Ashley Scott on AllMovie

Sporting a Louisiana drawl and an all-American look, Ashley Scott took a fantastic gamble in the early '90s: at only 15 years old, she dropped out of secondary school, high-tailed it to New York, and roomed with several friends while seeking work on the side as a fashion model on the catalogue circuit. The risk paid off when Scott did indeed land a contract with a prestigious agency. Around seven years later, the up-and-coming superstar moved to the City of Angels and transitioned, seemingly without effort, to film roles. She debuted cinematically with a bit part in Steven Spielberg's well-received fantasy A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and the exposure generated by that turn led to a regular role as Asha Copeland during the second season of the James Cameron-produced action series Dark Angel. When that show was canceled at the end of the season, Scott bounced back with another regular TV role, that of Helena Kyle (aka the Huntress) on the WB superhero series Birds of Prey (2002), but that series also folded rather quickly.

Scott returned to films in 2003, and -- perhaps typecast for a brief period of time thanks to her Dark Angel/Birds of Prey work -- contented herself with a number of big-screen action and adventure roles in A-list features. These included S.W.A.T. (2003), Lost (2004), Walking Tall (2004), and Into the Blue (2005). In the process, Scott -- per the standard Hollywood progression -- ascended gradually to higher and higher billing. Back on the small screen, Scott took on a regular role on the cult series Jericho as Emily Sullivan. In 2007, she appeared in a small part in the action thriller The Kingdom. The next year, Scott began to stray from familiar genres with the adventure comedy Strange Wilderness, directed by Fred Wolf. As produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, the picture concerns a couple of animal nuts from a wildlife TV series who attempt to boost the show's ratings by journeying into exotic regions to find Bigfoot.