Ashley Laurence

Ashley Laurence is an American actress born in Los Angeles, California on May 28th, 1966. Ashley's career in film began with the 1987 independent British film Hellraiser, where she played the role of "Final Girl" Kirsty Cotton. As one of the few characters to actually survive the film, Laurence reprised the role a year later in the 1988 sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II. The popularity of both films proved not only that Hellraiser was becoming a powerful franchise, but it also elevated Laurence to "Scream queen" status amongst fans. Ashley made a cameo appearance in the third film, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, but only appeared briefly on a video cassette at the beginning of the movie. She reprised the character of Kirsty one final time in the sixth installment of the franchise, 2002's Hellraiser: Hellseeker.

Ashley Laurence has also appeared in other genre roles outside of the Hellraiser mythos. She played a character named Jodie on the "The Match Game" episode of Monsters. She played Cathryn Farrell in the 1994 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Lurking Fear. In the film, Laurence is credited as Ashley Lauren. In 1999, she played the part of Kris Miller in the direct-to-video film Warlock III: The End of Innocence.

Outside of the horror genre, Ashley Laurence has appeared in several films and television projects including Hunter, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, Lightning Bug and ER.

Notes & Trivia

 * Birth name Lori Cohen.


 * Ashley Laurence's first professional acting work was playing the role of Brenda Clegg (II), a recurring character on the CBS television series Capitol.


 * Along with Clive Barker, Ashley Laurence provided audio commentary on the standard edition DVD release of Hellraiser.