Ava Michelle

Cota was born on April 10, 2002, the daughter of Rick and Jeanette Cota, and was raised in Linden, Michigan.^[1] She attended JC's Broadway Dance Academy, which was owned and operated by her mother Jeanette but closed permanently in 2022.^[2] Ava was a guest dancer of the ALDC "Select Team" in season 4 of Dance Moms.^[3]

Ava has been trained in contemporary, ballet, pointe, jazz, and tap dance.^[4] She is also a model and made her debut on the runway for New York Fashion Week in 2017.^[5] In 2018, she launched a social media campaign, #13Reasons4Me, that encourages people to list 13 things they love about themselves or in their lives.^[6]

Cota appeared in 2013 on the television series Dance Moms and was a regular on the show for another 4 years.^[1] She later toured the United States with other stars from Dance Moms in 2018.^[7] In 2016, she was in the first episode of So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation.

She appeared in several short movies in 2018 and made appearances in two episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful. Her first major role in acting came as playing the lead character in the Netflix film Tall Girl, which was released on September 13, 2019.^[1][8][9] Michelle began filming the Tall Girl sequel, Tall Girl 2, in April 2021.^[10]