Best known for portraying Aria Montgomery on ABC Family's series Pretty Little Liars, she is also an established country music singer. She released her first studio album, Road Between, in 2014. In 2018, she starred in Truth or Dare. She has also acted in the TV show Katy Keene.
In 2003, she was one of five winners on the reality series American Juniors.
Early in her career, she made appearances on such TV series as How I Met Your Mother, The O.C., Drake & Josh and Wizards of Waverly Place.
She was born to Julie Knight and Preston Hale and raised with an older sister named Maggie. In 2014, she began dating Lawson drummer Adam Pitts. After their breakup, she dated Anthony Kalabretta, followed by Life Sentence co-star Riley Smith up until mid 2018. In 2021, she dated actor Skeet Ulrich for three months.
She and Holly Marie Combs became co-stars on Pretty Little Liars.