Ashlie Atkinson

Ashlie Atkinson, born Ashley Elizabeth Atkinson on August 6, 1977, in Little Rock, Arkansas, is an American character actress whose work spans theater, film, and television. Her family has deep roots in Arkansas across multiple generations, and her parents worked in medicine, her father as a doctor and her mother as a nurse. Atkinson graduated from Pulaski Academy in Little Rock in 1995 and initially enrolled at Barnard College of Columbia University for three semesters before returning to Arkansas in 1996. She ultimately completed her undergraduate education at Hendrix College, an institution she had first encountered through the Arkansas Governor's School summer drama program, earning a degree in theater arts in 2001. After relocating back to New York City at age 24, she graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in 2003, where she trained in the Meisner technique.

Her professional career gained early momentum when director Jace Alexander saw her perform in a Neighborhood Playhouse showcase, leading to a 2004 guest appearance on Law & Order and a six-episode arc on Denis Leary's Rescue Me. That same year, Atkinson appeared in the music video for the Kings of Leon song "Four Kicks" from their album Aha Shake Heartbreak. Her stage career accelerated significantly in 2004 when she originated the role of Helen, a plus-size librarian, in Neil LaBute's off-Broadway play Fat Pig at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The performance earned her a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Debut in 2005, along with nominations for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.

Also in 2005, Atkinson appeared in The 24 Hour Plays as Winnie, as well as in Making Marilyn, portraying Marilyn Monroe for the Bridge Theatre Company at Theatre 54, and in Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo as Midge at Second Stage Theatre. Her Broadway career continued in 2007 with a revival of Terrence McNally's The Ritz at the Roundabout Theatre, in which she played Vivian Proclo. That same year she also made an appearance on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, having previously appeared on the original Law & Order in 2005. In 2011, she completed appearances on both Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, bringing her total appearances across the franchise to three separate series.

Her theater work continued beyond Broadway with productions including William Shakespeare's As You Like It and The Tempest with The Bridge Project in 2010, Karen Zacarías's The Book Club Play at Arena Stage in 2011, and Laura Jacqmin's January Joiner: A Weight Loss Horror Comedy at Long Wharf Theatre in 2013. Additional stage credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Rubicon Theatre Company in 2014, Mark Gerrard's Steve at the Pershing Square Signature Center in 2015, Jonathan Tolins's The Forgotten Woman at Bay Street Theater in 2016, and Aditi Kapil's Imogen Says Nothing at Yale Rep in 2017.

On screen, Atkinson built a substantial body of work across film and television. She appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street as Rochelle Applebaum and had roles in television series including Boardwalk Empire in 2012, where she played Gianconda Rosetti, and a 2012 episode of 30 Rock. She also appeared in the American remake of Gavin and Stacey, titled Us & Them, as Nessa across 2013 and 2014, and in the four-episode arc of F to 7th during the same period. Her collaboration with director Spike Lee began with the 2006 Denzel Washington film Inside Man and extended to sound work on Lee's 2008 film Miracle at St. Anna, before she took on the role of Connie Kendrickson in Lee's Academy Award-winning 2018 film BlacKkKlansman. Also in 2018, she joined the cast of the Syfy series Happy! as Internal Affairs Detective Ace, appearing in four episodes across 2018 and 2019, and had a recurring role on One Dollar.

In 2019, Atkinson portrayed Mrs. Fosse in the miniseries Fosse/Verdon, appeared in two episodes of the thriller Emergence, and played a trucker in the Netflix film Juanita opposite Alfre Woodard. That same year she joined the fourth and final season of Mr. Robot as Janice. Since 2022, she has played social doyenne Mamie Fish in HBO's The Gilded Age, a role for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination in 2023 as part of the ensemble cast. She also appeared as Amanda in And Just Like That.

Beyond acting, Atkinson voiced the character Lenni in the 2016 Ubisoft video game Watch Dogs 2 and starred as Dakota "Dak" Prentiss in the 2017 audio drama podcast Steal the Stars, a 14-episode noir science fiction thriller about two government employees guarding a crashed UFO. In 2006, she created a fictional character called Chunky Pam, which appeared in three videos including a Christmas promotion for MTV and a Valentine's Day promotion. Atkinson is also a former member of the Gotham Girls roller derby team, a five-time world champion organization, where she skated under the name Margaret Thrasher (Prime Minister of Your Demise), though she has since retired from the sport. In 2014, Hendrix College recognized her with its Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Atkinson married filmmaker and musician Leon Chase in 2015 at the White Water Tavern, an Arkansas music venue, and the couple resides in Brooklyn.