Jersey Girl is Putting Her “High School Sweet Life” Behind

Teen stars trying to graduate to more adult roles with some substance can be a painstaking process, and sometimes can call for measures that surprise many.  Give "Jersey Girl" Ashley Tisdale major props for going this path - all the way to one of the darkest shows on TV.

Ashley is a long way from her Ocean Township roots that saw her humble beginnings acting at the Jewish Community Center of Monmouth County - appearing in productions of Gypsy and The Sound of Music to name a few.  She scored on the Disney Channel playing Maddie on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and then came the biggest Disney phenomenon of the 21st century - High School Musical.

Her role as Sharpay made her a star - scoring two successful sequels for Disney, and parlaying the musicals into her own singing career that saw her debut CD Headstrong (in 2007) sell around 2 Million copies worldwide, and her song "He Said She Said" from the album sold nearly 1 Million copies in the U.S.

By 2009 the High School Musical series was done, her 2nd CD (Guilty Pleasure) struggle to find her audience, but Tisdale was still surviving as the voice of Candice of the Disney cartoon hit Phineas and Ferb (featuring one of the coolest characters on the network - Perry the Platypus!)

Ashley Tisdale may see herself in a new phase of her career after her last project Hellcats lasted only one season on the CW network.  The critics were very positive of the premise - some calling it Bring It On meets the movie Election (Reece Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick).  So where is this Jersey going now?

The last place you may expect the squeaky clean soon to be 27-yr-old may be Sons of Anarchy on FX, but Tisdale is looking to shake things up.  The show has a TV-Mature rating (not recommended for those under 17), has a dark side in its world of motorcycle gangs, and Tisdale is going to play Emma Jean for a 2 episode arc.  The character is a pricey escort who makes things complicated for the SAMCRO motorcycle club when she shows up on the scene.  So much for Sharpay!

This move could be huge for Ashley when you consider that the show has major critical acclaim, has the FX brand behind it who love to push boundaries (The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and Rescue Me instantly come to mind), and the show has seen "Peggy Bundy" win a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Drama (Katey Sagal).

Look for Ashley to also star in Scary Movie 5 next year (her first starring role).  She is producing and starring in a new fall comedy TV series called Under Construction, plus her production company has a new reality series for Bravo in the works (Miss Advised), as well as shows in production for Nick, ABC Family and Disney.

Ashley Tisdale is taking matters into her own hands, and seems not afraid to get a little dirty.  Don't bet against her eventually becoming the most successful HSM grad in the long run.