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Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence portraying Maddie Fitzpatrick in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the female antagonist Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical film series. The High School Musical series became a successful franchise which included two television films, a feature film, a spin-off, and numerous soundtrack albums. The popularity earned by Tisdale in High School Musical led her to sign a solo record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2006 that allowed her to release two studio albums, Headstrong (2007) and Guilty Pleasure (2009).
Tisdale has a voice role as Candace Flynn in Disney Channel's cartoon show Phineas & Ferb. She also owns a production company named Blondie Girl Production and has worked as an executive producer in a number of movies and television shows that includes the ABC Family television film Picture This and the Bravo's 2012 unscripted series Miss Advised. During 2009 and 2010, Tisdale had her first major broadcast role in The CW's television series Hellcats as Savannah Monroe, a cheerleader. She also played Jody Sanders, the leading character in Scary Movie 5, the fourth sequel to the 2000 movie which was released in 2013.
Tisdale is one of the producers and co-creator of the DCOM, Cloud 9.
Early life[]
Tisdale was born in West Deal, New Jersey, on July 2, 1985, to Lisa (née Morris) and Mike Tisdale, the manager of a construction company. Her elder sister, Jennifer Tisdale, is also an actress. Through her maternal grandfather, Tisdale is related to businessman Ron Popeil. She grew up in Ocean Township. She is Jewish on her mother's side and was raised with "a little bit of both" of her parents' religions.
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"She had a head full of beautiful curly hair, huge eyes and when she looked at me she made the hugest of smiles. -Bill Perlman, Asbury Park Press |
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At the age of three, Tisdale met her manager, Bill Perlman, at a New Jersey mall. He sent her to numerous auditions for commercials, resulting in her placement in more than 100 national network TV ads as a kid. She began her theatrical career by appearing in Gypsy: A Musical Fable andSound of Music at Monmouth County's Jewish Community Center.
At the age of eight, she was cast to play the part of Cosette in a national touring production of the musical Les Misérables. "When I was little, I saw the play Les Misérables on Broadway, I thought it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen so I went to my manager and told him I wanted to be in it", said Tisdale in an interview to Newsday in 2007. She also claims to have had only a single singing lesson before landing the role. Tisdale toured for two years on Les Misérables before landing a role in an international touring production of Annie in Korea. At the age of twelve, Tisdale sang at the White House for President Bill Clinton.
Career[]
1997–2003: Career beginning and minor roles[]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tisdale had minor roles in several television shows such as The Hughleys, Smart Guy, 7th Heaven, Boston Public and Bette and in the feature films A Bug's Life and Donnie Darko. During this time, she simultaneously worked as a Ford Model. For her role in Boston Public, she received a 2000 Young Artist Award nomination for "Best Guest Performance In a TV drama".
2004–06: High School Musical and breakthrough success[]
In 2004, she was cast as the teenage candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which premiered in March 2005 and ended in 2008. She later won her first award at the UK Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for "Best TV Actress", due to her performance as Fitzpatrick.
Although the producers of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical did not initially consider her because of her "good-girl image" on The Suite Life, Tisdale was eventually cast as the popular, narcissistic high school student Sharpay Evans in the 2006 film. High School Musical became Disney Channel's most-watched movie that year, with 7.7 million viewers in its US premiere broadcast. The soundtrack, in which Tisdale lent her vocals for several songs, became the top-selling album in the United States that year. Tisdale became the first female artist to debut with two songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "What I've Been Looking For" and "Bop to the Top", both tracks from the film's soundtrack. Due to the popularity earned by Tisdale through her performance in High School Musical, Warner Bros. Records signed her for a recording contract in July 2006 and she started working on her debut album.
2007–09: Solo music career and continued success[]
Tisdale performing at the opening of the first Microsoft Store in Scottsdale, Arizona, in October 2009.
Headstrong is Tisdale's US Gold-certified debut album, released in February 2007 via Warner Bros, which debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, with 64,000 copies sold in that week. "Be Good to Me" was released as the album's first single in the December 2006 and? "He Said She Said" The single peaked at 58 in the United States, 21 in Austria, 17 in Germany, and 62 in Canada. It was later certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 500,000 copies. In 2008, "Not Like That" and "Suddenly" were released as singles in a selective number of countries that did not include North America. A music DVD entitled There's Something About Ashley followed the release of her debut album, with a three-song trilogy comprising music videos and a documentary about the creation of Headstrong. The album was voted as the sixth-best album of 2007 by the readers of Billboard.
The success of the first High School Musical film led Tisdale to reprise the role in the 2007 sequel High School Musical 2. She lent vocals for several tracks in the film's soundtrack and her performance in High School Musical 2 was critically acclaimed by many media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter. Even more successful than the first film, High School Musical 2 became the most-watched cable-television movie, receiving 17 million viewers on its premiere night. Also in 2007, Tisdale was given the voice role of Candace Flynn, the series' secondary antagonist, in Phineas and Ferb, which became television's most-watched animated series among kids and tweens and had very positive reviews.
As a producer, Tisdale formed her own production company in 2008 and named it Blondie Girl Productions. The 2008 ABC Family Original Movie Picture This marked Tisdale's debut as an executive producer and also in a leading role, in which she played Mandy Gilbert, an unpopular and bullied teenager. The film captured 4.3 million total viewers in its debut night.
Tisdale reprised her role as Sharpay Evans in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures feature film High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Her performance in the film earned her an MTV Movie Award for "Breakthrough Performance Female" in 2009. and acclaim by critics including Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who labeled her one of the film's breakout stars and said her portrayal of Evans makes "narcissism a goofy, bedazzled pleasure", and Mark Kermode, who said Tisdale is 2008's "best-supporting actress". High School Musical 3 earned $42 million in its domestic opening weekend, which became the biggest opening for a musical film.
Her second studio album, Guilty Pleasure, was released in 2009. Described by Tisdale as a "rocker and edgier" album, it generated mixed reviews, with a 54% rating on Metacritic, and Billboardclaimed the album "doesn't give the singer room to comfortably let loose". Guilty Pleasure debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies in its first week, archiving a low commercial performance in comparison with her debut album. The song "It's Alright, It's OK" was released as the album's lead single in April in airplay and digital formats and a second single, "Crank It Up", was later released in October. During an interview with Piper Reese from Piper's Picks TV, in April 2013, Ashley mentioned that she may soon head back into the recording studio for work on new music.
Tisdale starred in the 2009 20th Century Fox family feature film Aliens in the Attic as Bethany Pearson, the elder sister of the family and although she is credited as one of the main characters, The New York Times said Tisdale "spends much of the film off-screen". The film was a minor success in the box office, grossing $60 million worldwide.
Gallery[]
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