Sasha Pieterse

Sasha Pieterse Sheaffer (born February 17, 1996 ) is a South African-born American actress, singer and songwriter.

Pieterse is perhaps best-known for her role as Alison DiLaurentis in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars and its spin-off Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.

Pieterse was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on February 17, 1996, to Sean and Zizi.

Moving to the United States in 2001, she was raised in Las Vegas, before moving to Los Angeles.

She became accustomed to a career in entertainment at an early age, as her parents were a professional acrobatic dance team who performed internationally.

Pieterse was homeschooled and graduated at 14.

At four years old, Pieterse began modeling and appearing in commercials.

She appeared in an advertisement for Wenner Bread Products at five years old, and later appeared on a national billboard for hair salon franchise SuperCuts and modeled for Macy's Passport fashion show.

At six years old, Pieterse got her start in television, co-starring in 2002 as Buffy on The WB's remake of the CBS sitcom Family Affair.

She guest starred in the Stargate SG-1 episode “Grace” with Amanda Tapping as a little girl named Grace.

In 2005, she appeared on an episode of House titled "Autopsy", portraying Andie, a young girl with terminal cancer.

That same year, she made her film debut in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D as Marissa, the Ice Princess, and also appeared as Millie Rose for two episodes of the short-lived TNT series Wanted, alongside her former Family Affair co-star, Gary Cole.

Pieterse appeared in the 2007 film Good Luck Chuck, playing a young goth girl who places a curse on the titular character.

She played the younger version of Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in the 2007 film The Air I Breathe, along with such co-stars as Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, and Emile Hirsch.

She also played a leading character in the Hallmark original film Claire, also released in 2007.

Pieterse was 13 years old in late 2009, when she was cast in the Freeform teen drama television series Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017) as Alison DiLaurentis, the former "queen bee" of her high school clique.

She had a regular role in the series from the first four seasons, until later became a main role in the fifth season, with one of the five girls.

Since its debut, the series has received mixed reviews from television critics, but remained a success for Freeform, garnering a large fandom.

Other roles Pieterse has had include a 2009 appearance in Without a Trace, and a recurring role as Amanda Strazzulla, an abandoned daughter, in Heroes.

Upon the success of Pretty Little Liars, Pieterse earned a supporting role as Amy Loubalu in the 2011 Disney Channel film Geek Charming.

In 2011, she appeared as Amy Loubalu in the Disney Channel Original Movie Geek Charming, and also as a teenage girl in the film X-Men: First Class.

More recently, Pieterse has appeared in the film G.B.F. and in an episode of Hawaii Five-0 as a terrorist pupil named Dawn Hatfield.

In 2013, Pieterse starred in the teen comedy film G.B.F..

Her debut single "This Country is Bad Ass" was released on April 12, 2013.

Pieterse described the patriotism behind the song: "I just love this country so much and I would never have been able to be where I am if I wasn't in America, so we decided to come up with this [track]."

Her second single, "R.P.M", was released on June 13, 2013.

Pieterse's third single, "I Can't Fix You", was released on July 12, 2013.

On December 10, 2013, she released her fourth single "No", an upbeat track about "standing strong in your convictions" and saying no when an unfaithful, lying ex-boyfriend asks for a second chance.

Pieterse appeared in numerous magazines, including on the covers of BELLO 's "Young Hollywood" issue (December 2014), TeenProm (2015 issue), Seventeen (August 2016), Social Life (August 2019).

Pieterse played Japonica Fenway, a young lady involved with cocaine, in the film Inherent Vice (2014), based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon.

In 2017, Pieterse participated in the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars and finished in 10th place.

In September 2017, Pieterse was announced as one of the celebrities to compete on the Dancing with the Stars – season 25.

She was paired with professional dancer Gleb Savchenko.

They were the 4th couple eliminated, on October 16, 2017, finishing in 10th place.

On August 16, 2021, Deadline announced that Pieterse has been cast in Netflix's film adaptation of Annie Barrows’ New York Times bestselling book series Ivy + Bean alongside Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Lynch and Nia Vardalos.

Pieterse describes her music as "country with southern rock".

Pieterse reprised her role as Alison, in the spin-off series titled Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists on Freeform in 2019.

On Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, she portrayed the grown-up version of Alison who is working as a teaching assistant at Beacon Heights University.

Pieterse's cookbook Sasha in Good Taste: Recipes for Bites, Feasts, Sips & Celebrations was published by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins on October 8, 2019.

In the book Pieterse shares cooking and baking recipes, tips for inexpensive party planning, do it yourself projects and ideas for desserts.