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SHEEN MAGAZINE had an exclusive interview with the emerging actress, director, and producer Ashley Versher, who is featured in the #1 Tyler Perry Netflix movie STRAW.

While most people celebrate birthdays with cake and noise, rising actress Ashley Versher had simpler plans this year, picking up her nephew from the airport. “He’s going off to college, so this time is really special,” she shared. That mix of grounded living and bold ambition mirrors her journey through the arts.

Raised in a creative home with her father being a visual artist. Ashley began playing violin at five years old. “Music was how I first learned to tell stories,” she says. “It wasn’t just notes. It was emotion.” Her inner creativity paired with her keen self-awareness was the link to her destiny.
Acting wasn’t her original goal. “I tried to sign up for a communications class, but it was full, so I took acting instead. Boom.” As she laughs. Her synchronistic path brought her to an acting class which led to a Love & Basketball scene, and then a nudge from a casting director.

She had the ultimate realization and couldn’t shake it. It was safe to say; that she had been bitten by the acting bug. Even with a stable corporate job in healthcare, Ashley felt the pull. “I got offered a promotion on Friday. By Monday, I turned it down and gave my two weeks,” she says. Ashley answered the call for a new life path. From dinner theater in Illinois to taking the leap in New York, She bet on herself.

That bet most definitely paid off because Ashley is featured in a supporting role in Tyler Perry’s Netflix movie STRAW as ‘Tessa‘ a bank teller who finds herself in the middle of the tense plot alongside Taraji P. Henson, Teyana Taylor, Sherri Shepherd, and Glynn Turman.

Working with Taraji, Teyana, and Sherri, it was pure Black girl magic,” she says. “It reminded me to stay rooted and trust the work,” Ashley spoke very highly of the powerhouse cast. “I think every time you work; you’re going to grow and learn.” As she reflects.

A role stirring much conversation. “Some call you a Black Karen,” I mentioned, she laughs. “Others say Tessa is the most realistic.” To Ashley, Tessa is someone responding to fear and trauma. She saw her as a woman trying to survive.

In addition to STRAW, Ashley can currently be seen as one of the stars in the hit Netflix series ‘Beauty in Black,’ where she plays ‘Lena,’ a passionate lawyer who is going after the Beauty in Black empire with a class action lawsuit that claims the beauty brands hair relaxer causes cancer and is killing their clientele. The full season aired on Netflix this past March to record-breaking streams! Other credits include a strong supporting role in Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me…Now: A Love Story on Prime Video, as well as NBC’s “American Auto,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt.

Now, Ashley is busier than ever. She is directing a short film about friendship and sisterhood and serves as an ambassador for ‘Made In Her Image’ a nonprofit uplifting young women and nonbinary creatives of color in media. Ashley grew within the organization, starting as a volunteer in 2021. “Representation isn’t just about being seen, it’s about being supported,” she says.
When asked what drives her, Ashley points to a George Clooney quote: Live an extraordinary life. “That stuck with me. I don’t want comfort, I want purpose.” And from where she’s standing, she’s found it.

Photo Credit:Johnny Marlow