Ash Santos isn’t interested in being perfect—not in her performances, not in her life. What she wants is something more real. “I was always most inspired by people who didn’t seem so perfect,” she says. “I pursue honesty in my work. I don’t pursue perfection.”

That search for truth—raw, unfiltered, human—is the thread that runs through Santos’ journey. It’s what pulled her from painting sets in high school to co-starring in American Horror Story. Not luck. Not connections. Just relentless belief in herself, and the kind of grit you can’t fake.

She wasn’t born into the idea that Hollywood was even possible. Raised by Dominican and Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx, Santos didn’t grow up dreaming of movie sets. “I was a little girl with immigrant parents,” she says. “Hollywood wasn’t even in my world.” But one day, watching Steel Magnolias at nine years old—Sally Field’s funeral monologue, full of grief and rage—something lit up inside her. “That was the first time a performance pulled me in,” she says. “I saw what the craft really could be.”

Her road to that craft was anything but straight. After moving upstate, she became both the only person of color and the only Mormon in her class—“so other,” as she puts it. She wasn’t cast in school plays. She worked stage crew. When auditions in New York ended in rejection, she cried in the car. “I made my mom call them to ask why they didn’t pick me. I needed feedback,” she laughs now.

College took her to Utah, to BYU—a decision made more for family than for passion. By 21, she was married. By 24, a mom of two. But between pregnancies, that old spark flared up again. A friend introduced her to a local agent. She knew nothing. She got signed anyway. Her very first audition? A Sci-Fi Channel movie. She booked it.

Then came a web series—and a friendship with actor Abraham Lim, who told her to give L.A. a real shot. She was pregnant again. Lim introduced her to a manager, who said, “If she’s still interested after she has the baby, let’s talk.”

She was. Six weeks postpartum, Santos flew to L.A. with a newborn and toddler in tow. She met the manager. Two months later, she booked American Horror Story.

The momentum might sound effortless—but it wasn’t. Between diaper changes and sleepless nights, Santos was in acting classes, devouring scripts, and studying craft late into the night. “I was soaking up everything,” she says. “I knew once I had this baby, I’d get in shape and head straight to L.A.”

Support helped. Her parents didn’t understand the industry, but they believed in her. So did her ex-husband. “I’d get so intimidated,” she admits. “But he’d tell me, ‘You’re so talented. You’re going to book.’”

Now, Santos steps into her breakout role as Nia Washington in Pulse—a tough, unapologetic paramedic who feels less like a character and more like a mirror. Nia’s sharp, direct, and relentlessly driven. She doesn’t soften herself to make others comfortable. She walks into chaos and makes sense of it. For Santos, that authenticity comes naturally. “This is the first role where I didn’t have to pull inspiration from others,” she says. “I just pulled from myself.”

Like Santos, Nia comes from an immigrant background. Like Santos, she’s fought for her place. And like Santos, she doesn’t pretend to have it all figured out. “Honesty is everything to me,” she says. “The quality I admire most in people is accountability. And Nia? She walks into pain without faking confidence. That’s what makes her strong.”

For Santos, Pulse is more than a project. It’s a reflection of everything she’s survived, learned, and become.

She’s honest about the tug-of-war between work and motherhood, too. “I used to feel so guilty,” she says. “But dads do this all the time. When your kids see you going after your dreams, it gives them confidence in their own.”

Her daughter, now eight, is her biggest cheerleader—and toughest critic. “She called me like, ‘Mom, Pulse is number six now—why did it drop? You guys were number one!’” Santos laughs. “She’s like, ‘Still top 10. That’s good, Mom.’”

That grounded honesty is in everything Santos does—on camera, in parenting, and in the hustle that got her here. “If you see a life for yourself that you want, the fact that you can even see it means you can have it,” she says. “You just have to do the work.”

There’s no Hollywood fairy tale here. No golden shortcut. Just guts, grace, and the refusal to give up.

And Ash Santos? She’s just getting started.

Photography Credit:
Photographer: Maya Fraser
@mayafraserphoto

Stylist: Sophia Holmes
@rhapsodycourt

MUA: Briana Smith
@brianasmithmakeup