Ashleigh Ball

Ashleigh Ball is a voice actress and singer in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Her most prominent roles in the series are those of main characters Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Ball was initially cast in the show in 2010 through her prior five years of voiceover experience and was recommended to Studio B Productions (later renamed to DHX Media) through her agent. In addition to auditioning for Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Ball had also auditioned as Spike.

Ball has cited country singers Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, and Reba McEntire as inspiration for affecting Applejack's voice and accent. During a Q&A session at a season nine premiere party hosted by Meghan McCarthy, Ball stated that she deepened Applejack's voice over time in order to avoid making her sound like Rainbow Dash.

Among the series' main voice cast, Ball is cast as a considerable number of incidental characters, including Nurse Redheart, one of the buffalo in Over a Barrel, and one of the teenage dragons in Dragon Quest.

In 2014, Ball was the subject of the brony documentary film A Brony Tale, which she also produced. The film showcases Ball's initial reactions to the series' older fanbase and travel to one of the first My Little Pony fan conventions in New York City in 2012.

Outside My Little Pony, Ball has voiced characters in several television series and films, including Mary Test and Sissy Blakely in Johnny Test, Oopsy Bear in Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot, Shiori Akino in Death Note, Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Reira Serizawa in Nana, Plum Pudding in Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures, Allura in Voltron Force, Mick Ramsey in Action Dad, Blythe Baxter in Littlest Pet Shop, Pinky and Spheria Suprema in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Skya in Dinotrux, Jay in Beat Bugs, and various characters in several entries in the Barbie film series. Ball is also a lead singer and flautist for the band Hey Ocean!

Career
A Brony Tale film poster, featuring Ball. Ball has found a fan following through her band Hey Ocean! and through bronies, the adult fans of the television show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, a show in which she voices and sings as two of the six main characters, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Ball has been to several My Little Pony fan conventions, including BronyCon and Everfree Northwest as a guest of honor. Ball stated in her documentary A Brony Tale, in which she is the main subject, "It's (My Little Pony) a really important part of a lot of these people's lives. So yeah, as long as My Little Ponies exist, there will be bronies."

On May 2, 2017 she released the music video "Crazy", and on June 2 released her debut solo EP Gold in You.

Trivia

 * She voiced Applejack and Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Mary Test and Sissy Blakley in Johnny Test, and Pinky in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.
 * She is one of eight voice actors to work on Johnny Test before working on Ninjago: the other seven were Trevor Devall, Richard Newman, Scott McNeil, Marÿke Hendrikse, Kathleen Barr, Ian James Corlett, Andrew Francis, and Lee Tockar.
 * She, along with Adrian Petriw, Vincent Tong, Mackenzie Gray, Michael Adamthwaite, Dean Redman, Michael Daingerfield, Michael Dobson, Brian Drummond, Andrew Francis, Michael Kopsa, Richard Newman, Mark Oliver, Tabitha St. Germain, and Lee Tockar voiced characters in Iron Man: Armor Adventures.