Ashlea Hayes was born and raised in Compton, CA. She was bitten by the acting bug in 2009, stemming from her love of storytelling as a child. In 2011, she joined the SAG-AFTRA union after appearing on FreeForm’s “Switched At Birth” and has been honing her craft ever since. Ashlea has been active in the Deaf community for 27 years. In 2022, she became the first DeafBlind actress to join DeafWest and to portray Tireseas in DeafWest Theatre’s production of Oedipus. She has been involved in several community organizations, all with the goal of empowering the Deaf community as well as educating the Hearing community about Deaf Culture. When she isn’t volunteering her time to the community, or working on a new production, she is teaching ASL at Gallaudet University under the Chief Bilingual Officer.