Ashley started his career in 1996, appearing in the low-budget sci-fi fantasy flick Ionopsis, in which he played (appropriately) Seren of the forest people, a frustrated virgin whose selfish quest for power is cut spectacularly short when he grabs a magic sword and explodes.

Still his best death ever.

In 1997 he got his first stage work in Funny Money and The Unsinkable Molly Brown at The Golden Apple Dinner Theater in Sarasota FL. Since then, Ashley has taken the stage in OH, VA, MD, DC, GA, MA, NY state and New York City, where he played Creon in Red Bull Theater's acclaimed production of Pericles, and was a founding member of Folding Chair Classical Theatre.

Most recently, he appeared in Spring Awakening at The Everyman Palace Theatre, where he played all 9 adult male roles.

Ashley earned an MFA from Michael Kahn's Academy for Classical Acting, becoming the first ACA graduate to be cast at The Shakespeare Theatre, the United States' premiere classical theatre, where he appeared in The Duchess of Malfi, The Winter's Tale, and Two Gentlemen of Verona.


In 2005, Ashley started doing stand-up, which has taken him all over the United States and the world. In 2007 his team won Connecticut's Xtreme Comedy Challenge, in 2008 he participated in the Great Canadian Laugh-Off, and in 2009 he won the Hong Kong International Comedy Competition.

In 2010 Ashley brought his comedy to Europe, performing and producing shows all over Ireland and England. Along with co-founder Conn O’Sullivan, he runs the Coco Club, where the “It’s Better Than a Kick in the Nuts Comedy Competition,” is currently underway. Most recently, he opened for Mick Foley on the first night of Mick’s 2011 UK and Ireland comedy tour.

Ashley has written and performed three one-man shows: La Figlia di Mussolini and Other Tales, performed at the 2008 DC Fringe Festival; Sandlot Diplomacy, performed on Cape Cod in 2009; and Glorified Disasters, performed in Cork, in 2011. He also performed portions of Glorified Disasters at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where Three Weeks called him, “commanding,” and “invigorating,” and said, “Strand needs to go solo, and fast.”

Ashley has taught workshops on Shakespearean acting at The Thomas Jefferson School For Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, the Camden Palace Hotel Community Arts Centre as well as the Granary Theatre in Cork, and the National University of Ireland in Galway. He also gives stand-up workshops.

Ashley's career highlights include working with George "The Animal" Steele, Kelly McGillis, Doug Stanhope, and Reggie Watts.