Ally Beardsley (born June 25, 1988) is an American

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

. They are best known for their roles in various Dropout (formerly known as

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

) productions, such as CollegeHumor Originals, ''Game Changer'', and ''Total Forgiveness''. They are also known for their roles in Dropout's ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gam ...

series ''

Dimension 20 ''Dimension 20'' is a tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout (media company), Dropout, and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master. Most of the games use Dungeons ...

'', where they have played a variety of

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

characters.

Career

Beardsley worked in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

as part of

Boom Chicago Boom Chicago is an international creative group based in Amsterdam, Netherlands,

for three years before joining

in 2017. They also performed "regularly at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Ad ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

". Beardsley, with Grant O'Brien, created and starred in the

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

''Total Forgiveness'' (2019) for CollegeHumor. Jillian Berman of ''

MarketWatch ''MarketWatch'' is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and '' Barron's.'' ...

'' commented that show is "the latest sign that the ubiquity of student debt has pushed it into the cultural zeitgeist" as Beardsley and O'Brien competed in challenges to earn increasing amounts of "money towards their loans". Berman opined that neither Beardsley or O'Brien are "the most sympathetic characters to illustrate the challenges of the nation's $1.5 trillion student-loan problem. ..Nonetheless, the show provides a window into a student-loan experience that's likely relatable for many of the nation's 44 million student-loan borrowers". They also starred in the reboot of ''Troopers'' (2019) which premiered on CollegeHumor's new streaming service Dropout. In January 2020, it was announced that IAC was selling CollegeHumor to its Chief Creative Officer,

Sam Reich Samuel Dalton Reich ( ; born July 22, 1984) is an American media executive, writer, producer, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his work with Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor), of which he is now the CEO, including hosting the series '' G ...

, resulting in the job loss of nearly all employees and staff. The restructured company was reduced to seven people;

Brennan Lee Mulligan Brennan Lee Mulligan (born January 4, 1988) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and gamemaster. He often works with Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) as a writer, performer, and producer. He is the creator and regular gamemaster for Dropout' ...

, Dungeon Master of the anthology

series ''

'', was the only creative left on the payroll. Dimension20Apollo

, Beardsley has been part of the main cast of ''Dimension 20''; the series survived the "upheaval" at CollegeHumor in 2020. Lauren Coates, for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'' in 2023, commented that Beardsley is among the ''Dimension 20'' "fan favorites in large part because of their initial inexperience and the new energy they bring to the table". In April 2024, Beardsley was part of the ''Dimension 20'' "Time Quangle" live tour in the UK and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

where they reprised randomly drawn characters from previous campaigns. Since 2020, they have also appeared as a guest on various Dropout series such as '' Game Changer'', '' Very Important People'', and ''Dropout Presents''. From 2018 to 2019, Beardsley hosted ''Tales from the Closet'', a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

where guests shared stories from before they came out as

. They appeared as a guest on Netflix's ''The Gay Agenda'' podcast in 2022. In 2023, they started hosting the podcast ''Gender Spiral'' alongside Babette Thomas, where they explore a variety of questions regarding

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

and gender presentation. In 2024, they starred as Glenn in the independent movie ''The Disruptors'' by writer and director Adam Frucci.

Personal life

Beardsley first played ''

'' on ''Dimension 20'', as their parents had religious objections to the game while they were growing up. Although raised religious, Beardsley has since left their childhood church. Beardsley is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

. When they had just started to use

gender neutral pronouns A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages, such as Slavic, with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or ...

, Beardsley created and played a transgender character in their second season of ''Dimension 20'' "who had transitioned in ways" they had not yet. Beardsley highlighted the fun aspect of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

where you get to do anything by "stripping away the crunchy, real-world limitations" and felt that character's story arc was "extremely

euphoric Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and danci ...

". They also have

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple ...

. They graduated from

Point Loma Nazarene University Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a Private college, private Christianity, Christian Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with its main campus in Point Loma, San Diego, Point Loma in San Diego, California, Unit ...

; the

student debt Student debt refers to the debt incurred by an individual to pay for education-related expenses. This debt is most commonly assumed to pay for tertiary education, such as university. The amount loaned or the loan agreement is often referred to as ...

they accrued while attending university was the focus of the 2019 show ''Total Forgiveness''.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beardsley, Ally 1988 births 21st-century American actors 21st-century American comedians Actual play performers American LGBTQ comedians American non-binary actors American queer actors American transgender actors CollegeHumor people Living people Non-binary comedians People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Point Loma Nazarene University alumni Queer comedians Transgender comedians Transgender non-binary people