Ashlee Marie Preston is an award winning media personality, producer, writer, speaker, and civil rights activist based out of Los Angeles, California.

Ashlee Marie Preston grew up in a Christian family in rural Louisville, Kentucky before moving to Los Angeles, California at the age of 19. After moving to LA, Preston lost her job because of her identity as a trans woman. She then became homeless, engaged in survival sex work, and became addicted to drugs. Preston later quit drugs after seeing how many of her friends were either killed or imprisoned due to drug use. Preston was able to turn her life around after setting her goals for herself once she accepted that she was in a very dark place. Preston realized that she had love and knowledge that could help other marginalized people and began volunteering with different organizations helping marginalized people.

Ashlee Marie Preston is the Host /Executive Producer of a podcast /vodcast entitled Shook with Ashlee Marie Preston which examines news, politics, entertainment and popular culture through a social justice lens. Preston is a Contributing Writer for publications including Vice Media, Billboard, Playboy, Teen Vogue, and Mic. She is also a Media Advocate for BuzzFeed.

She has been featured by Teen Vogue , NBC, The New York Times , BuzzFeed , HuffPost, The Washington Post , and many more. She has been seen on E! Entertainment, TMZ Live, Adult Swim, and other networks.

Preston is also a public speaker represented by Keppler Speakers.

She has given talks covering topics including rehabilitation /substance abuse, survival sex work, education /101 around the narrative of trans women of color- including multi-tier marginalization and the socioeconomic challenges that obstruct progress. She spoke at TEDxPasadena in September 2018.

Preston made history after announcing her candidacy for California State Assembly District 54 in December 2018; making her the first openly transgender person to run for California State Legislature. In February 2018, Preston withdrew her candidacy. From 2017-2018, Preston was the Editor-in-Chief at the feminist magazine, Wear Your Voice. During this time, she was also a Public Relations (PR) Coordinator for MWWPR. In 2017, Preston executive produced C. Squared for Revry. From 2016-2017, she was the Executive Producer and PR Manager for "Disarm Hate: The Documentary".

Ashlee Marie Preston has volunteered with and served on the boards of civil rights and social justice organizations including Transgender Service Provider Network, Stonewall Democratic Club, The Imperial Court System, The Trans Chorus Of Los Angeles, Human Rights Campaign, TransCanWork LLC, LA! Pride, and Mirror Memoirs.

On October 12, 2018 Preston made a viral fake news tweet stunt claiming that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were getting divorced. As way to promote voting, at the end of the tweet Preston included a disguised shortened link to the United States voter registration website. The tweet received over 60,000 retweets and 140,000 likes in less than a week.

On September 1, 2018, Preston made a viral tweet calling out people who criticized Ariana Grande for wearing a short dress at Aretha Franklin's funeral while Bishop Charles Ellis allegedly groped her. The tweet received over 30,000 retweets and 100,000 likes in less than a week. In August 2017, Preston called out Caitlyn Jenner for her support of Donald Trump at an event held by The Trans Chorus Of Los Angeles. Jenner had supported Trump even after he had attempted to ban transgender people from serving in the United States Armed Forces. In a video of the incident Preston says, “You’re a fucking fraud, it’s really fucked up that you continue to support somebody... that does everything with the military, that’s erasing our fucking community. And you support it.”