was accepted into the American Musical and Dramatic Arts (AMDA) school in New York and Los Angeles on a scholarship to study acting for film. She devoted herself to her craft by landing lead roles in theater projects around her hometown, one of which was a starring role in the David Williamson comedy, Managing Carmen....
