Biography of Ashley Olsen

		Ashley Fuller Olsen, one half of the famous duo known as The Olsen Twins, was born on June 13, 1986 in Los Angeles, California, two minutes before her fraternal twin sister, Mary-Kate. Ashley is right-handed, unlike Mary-Kate who is left handed. They have two siblings: a brother, Trent, who was born in 1984; and a sister, Elizabeth, also known as Lizzy, who was born in 1989. Both siblings made guest appearances in their videos.
Then	Now

One day, when they were only a few months old, a stranger commented that the two looked cute and should get an agent. Their parents, Dave and Jarnette Olsen, got an agent. They then auditioned Mary-Kate and Ashley for a new series created by Jeff Franklin known as "Full House". The show's creators were looking for a set of twins to play the baby, Michelle, because child labor laws stated that babies had to be played by twins to divide the workload. The Olsens won the part easily, because they were the only ones at the audition who didn't cry.

On September 22, 1987, the world first saw the Olsen Twins in the pilot episode of Full House, sharing the part of Michelle Elizabeth Tanner. Over the next eight years, the world got to see the Olsens grow up, and the growth of Mary-Kate and Ashley mirrored the growth of Michelle. We got to see Michelle grow from 9 months old to 9 years old, which is a rarity in a TV series.

It became apparent around the early 90s that the twins were the most popular characters on the show. In 1991, Dave Olsen, their father, hired one of his friends, Robert Thorne, an entertainment attorney, to manage the Olsens' finances. The following year, Thorne created a company known as Dualstar and gave ownership to the then 6-year-old Olsens, making them the youngest producers in Hollywood history. That same year, they released "Our First Video" along with the albums "Brother for Sale" and "I am the Cute One". All three received gold record certification from the RIAA.

In 1995, Full House was cancelled due to a labor dispute. Also, their parents divorced that same year. Many people assumed that it was the end of Mary-Kate and Ashley's careers. They were proven wrong due to a highly successful series of videos known as "The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley", which starred the twins as detectives. Also in 1995, they appeared in their first and so far only big screen movie: It Takes Two, which starred Kirstie Alley and Steve Guttenberg. Although the movie was a box office failure, when it was released on video it became a huge success.

In 1996 and 1997, the Olsens were relatively quiet. The final video in "The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley" series was released in 1996, because Thorne thought that they were getting too old to play detectives. There were very few interviews in those two years and not many new items coming out of Dualstar.

1998 was a big year, however. The Olsens returned to movies with a direct to video film known as "Billboard Dad". Also, they released two new albums and several party videos. But most importantly, 1998 was the year that their new sitcom, "Two of a Kind", premiered. Although it had reasonable ratings, the show was cancelled in 1999 after only one season because ABC wanted to replace it with a more adult series so that they could get more ratings. Unfortunately for ABC, the series that they replaced it with flopped.

In 1999, the Olsens teamed up with the USA women's world cup soccer team and became ambassadors for the women's world cup in the USA. At the same time, a soccer movie was filmed for Disney known as "Switching Goals". This movie premiered on the Disney Channel on December 12, 1999, and was later released on video. They made another movie in 1999: Passport to Paris. Passport to Paris was the first in the series known as "Jet Around the World". All of the movies have separate storylines, but they are connected by the fact that each movie involves travel to another country.

In 2000, the Olsens released the second video in the "Jet Around the World" series, "Our Lips Are Sealed", which took them to Australia this time. Also, they launched a clothing line and a magazine, but the company which sponsored the magazine went bankrupt and the magazine was put on hold. In addition, ABC realized cancelling "Two of a Kind" was a bad move, so they offered the twins a new sitcom, "So Little Time". Filming for this sitcom began in early 2001, around the same time they released the third video in the "Jet Around the World" series, "Winning London". The series premiered on June 2, 2001 on ABC Family, but ABC has been reluctant to air some of the episodes, and currently three episodes of season one have not aired in the United States. The show was renewed in late 2001, around the time the fourth video in the "Jet Around the World" series was released, "Holiday in the Sun", which took them to the Bahamas. Unfortunately, So Little Time will not have a 3rd season, because the Olsens say they want to do big screen movies. They are currently filming a new movie, "Sweet 16", which will be released on June 13, 2002: their 16th birthday.

A bittersweet victory occured recently. The sweet part comes from the fact that the officials of the Emmy Awards realized that the twins are not the same person and finally decided to recognize the accomplishments of one over the other. The bitter part comes from the fact that the one they recognized was Mary-Kate. Mary-Kate has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy. The category is Best Performer in a Non-Animated Kids' Show, and she is nominated for her role of Riley Carlson in "So Little Time". Although Mary-Kate is the one they nominated, and I like Ashley better, it's okay, because I prefer Riley's character over Chloe's character. I am happy, however, that people are finally seeing them as two different people and not as the same person. Let's just hope everyone realizes that Ashley is better.