Annaleigh Ashford

Lady Starlight invited Ashford to dance at her 1970s glitter rock party "Lady Starlight's English Disco" and christened her Hollywood Starr.

Annaleigh Amanda Ashford (née Swanson; born June 25, 1985) is an American actress, singer, and dancer.

Ashford was born in Denver on June 25, 1985, the daughter of Holli Swanson, an elementary school gym teacher, and Chris Swanson, a small-business owner.

She began practicing dance at Kit Andrée's Dance and Performing Arts Center in the second grade.

She acted and sang in numerous performances and competitions in her hometown.

Ashford's professional career began at age nine in Denver, when she was cast as Tina Denmark, the lead in the musical Ruthless!.

At fourteen, she was profiled as "The Teen to Watch" by the Rocky Mountain News.

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 Anything Goes as Reno Sweeney.

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 Rosa Bud in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Emma in Tell Me on a Sunday.

In 2004, while hanging around in New York City's Lower East Side club scene, Ashford met nightlife personality Lady Starlight, a local rock DJ and performance artist.

Ashford performed in Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Feeling Electric as Natalie at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005.

Soon after graduating from college, Ashford got her big break performing as one of Glinda's friends, Pfanne, and understudying the role of Glinda on the First National Tour of Wicked.

She joined the cast in December 2005 and left in September 2006.

She then originated the role of Margot in Legally Blonde: The Musical, her Broadway debut.

She understudied the lead role of Elle Woods, but only played it once.

She was featured on the original cast recording and appeared in the MTV televised airing.

Her early roles on Broadway include in the musicals Wicked (2007), Legally Blonde (2007), and Hair (2010).

Ashford left the show in September 2007.

In July 2007, she worked on a musical adaptation of Catch Me If You Can as Brenda Strong.

She previously did a staged reading for the project under the Tony Award-winning director of Hairspray, Jack O'Brien.

Ashford then returned to Wicked, this time playing the lead role of Glinda in the Broadway production.

She replaced Kendra Kassebaum on October 9, 2007.

She departed the company on May 11, 2008, when Kassebaum returned to the role, and transferred to the Chicago production, replacing Kate Fahrner as Glinda on June 3, 2008.

In 2008, she made her film debut with a small part in Sex and the City: The Movie playing a "spoiled label queen".

That same year she also appeared in the Jonathan Demme film Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway.

Ashford played a counter girl.

In August 2008, Ashford played Wednesday Addams in the staged reading for musical adaptation of The Addams Family with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, but she was later replaced by Krysta Rodriguez.

Other readings include Bring It On: The Musical as Campbell, The Black Suits, C'mon Get Happy, Pal Joey, and a gender-bent version of Stephen Sondheim's Company.

She played her final performance as Glinda on January 25, 2009, when the Chicago production closed.

In 2009, it was announced that Ashford would be one of the principal characters and singers in the new vaudeville styled Cirque du Soleil show, Banana Shpeel.

However, it was later announced that Ashford and her colleague Michael Longoria were no longer in the cast of the show.

Publicists announced that it was a creative decision to remove large portions of dialogue from the show, therefore making their characters non-existent.

Her other Tony-nominated roles include Lauren in Kinky Boots (2013) and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023).

Ashford's notable film and television credits include Showtime period drama Masters of Sex (2013-2016), the Netflix miniseries Unbelievable (2019), the HBO film Bad Education (2019), the FX drama Impeachment: American Crime Story (2021) and the CBS sitcom B Positive (2020–2022).

She earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Irene in the Hulu limited series Welcome to Chippendales (2022).

She received her first Grammy nomination in the category Best Musical Theater Album for the 2023 Broadway revival cast recording of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

She received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for playing Essie Carmichael in You Can't Take It With You (2014–2015).

She released her debut album Lost in the Stars: Live at 54 Below in 2015.

She also starred in the Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George (2017).