- Born
- Birth nameDamien Evan Ashley Pettit
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- A North London, Middlesex Acting graduate with further extensive training at The Met Film school in Ealing Studios and The William Palmer College. His work as an actor includes both stage and screen with fight choreography, fight performing, writing, directing and editing experience.
His training at The William Palmer college included the reading of classics from Greek Theatre such as Euripides and Sophocles, Shakespeare and moving on to Ibsen, Brecht and later to more contemporary playwrights such as Arthur Miller and David Mamet. Practitioners of particular interest during this period included Edward Gordon Craig and Steven Berkoff
During his 3 year Acting Degree at Middlesex, his personal focus shifted toward the study of movement with particular interest in Jacques Lecoq's approaches to the physical aspects of acting and how this had parallels with Bruce Lee's approach to Jeet Kune Do. He later went on to focus on Stella Adlers approach to 'The Method' and the differences between stage and screen acting.
During his time at The Met Film School at Ealing Studios, he focused again on screen acting and started to study the works of Anthony Hopkins, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and Wesley Snipes.
He can be seen as one of main leads in the 2014 BFI entry '99% Certain' and as the lead in some of Director Mike Clarke's works for 2016 to 2024, including 'Love's Innocence Lost' (which received high praise from Film Critics in North America) and Karli (American title 'The Stranger') which picked up best horror at the Dead Northern Film Festival in 2023.
Damien has not been auditioning or seeking acting work since 2020, instead working as a school teacher due to personal reasons. Damien has however been able to participate in projects during term breaks (such as Mike Clarke's works) and will be returning to acting full time within the coming years.
In 2024, Damien joined the 'TAKA Strike Club' coaching team, under the guidance of Company Director and Coach Adrian Falconer, working on upcoming projects centred around Martial Arts choreography, Hip Hop, Stunts and movement related performance.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpouseAnnelise Pettit(July 24, 2010 - July 2021) (divorced)
- ChildrenAsher
- Gender / Gender identityMale
- Born Damien Evan Ashley Pettit, he changed his stage name to Damien Ashley. He's family name was originally Byrnes, however this was changed in the 40's when his great grandfather took his step father's name 'Pettit'. Damien decided that his middle name 'Ashley' served better as performer name.
- At the age of 7 thought Jason Scott Lee was actually Bruce Lee whilst watching 'The Dragon': A Bruce Lee story' .
- Loves the choreography of films featuring Michael Jai White, Donnie Yen, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Iko Uwais, Mark Dacascos, Tony Jaa, Tim Man and Scott Adkins.
- Favourite film is 'Spider- Man: Across the Spider-verse, followed jointly by The Crow and The Raid 2 in second place.
Damien is a big lover of the works of Directors' Chris Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Ryan Coogler, Guillermo Del Toro, Gareth Evans, Michael Mann, Peter Jackson, writers Tyler Sheridan and Martin McDonagh and the cinematography of Roger Deakins, Emmanuel Lubezki, Hoyte van Hoytema and Wally Pfister. - At the age of 11 did his first stunt at short notice whilst performing in 'The Early Man' at The Cambridge Arts Theatre.
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