ASHLEE SIMPSON
Ashlee Simpson-Wentz was born October 3, 1984 in Waco, Texas and is the younger sister of well-known pop singer and reality television star Jessica Simpson. Following suit, Ashlee is also best known for her 2004 MTV reality series, The Ashlee Simpson Show, which followed Ashlee as she worked to launch her own musical career and step out of her sister’s shadow with an edgier look and more rock- and punk-inspired songs.Though best known for her singing, Simpson began her career in the arts at the tender age of four, when she began taking dance lessons, and quickly showed a unique talent for ballet. At 11, Simpson was the youngest dancer to ever be admitted to the School of American Ballet in New York City. Later, when the Simpson family moved to Los Angeles to pursue Jessica’s burgeoning pop princess stardom, Ashlee landed acting roles in TV commercials, episodes, and movies. Simpson appeared in a 2001 episode of Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle, and she was featured in the 2002 flick The Hot Chick starring Rob Schneider. From 2002 until 2004, Ashlee had a recurring role on the long-running 7th Heaven as Cecilia Smith.
Since releasing her debut album Autobiography in 2004, Simpson has enjoyed immense commercial success, and has released two more albums: I Am Me (2005), and Bittersweet World (2008). Simpson’s first single, “Pieces of Me,” became a smash hit in the summer of 2004. In October 2004, Simpson appeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and was scheduled to perform two songs. In an infamous technical error, after performing her first song, “Pieces of Me,” without a hitch, Simpson prepared to begin another, when the vocals for “Pieces of Me” began again before Simpson had raised the microphone to her mouth. Simpson left the stage in embarrassment and later explained that she had lost her voice due to acid reflux and been advised by her doctor not to sing. The incident was massively covered and ridiculed in the media. Simpson has since recovered any shame from the incident, and claims not to have lip-synced since.
On April 9, 2008, Simpson announced her engagement to musician Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, and the couple married on May 17, 2008. The next month, Wentz and Simpson announced they were expecting their first child.
