Ashley Marinaccio is dedicated to storytelling that documents that socio-political issues that define our times. She is a League of Professional Theatre Women Lucille Lortel Visionary Award recipient for her artistic direction of Girl Be Heard, a theatre company that brings global issues affecting girls center stage by empowering young women to tell their stories. She's a TED speaker. Ashley is listed as one of Culture Trip's 50 Women in Theatre You Should Know and a recipient of a 2019 Drama League First Stage Residency and a NY Public Humanities Fellow.

As a theatre maker, her work has been seen off-Broadway (Joe's Pub, Primary Stages, Rattlestick, Culture Project), at TED conferences, The White House, The Apollo, United Nations and on tour throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Her work has received critical acclaim from The NY Times, New Yorker, Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine, Ebony, NY Press, Time Out NY, Backstage, Show Business and has been featured in segments on Buzzfeed, NBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, MTV, VH1, and NY1. Ashley has traveled extensively throughout the world as an artist, researcher, and teacher.

Currently, Ashley is working on her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include exploring theatre practices in war zones, applications of theatre in social justice movements, politics and performance in times of crisis, community-based theatre, intersections between anthropology and theatre, and documentary theatre.

Ashley holds her M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and BA in theatre directing and sociology/anthropology with minors in women/gender and Middle Eastern studies from Pace University. She is a member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA.

Currently, Ashley is a faculty member at Pace University's School of Performing Arts and Hunter College. She has worked as a teaching artist and visiting artist/scholar at the Queens Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center (New Jersey), Wolf Pack (Oregon), Shanghai Theatre Academy (China), ASHTAR Theatre (Palestine) and Garden of Hope (Taiwan).