Ashley Judd grew up in Kentucky with her mother Naomi and sister Wynonna, attending twelve schools in thirteen years before attending college. While her mother and sister rocketed to stardom as The Judds, Ashley pursued a degree in French at the University of Kentucky. Her film career took off in the early 1990s, receiving both a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and a Sundance Film Festival Independent Spirit Award for her title role in Ruby in Paradise (1993). Establishing herself in the film industry, Judd appeared in televisions shows, such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Sisters, while also scoring leading roles in Smoke and Heat (1995) and The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995), among others. By the end of the 1990s, Judd had managed to achieve significant fame and success as a leading actress, after leading roles in several thrillers, including Kiss the Girls (1997) and Double Jeopardy (1999). Judd stars in two upcoming films, “Helen” and “Crossing Over,” set to release later this year.
Utilizing her status and resources, Judd has established herself as an activist on behalf of social justice and poverty alleviation. Judd has traveled throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America to visit orphanages, slums, brothels, hospices, medical clinics, youth and drop in centers. Her personal emphasis is on empowering girls and women, and putting a stop to sex and human trafficking.
She now serves as a global ambassador for YouthAIDS, an international organization promoting AIDS prevention and treatment. In the summer of 2008 she addressed the UN with her personal observations over several years visiting brothels in India, Kenya and meeting trafficking victims in more than a dozen other countries around the world. Judd's passion and empathy are clear, telling a reporter after her time in Mumbai, she had “gone back to [her] hotel room at night and... cried and cried and cried.”
