Ashley Rickards

From her single season as the shoplifting foster kid, Sam Walker, on "One Tree Hill" (The WB, 2003-2012) to playing the charmingly pathetic lead role on MTV's "Awkward" (MTV, 2011- ), Ashley Rickards made a career playing intelligent young outsiders. A strikingly beautiful MENSA member who graduated high school with honors at just 15 years old, Rickards was, from an early age, very active in a number of charities, including sitting on the board of directors of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which worked to end human trafficking. That same empathy and warmth Rickards exhibited in her charitable work came through in the characters she played, even in roles as diverse as a severely autistic girl in the feature film "Fly Away" (2011) or Chloe, the zombie cheerleader on "American Horror Story" (FX, 2011- ), giving Ashley Rickards the rare combination of versatility and an ability to connect with audiences in a genuine way.