Maitland Ward American Actress Born 1977 in Long Beach

Early life

Maitland Ward was born Ashley Maitland Welkos on 3 February 1977 in Long Beach, California. She is an American actress and model. She first became known as a young performer on daytime and primetime television, and in later years she moved to a different part of the entertainment industry.

Career

Ward's best-known early part was Jessica Forrester on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, a role that brought her a Young Artist Award in 1995. She then had guest roles on the series USA High and on the seventh season of the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. In 1997 she co-starred with Jay Thomas and Mario Lopez in the television film Killing Mr. Griffin.

In 1998, at the start of its sixth season, she joined the cast of the ABC comedy Boy Meets World as a main character, Rachel McGuire. She stayed with the series until it ended in 2000. After that she appeared in the independent romantic comedy Dish Dogs, where her co-stars included Brian Dennehy, Matthew Lillard and Sean Astin. In 2004 she was in the comedy White Chicks, starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans. She retired from mainstream acting in 2007.

After leaving mainstream acting she took up cosplay and made appearances at comics conventions. Her first costume was a Princess Leia outfit, and she later appeared as Jessica 6 from Logan's Run and as Red Sonja. By 2017 she was attending conventions wearing body paint.

In 2019 Ward announced on Instagram that she would appear in an adult film titled Drive. She signed with the talent agency Society 15 in May 2019, and Drive was released online on 30 September 2019. She has said that she feared being typecast as a former television actress, and that she regards the change as a business decision. She went on to appear in more adult productions, including the series Muse, and in 2024 she was in the film American MILF. In 2022 the publisher Atria Books released her autobiography, Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood.

Recognition

Ward's earliest award was the 1995 Young Artist Award for her work on The Bold and the Beautiful. Her adult work has brought her a long series of industry prizes, 19 wins in all in the records used for this profile. At the AVN Awards she won Best Supporting Actress and a three-way scene award in 2020, followed by Best Actress in 2021, Best Leading Actress in 2023, and the featurette actress category in both 2024 and 2025. She has also won NightMoves, XMA, XCritic and XRCO awards. In 2025 the XBIZ Awards gave her the Best Acting - Lead award for American MILF, and the same title earned her an XMA award for a comedy movie scene.

Personal life

Ward is a native of Long Beach, California. She married the real estate agent Terry Baxter on 21 October 2006. The couple had met on a set.