Ashley Johnsonis an actress who started as a child and has had a very varied career. Though not all child actors decide to stick with the career when they grow older, there’s no doubt that these early days influenced Johnson’s career. In fact, she has made quite a name for herself, mostly in co-creating and partaking in the popularDungeons & Dragonsweb seriesCritical Role.
From Ashley Johnson’s movies and TV shows, we see she’s not afraid to branch out into new things. She’s seen in several different mediums, whether it be live-action or animated. She’s also in a lot of genres, including fantasy, post-apocalyptic,and crime dramas. No matter what you know her from, she excels at playing the role created for her, and it’s a delight when she takes part in a project.
After the popular film with Robin Williams was released,Jumanjibecame an animated TV show. Using the movie as its basis and inspiration, the show follows kids Judy and Peter Shepherd who found the titular board game. They are given a clue each turn before being sucked into the game itself and forced to solve it, and they keep going back to try and free Alan Parrish, another player trapped in the game without a clue to solve.
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Johnson voiced Peter Shepherd, showing her acting prowess from a young age since not many people are chosen to play the opposite gender. His immaturity and the trouble he causes by cheating are prevalent throughout the show, and Johnson’s voice really helps carry these traits through the screen.
9Growing Pains
The sitcomGrowing Painsis all about the life and mishaps of the Seaver family. With a family of six at its peak, there’s certainly a lot of chaos happening. Dr. Jason Seaver, a psychiatrist, works from home and takes on the responsibility of taking care of the kids to allow his wife to return to her work as a reporter. This means he’s often in the middle of whatever shenanigans the current episode has in store for the family, and his work gets interrupted often.
Johnson enters the show for the last two seasons, taking on the role of the youngest, Chrissy Seaver. Despite still being very young during these seasons, both in character and in real life, Johnson really brings their youngest daughter to life in ways no one else could. From getting into her own special trouble to letting her brothers influence her and getting dragged into some of their problems, there’s not a moment Johnson is on screen that you won’t enjoy.
8Blindspot
Blindspotis a crime drama centered around the appearance of a heavily tattooed woman who doesn’t remember anything of her past. When FBI agent Kurt Weller’s name is found amongst the tattoos on her body, he is called in, and they begin to examine the tattoos further. It’s revealed that her tattoos actually contain different clues to crimes they have to solve, and as the seasons pass, more and more is uncovered about who this woman is and how she got into this position in the first place.
Johnson has a leading role in this show as Patterson, head of the FBI forensic unit and in charge of studyingand identifying the tattoos. She’s an important figure in the process of solving the plot, and she wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t Johnson bringing life to the role.
The animated showRecessbrings an elementary school to life, from classes to regular teacher interactions to even an entire society set up within the confines of the playground during recess. The main characters are six fourth graders simply living their lives, but this surprising group of friends actually tend to rebel against the rules King Bob, a sixth grader, tries to enforce upon the school and its students, but they don’t do this without getting into trouble every now and then.
Johnson voices Gretchen, one of the six main kids. Intelligent but naive, Gretchen is a smart kid who seems out of place in the rest of the group but is actually an invaluable part of the team. At the same time, she feels her friends are more important than finding someone more on her intellectual level. Johnson brings her to life well, showing her compassion and intellect perfectly so that we can really understand the character.
TheBen 10franchise has seen many shows, movies, and actors as it has continued across the years. It follows Ben Tennyson throughout his young life, often as a kid or teenager, and his fight to protect the Earth, and sometimes, different places around the universe. To do this he wears a watch-like device called the Omnitrix that houses alien DNA and allows the wearer to not onlytransform into these aliensbut gain their capabilities too. While the original had ten aliens, his choices expanded as he added more DNA to the device.
Johnson joined the cast inBen 10: Alien Forceand continued to portray Gwen Tennyson, Ben’s cousin and an important figure in the shows. She’s a powerful girl whose personality is only helped by having Johnson behind her as she lends her help to fend off the alien threats.
5The Avengers
The Avengersis the movie that put the MCU into action. As the first team-up movie of the franchise, it had a lot to build to bring these heroes together, and it was well executed in the end. When the tesseract was stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. by Loki, they already knew their agents alone were outmatched. So, they picked a couple of heroes up and brought them together to recover the tesseract, uncovering a threat of an alien invasion in the process.
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Johnson has a minor role inThe Avengers, but it’s still pretty important to one person’s characterization: Captain America. An important chunk of her performance appears in a deleted scene, where she’s a waitress to Captain America at a cafe in New York and doesn’t realize he doesn’t understand the technology she keeps talking to him about. However, we do see her again in the Battle of New York, where she is one of the hostages the Chitauri trapped and was saved by Captain America. She also is seen on the news talking about how Captain America saved her life. While small, it’s still an important role in helping show the human side of these heroes.
4Teen Titans
TheTeen Titansare a group of heroes, often perceived or actually younger than most other DC heroes. It’s often seen asone of the best Cartoon Network shows. The show brings us an inside look at these heroes, from some more personal details about their lives to the highs and lows of their crime-fighting careers. Each of the five seasons has an overarching plot that focuses on one of the characters, all the while they have to deal with the differences in personalities between themselves so they can work together to save the day.
Johnson comes into season two as the hero Terra, joining the team while secretly using her position in the inner circle to plot against them. She’s rather cocky and narcissistic, characteristics that Johnson has no qualms with as she brings them to life on the screen. She also reprises her role in the spinoff series,Teen Titan’s Go!
3Infinity Train
Infinity Trainis an animated show with a rather unique plot and location. As the title suggests, the show is set on a seemingly endless train as it travels through a rather barren landscape. However, its cars host a myriad of environments that don’t seem possible and are often rather whimsical. Each season focuses on a certain set of passengers as they move through the cars and complete challenges that end up helping them resolve personal issues and traumas so they can live a better life.
Johnson voices Tulip Olsen and Lake in the first two seasons, and these are the main characters going through their own traumas. With a whimsical setting undercut by a serious story, it’s nice to see Johnson in this piece as she brings humor and emotional lines to help keep everyone’s interest.
2The Last of Us
Based on a movie of the same name, HBO’sThe Last of Usis set in a post-apocalyptic world. A viral fungal infection took the world by storm and began to turn people into terrifying zombies, causing the collapse of society as we know it. Joel is a reluctant survivor, with past trauma hardening him and causing him to act tougher. That is until Ellie comes along and needs him to escort her out of the city and away to a hospital due to her apparent immunity to the virus.
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Johnson plays a minor role in the show as Anna, Ellie’s mother. Though this role is impactful when we see her in a flashback, it’s Johnson’s previous performance that really matters. In the video game, Johnson was the voice of Ellie, bringing the main character to life with all of her charm and wits and turning the game into something people cared about enough to want to see more. Without Johnson’s involvement in this series, there’s no doubt it wouldn’t have been as successful.
1The Legend of Vox Machina
The Legend of Vox Machinais an adult animated show based on an originalDungeons & Dragonscampaign streamed onlineby the group known asCritical Role.These friends, their characters, and the story they all built together became a huge success that turned into their own company, and the animated show of their first campaign was soon born. A group of rag-tag heroes known as Vox Machina is down on their luck when they come across a bounty for a dragon. After successfully slaying the beast and earning their reward, they soon discover a plot to take over the city that also happens to tie into one of the member’s pasts.
Johnson voices Pike the gnome cleric in this series. The casting makes sense, since Johnson was a part of this group of friends, and Pike was her character in the game. Despite being a holy person, she still has her ups and downs and is ready to do anything to protect her friends and family. This fiercely loyal gnome has a spark that no one other than Johnson could have ever created or brought to life.
