Relocating to the West Coast, Ashby made his first foray into Hollywood as a victim of "Werewolf" (Fox, 1987) in the series pilot. Later that same year, he played the adult Lance Reventlow, doomed son of Barbara Hutton (Farrah Fawcett), in the NBC miniseries "Poor Little Rich Girl". But it took several years before he began to land leading roles in telefilms. Ashby was a man about to marry a murderer in "The Perfect Bride" (USA Network, 1991) and played Stacy Keach's son, who was involved in a computer chip war, in "New Year" (ABC, 1993). He found the occasional film role, like his supporting turn in "8 Seconds" (1994) and his lead in the surprise hit "Mortal Kombat" (1995), but television has provided more opportunities. Although he portrayed the abusive first husband of Daphne Zuniga's Jo Reynolds on Fox's primetime soap "Melrose Place" in 1992, Ashby did not land a regular role on a primetime series until 1997's short-lived "Spy Game" (ABC). Ironically, he finally found a degree of TV stardom in 1997 when he joined the cast of "Melrose Place" in the regular role of the scheming Dr. Brett Cooper.