Ashley Park

Ashley Jeein Park, born June 6, 1991, in Glendale, California, is an American actress and musician of Korean descent. She grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is a second cousin of actor Justin H. Min. Park began dance classes at the Oceanside Dance Academy at age three and started piano lessons at age five. Throughout middle and high school she participated in Ann Arbor community kids' theatre, and she attended Interlochen Summer Arts Camp in 2003. At Pioneer High School she was active in both theatre and choir, and she co-founded a women's a cappella group called Soulfege, which placed second at a national competition in 2009.

During her sophomore year of high school, at age fifteen, Park was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and spent eight months hospitalized. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her a wish during this period, and she traveled with her family to New York City, where they attended Broadway productions of A Chorus Line, The Lion King, Spring Awakening, and Wicked. Three months after completing chemotherapy and returning to high school, she was cast as Millie Dillmount in her school's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Park has spoken publicly about how her cancer experience became the foundation of her commitment to performing. She graduated from Pioneer High School in 2009 and went on to earn a BFA in musical theatre from the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theater, and Dance in 2013. During her undergraduate years she co-founded the Michigan Performance Outreach Workshop, a student-run organization that brings performing arts education to public-school students in southeastern Michigan.

Park made her professional theatre debut in 2009 as Yvonne in Music Theatre Wichita's production of Miss Saigon, and she spent the following two summers performing in Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's Benedum Center production of the same show, through which she earned her Equity card. Her Broadway debut came on February 17, 2014, when she joined the ensemble of Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst Theatre, remaining with the production until September 21, 2014. From October 2014 to January 2015, she portrayed Gabrielle in the original U.S. national touring company of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Park returned to Broadway on April 16, 2015, taking on her first leading Broadway role as Tuptim in the 2015 revival of The King and I at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, a production she remained with through its closing on June 26, 2016. She was featured as a principal soloist on the cast recording, for which she received a Grammy Award nomination. In February 2017, she appeared in the Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George, playing Celeste #1 and Theresa alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Annaleigh Ashford, and Ruthie Ann Miles. In the fall of 2017, Park portrayed MwE in the off-Broadway musical KPOP at Ars Nova, a role for which she received Drama Desk and Drama League Award nominations and won a Lucille Lortel Award.

Park originated the role of Gretchen Wieners in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. The production had its world premiere as an out-of-town tryout at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., running from October 31 to December 3, 2017, before beginning Broadway previews on March 12, 2018. The show officially opened at the August Wilson Theatre on April 8, 2018. For her performance, Park received nominations for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, and a Drama League Award. In May 2018, the Actors' Equity Foundation presented her with the Clarence Derwent Award, given to the most promising female and male performers in New York City, alongside Sean Carvajal. Park departed the production on March 10, 2019, and was replaced by Krystina Alabado. She also appeared in the Broadway revival of Grand Horizons. A planned New York City Center Encores! production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, in which Park was set to headline from May 6 to 10, 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2019, Park was cast as Mindy Chen in Netflix's comedy series Emily in Paris, opposite Lily Collins. The series premiered on October 2, 2020, and was renewed for a second season on November 11, 2020. Park's character performed a cover of "La Vie en Rose" in the first season, which became the most downloaded TV song for that week. In October 2020, it was announced she would appear as Kaye Fields in As the Curtain Rises, an original podcast soap opera from the Broadway Podcast Network. On January 1, 2021, she starred as Colette in a benefit concert presentation of Ratatouille the Musical, which streamed on TodayTix and originated as an internet meme on TikTok. In 2021, Park joined the cast of Girls5eva on Peacock, playing Ashley, the fifth member of a female pop group, appearing in flashback across the first two seasons on Peacock and in the third season on Netflix. She starred in Adele Lim's 2023 directorial debut Joy Ride, a comedy following four Asian American women traveling through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers. Also in 2023, she played Naomi in Netflix's dark comedy Beef and Kimber in the third season of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building.