Ashley Roberts
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Roberts in 2018
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| Born | Ashley Allyn Roberts (1981-09-14) September 14, 1981 (age 42)
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
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| Citizenship |
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| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2001–present |
| Musical career | |
| Genres |
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| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Labels |
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| Formerly of | The Pussycat Dolls |
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Musical artist
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Ashley Allyn Roberts (born September 14, 1981)[1] is an American singer, dancer, and media personality. She is a former member of the pop group The Pussycat Dolls (2003–2010, 2019–2021), who sold over 55 million records worldwide, becoming one of the world's best-selling female groups of all time.[2][3][4] Roberts also had a brief career as a solo singer when she released the album Butterfly Effect (2014).
Roberts has presented various television shows, including Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (2013–2016), the Emmy-nominated 1st Look (2016–2018), The Real Dirty Dancing UK (2022), and Dance Monsters (2022–present).[5] She has also appeared on British reality television shows, including I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2012), Dancing on Ice (2013–2014) which she served as a judge, The Jump (2015), and Strictly Come Dancing (2018).
In 2019, Roberts became the showbiz correspondent for the national Heart Breakfast radio show. Since 2022, she has been a presenter for Heart 00s, a spin-off from the Heart radio network.[6][7]
Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Shadow Mountain High School. She is the daughter of Pat Roberts, the former drummer of the Mamas & the Papas, and Peggy Lorraine, a Pilates instructor. She began dancing at the age of three and singing at eight. Roberts' hair was brunette during her teenage years.[8]
In 2001 Roberts moved to Los Angeles to study modern dance and appeared in various television commercials and music videos such as Counting Crows "Accidentally in Love", Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up", Jane's Addiction's "True Nature", Aaron Carter's "Oh Aaron" and "Not Too Young, Not Too Old" and Pink's "Trouble".[9] In 2003, Robin Antin saw her work in music videos and asked Roberts to join the Pussycat Dolls, along with Nicole Scherzinger, Melody Thornton, Carmit Bachar, Kimberly Wyatt and Jessica Sutta.[10] The group achieved worldwide success with the singles "Don't Cha", "Stickwitu", "Buttons", and their multi-platinum debut album PCD (2005). During that time, Roberts also starred the dance film Make It Happen.[11] The group's second and final studio album Doll Domination (2008) contains hit singles "When I Grow Up", "I Hate This Part" and "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)".[12]
Despite their commercial success, the group was plagued by internal conflict due to the emphasis on Scherzinger and the subordinate treatment of the other members.[13] In February 2010, for these reasons, Roberts, Wyatt, Sutta, and Thornton had announced their departures from The Pussycat Dolls and the group disbanded.[14]
On September 28, 2010, Roberts released a solo promotional single, a cover of Percy Faith's 1959 hit single "A Summer Place".[15] Afterwards, Roberts took a two-year hiatus from her artistic career to follow guru Mata Amritanandamayi on spiritual retreats.[16] In 2012 she signed a record deal with independent label Cherry Red Records and released "Yesterday" as her debut solo single.[17] In November she competed in the British reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, airing on ITV, finishing as runner-up.[18] From 2013 to 2014 Roberts was judge of dance figure skating series Dancing on Ice.[19] In 2013 Roberts stabilized as television presenter, debuting in the variety show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway from 2013 to 2016. In 2014 Roberts also presented WWE Legends' House.[18]
That year, Roberts signed with Metropolis London and released her debut solo album, Butterfly Effect, on September 1, 2014, only in UK.[20] The album served two singles: "Woman Up" and "Clockwork", which reached number 175 in UK and 18 in UK Indie Charts.[21][22] In 2016 she left Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and signed with NBC to present the travel and lifestyle program 1st Look, from 2016 to 2018.[18] The work was nominated for Emmy Awards as Best Travel and Adventure Program.[23] In 2018 Roberts competed in BBC dance show Strictly Come Dancing, in the United Kingdom, and finished as a finalist.[24] In 2019, Roberts became the showbiz correspondent of the Heart Breakfast, Heart Radio show hosted by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden.[25] That following month, she made her West End debut, portraying Dawn, in the musical, Waitress.[26]
On November 29, 2019, The Pussycat Dolls confirmed their comeback and, on February 7, 2020, they released a new single, "React", with a live performance on the finale of The X Factor: Celebrity.[27][28][29] They announced a 36-date world tour, but plans were canceled due the worsening situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the group ended the reunion in 2021.[30]
In 2020 she appeared in Celebrity Gogglebox, a British docu-series about a groups of people watching and reacting to television programming during the week.[26] In 2022 she presented the British reality show The Real Dirty Dancing UK.[31] Since 2022 she presents the Netflix dance show Dance Monsters and Heart Radio show Heart 00's.[32][33]
Roberts has launched her first line of lingerie designed for the beach in Sydney, Australia.[34][35] In 2016, Roberts designed a women's shoe collection for spring/summer 2017 called ALLYN, after her middle name.[36]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 90210 | Penny | Episode: "Into the Wild" |
| Dance Your Ass Off | Guest judge | Episode: "Week 4" | |
| 2012 | I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! | Contestant | Series 12 |
| 2013–2014 | Dancing on Ice | Judge | Series 8–9 |
| 2013–2016;2024 | Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway | Presenter | |
| 2014 | WWE Legends' House | Presenter | |
| 2015 | The Keith Lemon Sketch Show | She-Ra / Caitlyn Jenner / Pink | Episode: "2" |
| 2015 | The Jump | Contestant | Series 2 |
| 2016–2018 | 1st Look | Presenter | |
| 2017 | Let It Shine | Guest judge | Episode: "Semi-final" |
| 2018 | Strictly Come Dancing | Contestant | Series 16 |
| 2020 | Celebrity Gogglebox | Commentator | Series 2 |
| 2022 | The Real Dirty Dancing UK | Presenter | |
| 2022–present | Dance Monsters | Presenter |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Be Cool | Herself |
| 2008 | Make It Happen | Brooke |
| Year | Title | Roles | Radio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–2021 | Heart Breakfast | Correspondent | Heart |
| 2022– present |
Heart 00s | Presenter |
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK [37] |
UK Indie [38] | ||
| Butterfly Effect |
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159 | 36 |
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [21] |
UK Indie [22] |
SCO [39] | ||||||||||||
| "Yesterday"[40] | 2012 | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||||||||
| "Clockwork" | 2014 | 175 | 18 | 88 | Butterfly Effect | |||||||||
| "Woman Up" | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "A Summer Place"[41] | 2010 | Non-album single |
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Played" | 2008 | Doll Domination |
| Title | Year | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Yesterday" | 2012 | Don Tyler | |
| "Clockwork" | 2014 | Ramy Dance | |
| "Woman Up" | |||
| Guest appearances | |||
| "Oh Aaron" | 2001 | — | Aaron Carter's music video |
| "Not Too Young, Not Too Old" | |||
| "True Nature" | 2003 | Jane's Addiction's music video | |
| "You Raise Me Up" | Josh Groban's music video | ||
| "Trouble" | Pink's music video | ||
| "Accidentally in Love" | 2004 | Counting Crows' music video | |
| "Stars in Your Eyes" | 2010 | Her Majesty & The Wolves' music video | |
| "2 da Left" | 2011 | Leo Moctezuma's music video | |
| "Dirrty Up" | 2012 | Bobby Newberry's music video | |
| "Toxic Love" | |||
| "Goodbye" | 2015 | Melody Thornton's music video | |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2013–2015 | Ant & Dec's Takeaway on Tour | "Ant vs. Dec" segment mediator |
| 2019 | Waitress | Dawn |
| Year | Award | Nominated work | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammy Awards | "Stickwitu" | Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals | Nominated | ||
| Daytime Emmy Awards | 1st Look | Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program[a] | Nominated |
| Preceded by | 1st Look host 2016–2018 |
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