A California native, 16-year-old Ashlie was born in San Francisco. Her debut into public life began at age three modeling in a bridal party. By age four Ashlie’s creativity led her into directing small neighborhood drama productions of Cinderella, her favorite fairytale.

Ashlie is unmistakably devoted to her craft. “I love the whole experience. Of course I love the acting part of it. It is really fun to play a different character, someone who isn’t like you in real life."

Ashlie has studied various acting systems and techniques, but her foremost approach to playing a role is to understand the character from
different points of view. She reads the script many times, picking up nuances about the character as well as what other characters are saying. Ashlie credits family support as well. "My little sisters help me out a lot when I have a script, and I’ll practice it with them and they tell me what they think about it."

And she doesn’t take her success for granted. “I love how exciting it is to actually be on a movie or TV show set — it’s not something that a lot of people get to do."

It was of course several years after those neighborhood performances that Ashlie auditioned for the role of Lizzie in the Lizzie McGuire show, and ended up landing the role of Kate.

Ashlie's incredible talent is apparent in her convincing portrayal of the arrogant Kate — she is constantly mistaken for the character she plays. People frequently approach her, wondering how she could treat Lizzie so shamefully. Of course, anyone who knows Ashlie knows she is far from the character she portrays.

And Ashlie has yet to come up with a response she is satisfied with. “I have no idea how to answer that. People are always asking me, ‘Why are you so mean to Lizzie?’”

“Should I say, ‘ It’s a conflict character so she has to do that,’ or ‘it’s what the writers told me to do,’ or maybe they want me to answer it like Kate and say, ‘Oh, it’s because I don’t like Lizzie.’ ”

While Ashlie isn’t certain how to answer those questions, what is certain is that the questions are a testament to her acting ability and how believable Kate is to viewers.

The Lizzie McGuire show and film are relevant to today’s younger audiences. Ashlie said, “I feel the show deals with a lot of things people go through, especially when they are in middle school. People can relate to it. It always has an ending that is very moral. It influences people, when they are in that situation, to do the right thing.”

Ashlie believes the show influences kids in a positive way, teaching them to become better persons with values and compassion towards others. “Because that’s definitely what Lizzie represents. Lizzie is always contemplating what she should do, but in the end she always chooses the right way."

Ashlie actively supports several charities, her favorite being a relative new organization, “Kids With a Cause.” It initially consisted of young actors and musicians helping less privileged children by spending time with them.

“It is really cool, because rather than sending them a check, it is great to be able to actually be there with the kids, and see how hanging out with them has really made their day and how excited they are," Ashlie explained. Kids With a Cause is a Los Angeles based charity, but is expanding throughout the country as well as Canada, where Ashlie recently participated in the organization’s opening there.

Ashlie’s compassion for children was evident as I told her about Patricia, a little girl who is a huge fan of the show, who needs a back operation, and it is no wonder that Ashlie is active in numerous charities.

A conversation with Ashlie about school brings home the fact that while she has had tremendous success in acting, and is active in charity work, she is at the same time a regular teenager. A high school junior, her classes include English honors, intermediate algebra, US history, science honors, AP psychology and French. Her favorite subject is American history, and not surprising, her favorite film is “The Patriot." Ashlie says she would love to do a film like that, dealing with either the American Revolution or the Civil War.

Even though Ashlie excels in homework, like most kids, that isn’t her favorite part of high school. And like most kids her age, she loves school because she gets to hang out with friends. And like many other youngsters, middle school was a challenge. She felt that some kids identified her with her character, Kate. “They thought I was really snobby and just like my character, even though they had never even talked with me in real life. That made it really hard."

One might wonder how Ashlie could be a movie star recognized all over the world and still be a regular teenager. When she first started high school she would get numerous requests for autographs. But now she is just another student to her classmates. The exception being freshmen who still ask her for an autograph.

Ashlie is close to her family, and during our talk her mom was nearby. Even though Ashlie has had more success than the average teenager, she definitely doesn’t come across as knowing it all. It was indeed heartening to hear Ashlie at times depend on her mother for guidance. And this goes to further prove the point that Ashlie is nothing like Kate.

You can watch Ashlie Brillault on two new DVDs Disney is releasing on December 9: "Fashionably Lizzie" and "Growing Up Lizzie." Each of these DVDs contains four episodes of the television show. If you want to learn more about Ashlie Brillault, check out her website at www.ashliebrillault.net.