Born:
August 10, 1969
in
Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Best Known For:
Playing Maggie in Extras.
Early-life:
Ashley Jensen was born in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on August 10, 1969, and raised by her mother Margaret. She claims to have known from an early age that she wanted to be an actress, and enjoyed dressing up as a child. Jensen later joined London's National Youth Theatre before taking a diploma in speech and drama at Edinburgh's Queen Margaret College. After graduating, she worked with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and the Tron and the Traverse theatres in Edinburgh.
Career:
Jensen's first TV role was in a Screen One film called Dreaming, which starred Billy Connolly. In the early 1990s, she appeared in shows such as Tickets for the Zoo, Down Among the Big Boys, May to December, Rab C Nesbitt and Roughnecks. A more prominent role came when she was cast as Angie Raeburn in Two Thousand Acres of Sky, but she reached a huge audience as Maggie Jacobs in BBC sitcom Extras. The actress has scooped a number of awards for playing the unlucky-in-love singleton, including a coveted Rose d'Or. She also starred with Patrick Stewart in ITV drama Eleventh Hour, and became well known in America thanks to her role as Christina in Ugly Betty. More recent projects include short-lived American sitcom Accidentally on Purpose, BBC comedy Nativity, ITV drama The Reckoning and providing voiceovers for animated films Gnomeo and Juliet, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
Quote:
"I know what I look like. I'm not a babe who's automatically going to be the leading-lady type. I think I would always be cast as the friend."
Trivia:
Jensen married actor Terence Beesley in 2007.