Sasha Pieterse

Biography

Sasha Pieterse-Sheaffer is a South African-born American actress, singer and songwriter. She is known for her role as Alison DiLaurentis in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars. Upon the success of Pretty Little Liars, Pieterse earned a supporting role as Amy Loubalu in the 2011 Disney Channel film Geek Charming.

Pieterse was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 17, 1996. Moving to the United States in 2001, she was raised in Las Vegas, before moving to Los Angeles. She became accustomed to a career in entertainment at an early age, as her parents were a professional acrobatic dance team who performed internationally. Pieterse was homeschooled and graduated at 14.

At six years old, Pieterse got her start in television, co-starring in 2002 as Buffy on The WB’s remake of the CBS sitcom Family Affair (1966–1971). She guest starred in the Stargate SG-1 episode “Grace” with Amanda Tapping as a little girl named Grace. In 2005, she appeared on an episode of House titled “Autopsy”, portraying Andie, a young girl with terminal cancer. That same year, she made her film debut in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D as Marissa, the Ice Princess, and also appeared as Millie Rose for two episodes of the short-lived TNT series Wanted, alongside her former Family Affair co-star, Gary Cole.

Pieterse was 12 years old in December 2009, when she was cast in the Freeform teen drama television series Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017) as Alison DiLaurentis, the former “queen bee” of her high school clique. She had a regular role in the series from the first four seasons, until later became a main role in the fifth season, with one of the five girls. Since its debut, the series has received mixed reviews from television critics, but remained a relative success for Freeform, garnering a large fandom. Pieterse reprised her role as Alison, in the spin-off series titled Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists on Freeform in 2019. On Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, she portrays the grown-up version of Alison who is working as a teaching assistant at Beacon Heights University.

On December 22, 2015, Pieterse became engaged to her long-term boyfriend Hudson Sheaffer. They were married on May 27, 2018 at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, Ireland.