Ashley Tisdale Biography

Ashley Tisdale, actress/singer

Birthdate: July 2, 1985

Birthplace: Monmouth County, New Jersey

Sign: Cancer

Ashley Michelle Tisdale was born in New Jersey to Lisa and Mike Tisdale. She has an elder sister, Jennifer Tisdale, who is also an actress. She was discovered by her current manager Bill Perlman at South Shores Mall when she was just three.

She got her start in show business when she got the leading role in the Broadway musical "Les Miserables" at the age of eight. She then toured internationally with the cast of the musical "Annie."

Tisdale had done stage productions at the Jewish Community Center of Monmouth County. But it was during the late 1990s that she started appearing in TV series. She has brief guest appearances in "Smart Guy," "7th Heaven," "Grounded for Life," "Boston Public," "Charmed," and "Beverly Hills, 90210" among others.

In 2005, she was cast in the role of candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick on the Disney Channel original series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," which became a hit. She then became a featured performer on the channel.

She was cast as Sharpay Evans, her most popular role yet, on the Disney made-for-TV-movie "High School Musical." The show was followed with a sequel in August 2007, and another one that is meant to be shown in cinemas in October 2008.

Her role in the surprise hit Disney movie had required her to perform several songs, including "What I've Been Looking For," "Bop to the Top," and "We're All In This Together." The songs all managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and Tisdale made history when she became the first female artist to debut two songs simultaneously with "What I've Been Looking For" and "Bop to the Top."

She also released her first solo album, Headstrong, in February 2007.

In November 2007, she underwent a rhinoplasty procedure to correct her septum which was 80 percent deviated. She opened up about the surgery saying she had done that for health-related reasons and not for vanity's sake.