Ashley Avis

Ashley Avis is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. She was born in Chicago, Illinois to Richard Avis and Victoria Woods, and has one brother, Richard Avis. She is married to Edward Winters, who is her partner in their Los Angeles based production company, Winterstone Pictures. Ashley's work has been called "timelessly romantic" (White Lies Magazine), "elegantly sensual" (Elite Daily), and "tasteful, blending innocence with seduction" (Red Hot Society). Growing up in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a former competitive equestrian, Ashley was passionate about writing from a young age. Deciding to pursue her education in New York, she attended Manhattan College in Riverdale, graduating with a double major in two and a half years (International Business and Marketing), in 2008. During college, she worked as a journalist and regional editor for Nielsen Media, while interning for various film directors and production companies, including Celine Rattray's Plum Pictures. It was during that time that she fell in love with the visual and poetic style of screenwriting. In 2009 she moved to Los Angeles, and a year later used her savings to self finance a spec pilot that she had written, both directing and producing it. The project caught the attention of Lionsgate Entertainment founder Frank Giustra, who would later Executive Produce. It was through this experience that Ashley began her journey behind the camera. She began working in the commercial and branded content world, producing and directing more than 100 spots in just three years, including campaigns and co-branded spots for Coca Cola, Red Bull, Pfizer, Cali Burger, Mercedes-Benz - and more. She formed her first production company Alchemy Pictures in 2010. In 2013, Ashley was hired by Todd Labarowksi of Dreambridge Films to write the adaptation of "The Cybil Raven Chronicles", and met her now husband and producing partner Edward Winters. In 2015, she made her directorial debut with the feature film Deserted, a survival story set against the landscapes of Death Valley which she also wrote and produced. In 2016, Ashley and Edward produced their second feature, which Ashley also directed called Adolescence. The film stars India Eisley, Tommy Flanagan, Elisabeth Rohm, and Jere Burns. The same year, Ashley and Edward re-branded Alchemy Pictures to Winterstone Pictures. In 2018, she was brought on to write and direct the modern day reprisal of Anna Sewell's classic Black Beauty for Constantin Film's Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer. Filming in 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa which doubled for the United States - her reimagining transformed Black Beauty into a wild horse rounded up in the American West, directly paralleling Sewell's original intentions for writing the iconic novel - which was to give voices to the horses of her time in the late 1800s. She hopes that by illuminating the issues wild horses are going through in the United States today, real and necessary change can finally be made. In 2019 Ashley began working on a documentary called Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West (2021). In 2020, we was brought aboard to write as well as show run the television series Breyer Hollow for Imagine Entertainment's Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Stephanie Sperber. Her next feature projects include directing the lyrical love story Trancas by screenwriter Lem Dobbs, as well as writing, directing and producing the biopic 800, chronicling the life of Olympic 800 meter runner Prince Mumba of Zambia. She lives in Marina del Rey, California with her husband Ed, dog Whiskey, and cat Luna. In 2019, while filming a helicopter roundup in Nevada for the Wild Beauty documentary, Ashley and Ed decided to rescue two wild horses - a mare and her young colt. They are called "Zephyra" (for goddess of the West wind), and Zion (her "sun"). She recently launched her own nonprofit organization, The Wild Beauty Foundation.