A Salute to Rising Stars

It’s that time again to salute those actresses who are on the move, actresses who deserve a little extra attention for their latest work, those actresses who are rising stars. Landing that crucial role in a TV movie or guest appearance in a successful show or film makes all the difference for aspiring actors.

Let’s take a look at the next group of actresses who viewers should keep their eyes on:

Ashley Liao

Ashley is a twenty-something actress, who was born in Orange County, California. She got started in acting in local musical theatre productions in 5th grade; in fact, she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in her second ever production. She went on to pursue an Associate’s Degree before going on to study Communication at the University of California in Los Angeles.

She began her professional career in 2014 with an appearance in the Cameron Diaz box office movie Bad Teacher and then made guest appearances in the TV shows Fresh Off the Boat and the Nickoldeon comedy Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.

Two years later, she landed a role in the Disney film Jessica Darling’s It List, and then she played the role of Lola Wong in the spin-off series Fuller House for its first three seasons, becoming a series regular in season two.

In 2019, she then appeared as a younger version of Ali Wong’s character in the Netflix film Always Be My Maybe and a year later she was one of the lead characters in the Disney+ movie Secret Society of Born Royals. In 2021, she appeared in numerous episodes of the first season of the Apple TV+ Rose Byrne-led dramedy Physical.

Over the previous few years she also appeared in episodes of Speechless, NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles, and provided her voice in the animated shows Spirit: Riding Free, Scissor Seven and Dragons: The Nine Realms.

Next week, she will be the lead in the Paramount+ movie Love in Taipei, based on the young adult novel Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen, and she will next be seen in the box office movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is expected to be released on November 19.

Love in Taipei will debut online on August 10.

You can follow Ashley at Instagram @ashleyjliao.

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Katy O’Brian

Katy is a 30-something actress, writer and martial artist from Indianapolis, Indiana. She fell in love with martial arts at the tender age of 5, earning her brown belt in Shorei Goju Ryu Karate at the age of 9. Throughout her youth, she played numerous sports and was also a percussionist in music programs.

She attended Indiana University Bloomington, majoring in psychology and Germanic studies. She was also one of the first members of that school’s short-form improv troupe and she received her black belt in Hapkido, a hybrid Korean martial art.

For 7 years after graduation, she was a police officer at the Carmel Police Department in Carmel, Indiana. During this time she obtained her personal trainer certification and began competing in bodybuilding figure competitions and began training at the Indy Actors Academy.

In 2016, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television, landing her first TV role in The Walking Dead. She also appeared in episodes of Halt & Catch Fire, Tosh.O and How to Get Away with Murder.

Two years later, she booked her first series regular role in the Syfy action comedy series Z Nation; then she appeared in The CW series Black Lightning, and then she appeared in season three of Westworld.

Throughout 2020 and 2021 she appeared in episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Magnum P.I., The Rookie and the Jason Mamoa Netflix movie Sweet Girl. It was also during this time that she landed the recurring role of Elia Kane in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, and earlier this year she appeared as Jentorra, leader of the Freedom Fighters in the box office movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

She also has two big projects coming up: Twisters, the sequel (of sorts) box office movie to the 1996 movie Twister, that will star Anthony Ramos, Kiernan Shipka, the new Superman David Corenswet, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sasha Lane, Glen Powell and Maura Tierney; and the box office movie Love Lies Bleeding, which is set to star Kristen Stewart, Jena Malone, Ed Harris and Dave Franco.

She met her partner, Kylie Chi, on the set of a student film project in 2016, and they married in 2020.

You can follow Katy on Instagram @thekatyo. You can also visit her website here.