DIRECTING BIOGRAPHY

Ashley Williams directed, wrote, produced, and starred in MEATS, a short film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was given the Creative Coalition Spotlight Award. The film sold to Showtime as part of a series called SPOTLIGHTS. And it was selected by Short Of The Week. The film was shot by Roman Vasyanov (DP for SUICIDE SQUAD and FURY), sound mixed by Academy-Award-nominee Steve Boeddeker (BLACK PANTHER) at Skywalker Sound, and has played 30+ film festivals all around the world. It was also selected as one of six films to travel the world on the Sundance Institute Short Film Tour, streaming rights sold to Topic Studios, and France 2 bought it for French television.

Ashley’s second feature film was A NASHVILLE COUNTRY CHRISTMAS for Paramount Network / Paramount+ / CBS Television Studios, which shot in Nashville, Tennessee. The movie stars country music legend Tanya Tucker, Ana Ortiz, and Oscar-winner Keith Carradine.

She made her feature directorial debut with CIRCLE OF DECEPTION for Lifetime/A&E based on an Ann Rule true-crime book. She also participated in their “BROADER FOCUS” women’s directing initiative.

She has a deal in place to direct episodes for Apple TV+ and will direct multiple movies at The Hallmark Channel, including one she’s also writing called THE HIKES. Ashley has shadowed directors Seth Gordon (GOOD DOCTOR), Bonnie Hunt (AMBER BROWN), Sean McNamara (EVEN STEVENS), and Michael Nankin — and often a “prep-to-post” shadow). Ashley has shot second unit several times. Her other mentors and directing resources include Pamela Fryman (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER), Michael Medico (GREY’S ANATOMY), Academy-Award-nominee J.C. Chandor (TRIPLE FRONTIER), Academy-Award-winner Sian Heder (CODA), showrunner Erin Cardillo (VIRGIN RIVER), director Bethany Rooney (BULL), Hallmark’s Lisa Hamilton-Daly, and Lifetime/A&E’s Tanya Lopez, among many others.

For Hallmark, Ashley is producing a slate of diverse movies, and is spearheading a new women’s directing initiative there. She created a “reciprocal shadow program” from the ground up called “MAKE HER MARK” to diversify the directing pool. Ashley was featured in Forbes magazine for the program. For Hallmark, she produced/starred in LOVE ON A LIMB, as well as produced/starred in a pair of interconnected movies called SISTER SWAP, opposite her real sister, actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley.

Williams wrote an entire season of television on spec, based on the memoir of a female butcher named Camas Davis called KILLING IT. CAA is repping the fully-packaged project. Ashley will co-direct the series with her mentor, Emmy-nominee Pam Fryman.

She is also developing a multi-cam series with crator Marisa Coughlin and her sister, Kimberly, to be directed by Fryman. And Williams wrote, produced, and stars in the film festival short film STUD BOOB for director Shaina Feinberg.

A versatile actress in film, television, and theatre, Ashley’s work includes Apple TV+ series AMBER BROWN which she a for creator/director Bonnie Hunt. She’s acted on 200+ episodes of television, a dozen+ tv pilots, and many movies. She starred in the THE JIM GAFFIGAN SHOW on Comedy Central, appeared alongside Jessica Chastain and Oscar Issac in A24’s critically-lauded film A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, and also starred in SOMETHING BORROWED with Kate Hudson and John Krasinski for Warner Bros. Other credits include: J.C. Chandor’s Academy-Award-nominated MARGIN CALL as well as SEQUIN RAZE, a short film by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro that won South By Southwest and became the tv series UNREAL.

Ashley had a longtime recurring role on CBS’s HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, as Victoria, “the baker that got away.” She was so popular on the show that she won a poll as who fans most wanted to see the as “the mother.” As a teenager Ashley played Meg Ryan's daughter, Dani Andropolous, on AS THE WORLD TURNS. She starred with Mark Feuerstein on the NBC series GOOD MORNING MIAMI, in Lifetime’s MONTANA SKY with John Corbett, and in the two SNOW movies with Tom Cavanagh. Other credits include recurring roles on Holly Hunter’s TNT series SAVING GRACE, SyFy’s WAREHOUSE 13, Lifetime’s SIDE ORDER OF LIFE, and Showtime’s HUFF, as well as roles on THE GOOD DOCTOR, FBI, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE, CSI, MONK, THE MENTALIST, THE GOOD WIFE, PSYCH, LAW & ORDER: SVU, and the final season of HBO’s GIRLS, to name a few. She’s also starred in over a dozen Hallmark movies and many others for Lifetime.

Born in Westchester, New York, Ashley studied at Boston University and RADA in London. She was a member of the acting company at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her first job out of drama school was understudying both Rachel Weisz and Gretchen Mol in the Off-Broadway play THE SHAPE OF THINGS, written and directed by Neil LaBute. During the run, Ashley performed both roles opposite Paul Rudd. She starred with Wendie Malick in Off-Broadway’s BURLEIGH GRIMES and starred on Broadway with Tom Skerritt in A TIME TO KILL, based on John Grisham’s novel.

A writer (and daughter of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist), Williams has published several essays and articles: about her miscarriage, about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, about parenting, and about filmmaking for People and Medium and Women In Hollywood. Williams is also a former birth doula, supporting mothers through childbirth. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, producer Neal Dodson, and their two young sons.