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TJ Ashford is a fictional character on the American soap opera, General Hospital on the ABC network. The role was originated by the teenaged Krys Meyer in 2012. Tequan Richmond, best known for his role in Everybody Hates Chris took over the summer of 2012. Richmond vacated the role in late 2018 and was replaced by Tajh Bellow.

Meyer
In 2011, the soap released a casting call for the role, a 14 year old African-American male. The actor was due to start production in mid December. Soap Opera Digest described the role as "major ongoing recurring." Soaps In Depth announced Meyer's casting on December 5, 2011. Meyer made his debut on January 17, 2012. TJ was the 14 year old Meyer's first professional acting gig. Prior to General Hospital, Meyer had done some modeling and appeared in an Applebee's commercial. Meyer had only been living in Los Angeles for about three or four months when he booked the role of TJ. While his mother was a big fan – she'd been watching since she was teen – in 2018 Meyer admitted that "I didn’t know anything about soap operas." Meyer categorized his experience at General Hospital as "the best training I've ever had." While the show would typically film an episode a day, at times they could film two episodes per day. "There would be days where I had four lines in the whole episode and then days where I had 3 paragraphs and I had to memorize those three paragraphs right on the spot and I only have one or two takes to get it done because they’re going so quickly." According to Meyer, he appeared in 28 episodes. In July 2012, the series released another casting call for the role. According to Jamey Giddens of Daytime Confidential, Meyer booked a new gig and the role needed to be recast immediately. Meyer vacated the role on August 1, 2012.

Richmond
On July 23, 2012, Richmond announced that he would soon appear on General Hospital and was slated to film his first scenes on July 24. At the time, he was waiting for another project to start production. On July 30, a representative for the series confirmed that Richmond had been hired to recast the role of TJ. Richmond made his debut on August 16, 2012.

Bellow
Bellow admitted that he was ready to quit acting when he finally booked TJ, having previously auditioned for the role twice, in 2012 and in 2016. At the third audition, he made an impression on casting director Mark Teschner. In February 2022, Bellow was promoted to series regular.

Personality
The original casting described the character as "urban, rebellious, an appealing kid who masks it with a huge chip on his shoulder." When the show set out to recast the role in the summer of 2012, the 16 year old African-American male was described as "charming and charismatic." He "is a tad cocky and prone to getting into trouble, but has a soft and sensitive side." The casting notice also described the character as "very appealing" and "very soulful."

Paternity (2014–2016)
Before the character, multiple media outlets speculated that TJ was Shawn's son.

Reception
In response to the casting call, Luke Kerr said "As someone extremely interested in seeing things heat up even more between Shawn and Carly (Laura Wright), I’d prefer they didn’t have such a distraction, but I guess time will tell."

Giddens actually suggested Richmond for the role just before he was hired. "Anyone who watched this young brutha on Everybody Hates Chris already knows he has acting chops." He felt Richmond possessed "a certain swagger that has been sorely missing from daytime ever since Shemar Moore left soaps for primetime." Giddens further stated: "Casting a young rapper/actor who is well known to the black community would also get GH plenty of exposure on the urban blogosphere, and perhaps entice a few young sistahs in the coveted 12-17 demo to tune in!"