Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale Met On MySpace Long Before ‘Pretty Little Liars’
Pretty Little Liars is one of those TV shows that really found a dedicated fan base. As one of the most-watched shows in ABC Family’s history, the series has often been held up as a blueprint for trying to capture the same kind of magic — both in its own spin-offs and in the series it has inspired in a less direct way. Undoubtedly, a big part of the show’s success was in the chemistry between its cast members.
The four friends who have to brace themselves against the anonymous enemy who wants to derail their lives are the central focus, and the actors who portrayed them definitely helped make the show a success. Many fans are interested in how two of the stars — Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale — met, and the story is a trip down social media memory lane.
Ashley Benson played Hanna Marin
Ashley Benson got her start in acting as a child and made her way through a series of guest appearances as she got her foot in the door. A recurring role on Days of Our Lives demonstrated that the young star had what it takes to make it in show business, and a small part on 13 Going on 30 showed that she could handle more than soap operas. A recurring part in Eastwick gave Benson’s career another boost, but it was definitely her appearance on Pretty Little Liars that served as her big break.
She played Hanna Marin, one of the four main friends on the series that centers around an anonymous foe known only as “A” who threatens to reveal their deepest and darkest secrets. That seven-season run kept Benson busy, but she did manage to fit in some other projects including a role in Spring Breakers (2012) and Pixels (2015).
Since Pretty Little Liars’ 2017 conclusion, Benson has portrayed Roxie Rotten in Her Smell, a film starring Elisabeth Moss as a punk rocker struggling with sobriety. She also has multiple upcoming projects in various stages of production.
Lucy Hale played Aria Montgomery
Lucy Hale also got her start in acting at a young age with guest appearances in shows like Drake & Josh and The O.C. Recurring roles in television series like Bionic Woman and Privileged helped establish Hale’s acting chops along with roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) and Fear Island (2009).
Like Benson, Hale’s appearance in Pretty Little Liars was a major leap forward for her career. She portrayed Aria Montgomery on the series, and her projects during the show’s run included a foray into a music career. After the show’s conclusion, Hale went on to a recurring role in Life Sentence and the title role in the series Katy Keene, which follows a group of aspiring artists living in New York City. Hale has multiple upcoming projects in the works and has lately been making waves for a new — and headline-grabbing — relationship with Skeet Ulrich.
Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale met before ‘Pretty Little Liars’
Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale clearly worked together closely on the set of Pretty Little Liars, but in a video for Wired, Hale revealed that the two knew one another long before the show began. They actually got to know one another on Myspace!
Hale is quick to set the record straight that they had “mutual friends in common.” It was Kendall Schmidt — who was then the star of Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush — who was the “linking factor” to their eventual friendship. The girls were just teenagers at the time, and they hung out at Disneyland and became “super, super tight.” Over the years, they drifted apart, but Pretty Little Liars brought them back together.
