Taryn Southern

Taryn Southern (born July 16 1985) was first introduced to the public in 2004 when she made "American Idol" season three's Top 50. She later went on to star in DirecTV's first original series,"Project MyWorld" (which Southern also executive produced).

The Wichita, Kansas native has appeared as a red carpet host - (2008 Grammy's, 2007 Golden Globes, 2006 Young Hollywood Awards), and as the face for Cosmopolitan Magazine's website . As an actress, she can be seen in "Senior Skip Day" (2007), "Deep in the Valley" (2008), and Warner Brother's "Sorority Forever" (2008). She graduated from the University of Miami with degrees in Journalism and Anthropology.

Background

Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Taryn was extremely active in large-scale music theatre productions, starring in the pre-Broadway premieres of Jane Eyre and Violet. During her senior year of high school, she was offered the chance to host a regional teen talk show for The WB, called Real ACTION, in which Taryn discussed controversial topics such as teen sex, drug abuse, and drinking with area teenagers.

After graduation, Taryn traveled to LA for a summer and on a last minute whim, decided to try out for American Idol. Although she was just beginning college on a full scholarship to the University of Miami, she began the process of traveling back and forth to LA for the American Idol Hollywood finals. Her nerves eventually caught up to her, and Taryn didn’t make it into the final Top 32 round after forgetting her lyrics on stage.

Taryn then returned to UM, receiving several grants to conduct studies in South America. She spent time in Iquitos, Peru, studying the shamanic use of ayahuasca among rainforest communities, Glover’s Reef Island off the coast of Belize, researching the impact of local fisherman on the marine ecology, and Key West, Florida, as a field archeologist for the Audobon Association. She also was active in UM’s long distane running program, and competed in the 2006 Miami half-marathon, winning first place in her age category.

At 20 years old, Taryn graduated from the University of Miami with degrees in Journalism and Anthropology and headed to Europe for a three-month backpacking and photography trip. Upon her return, she was approached to host a show, inevitably leading her back to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television hosting, acting, and writing.

Internet work

In 2007, she wrote, produced, and starred in HOTT 4HILL, which quickly earned more than 2 million online views and was featured on “Good Morning America,” PEOPLE, MSNBC, Inside Edition, FOX, NBC, CNN, and USA TODAY as one of the most influential videos of 2007.

Hott4Hill appeared on YouTube on July 2 2007. In the video, which Southern wrote, Southern sings and dances in a jokingly suggestive manner in support of the presidential campaign of U.S Senator Hillary Clinton. [ [http://youtube.com/watch?v=-Sudw4ghVe8 "Hott4Hill Video on YouTube"] ] [ [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/07/11/hott-4-hill-counters-obama-girl/ "‘Hott 4 Hill’ counters ‘Obama Girl'"] ] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sudw4ghVe8

In the video, Southern sings of her personal admiration of Clinton and how much she would like to see Clinton win the election. In a later interview with MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Southern explains that the video was a parody of another video made by "Obama girl" for Barack Obama. In answering an overtly jestful question about the evocative tone of the video, she said in a July 11 2007 interview on CNN that she is straight.

Shortly after the release of HOTT4HILL, Southern starred in her own weekly show on Heavy.com, THE HEAVY SHOW, in which she wrote and played different characters spoofing current events, celebrity gossip, and politics. She also became the face for Cosmopolitan.com, and starred in series and specials for CBS.com, MySpace, and MSN. On her own time, Taryn continued writing and producing videos, including a spoof of THE GOLDEN GLOBES for TVGuide.com, NOT MY SOCK with Jamie Kennedy for T-Mobile, and more.

In September 2008, Southern is releasing her first comedic musical web series across various platforms. The project was produced in association with 60Frames' Red Band. She also is one of the leads alongside Jessica Lee Rose (lonelygirl15, GREEK) and Mikaela Hoover (Prom Queen, Sam has 7 Friends), in Warner Brother’s first ever web series, Sorority Forever. The series debuts on September 8th and ends on Halloween on theWB.com.

In 2008, she was featured in Maxim Magazine and was of the top internet celebrities of the year, and won Spike TV’s 2008 Guy’s Choice Award for Hott4Hill.

Her website, taryn-southern.com, features daily blogs and musings by the actress about her misadventures in Hollywood.

Other

On September 9 2007, Southern was host of QBN Sessions, a graphic design lecture series in Los Angeles.

Southern was Miss University of Miami in 2005.

Southern won first place in the Miami Half-Marathon for her age category in 2005.

External links

* [http://www.taryn-southern.com taryn-southern.com] - Official website
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2342543/] - Taryn's IMDB page
* [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2007/07/11/moos.hot.for.hillary.cnn CNN Interview]
* [http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrities/video/ Cosmopolitan's Daily Celeb Gossip Video] - Cosmopolitan video

Footnotes