Ashley Michelle French (née Tisdale) was born on July 2, 1985 in Monmouth County, New Jersey to her parents Lisa Morris and Mike Tisdale. She has an older sister, Jennifer Tisdale, who is also an actress and producer. Her father is Christian while her mother is Jewish. Ashley said she was raised with “a little bit of both” religions. At the age of three she met her manager, Bill Perlman, in a New Jersey Mall.

Ashley appeared in more than one hundred television advertisments as a young child. She started appearing “Gypsy: A Musical Fable“, “The Sound of Music” and at the age of eight she was cast as Corette in “Les Misérables“. When she was twelve she sang for then-President Bill Clinton at the White House. She landed her first bigger roles in 1997 in “Smart Guy” and “7th Heaven“. She started modeling for Ford Models and had voice acting roles in “An All Dogs Christmas” and “A Bug’s Life” in 1998 before gaining small roles in “Donnie Darko” and “The Mayor of Oyster Bay“.

In 2005 she joined Disney Channel’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” as Maddie Fitzpatrick before landing her biggest role to date, Sharpay Evans in the “High School Musical” franchise. The first movie was the most successful Disney film of 2006, receiving 7.7 million viewers upon its premiere in January. The soundtrack sold over three million copies in the US alone.

In 2006 she started working on her debut album “Headstrong“, which was released the following year, alongside its singles “Be Good to Me“, “He Said She Said“, “Not Like That” and “Suddenly“. Following the album were a US tour as well as a documentary, “There’s Something About Ashley“.

In 2007 she reprised her role as Sharpay Evans in “High School Musical 2” and started voice acting for Disney’s new animated series “Phineas & Ferb“. She formed her own production company, Blondie Girl Productions, in 2008. Her film “Picture This!” marked the debut as an executive producer and as a lead actress. Ashley returned as Sharpay Evans for the last HSM movie, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year“.

Ashley began working on her second studio album, “Guilty Pleasure“, in 2008 with its release being set in 2009. The album contained two singles, “It’s Alright, It’s OK” and “Crank It Up“, with “Switch” being a promotional single for her movie “Aliens in the Attic” from 2009.

In 2010, Ashley returned to television as Savannah Monroe in the drama series “Hellcats“. She also appeared in adult animated serious such as “Family Guy” and “The Cleveland Show“. In 2010, Disney Channel announced a spin-off HSM movie focusing on Sharpay Evans and her journey in New York after leaving East High School. “Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure” premiere on Disney Channel in August 2011. During 2012 she was seen appearing in television shows such as “Raising Hope” and “Sons of Anarchy“. She served as an executive producer of the reality-television series “Miss Advised“.

Ashley was part of documentary, focusing on her friendship with Vanessa Hudgens, called “The Inner Circle” in 2013. The same year she appeared as Jody Sanders in “Scary Movie V“. She had a recurring role in ABC’s sitcom “Super Fun Night” and she starred in CBS’s “The Crazy Ones” alongside Robin Williams. She served as a producer on Disney Channel’s “Cloud 9” and ABC’s “Young & Hungry“, where she also had a guest appearance in. Another voice role Ashley was cast in was Sabrina Spellman in the animated series “Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch“.

In December 2013 Ashley returned to music with a special project dedicated to her late grandfather called “You’re Always Here“. The song was written and produced alongside her husband Christopher French. The following year she appearaed in the comedy film “Amateur Night” and in the TBS’s comedy series “Clipped“.

Ashley and her husband started working on her third studio album in 2016, while also uploading their Music Sessions to Ashley’s YouTube, where the couple (and some guests) covered songs. In May 2019, Ashley released her third studio album “Symptoms“, with its singles “Voices in My Head” and “Love Me & Let Me Go“. A year later she released a single called “Lemons“. In 2020, she was announced as a panelist in “The Masked Dancer“, alongside Ken Jeong, Paula Abdul and Brian Austin Green. She gave her video game debut in 2021, where she was cast as main playable character in “The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes“.

Besided acting and singing Ashley has always been the producer of Lindt’s HELLO chocolates online series “It Started with HELLO”. She also became the creative director of the clothing brand Signorelli. Ashley launched her makeup line Illuminate by Ashley Tisdale through BH Cosmetics in 2016.