Taylor Lautner Biography

Taylor Lautner was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father, Daniel, was a commercial airlines pilot and his mother, Deborah, worked for a software development company. He has a younger sister named Mackena. Taylor attended the Jamestown elementary School. At the age of six, Taylor took part in martial arts and took an immediate liking to it. He has represented America at two world events and has won three world championships. He is also an avid follower of football and baseball.

When Taylor was seven, his martial arts instructor encouraged him to audition for a Burger King commercial. His instructor too was connected to showbiz; he played the blue Power Ranger. He thought Taylor would do well in acting. Taylor failed to get the role, but he loved the whole process of auditioning and acting so much that he decided to become a professional when he was just seven. His parents were encouraging too; they frequently took him auditions in California and back. But the commute and the mounting expenses caused them to take a tough decision. The whole family moved to California in order for Taylor to pursue his acting career.

After moving to California, Taylor started getting roles more frequently. He first got the TV movie; Shadow Fury. He played the younger version of Kismet in the movie. Taylor got noticed and landed a few roles on some famous sitcoms. Though the roles may not have been starring ones, they were still recurring ones and kept him in the business. To support himself, Taylor also did some voice-over work. He regularly lent his voice in the cartoon Danny Phantom and did a few episode of What’s New Scooby Doo? Taylor also regularly lends his voice in Which way is Up and Silas and Brittany.

Taylor continued to attend auditions and his perseverance paid off. He landed the starring role in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005) directed by Robert Rodriguez. Immediately after he finished filming for the movie, he auditioned for and landed the role of Elliot in Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005). Taylor had finally managed to break into the film world. But television pulled him back; he got the role of Christian Slater’s son in My Own Worst Enemy (2008). Luckily for him though, the show got cancelled only after 9 episodes.

Then came a turn in his fortunes, Taylor landed the roles of Jacob Black in Twilight. Jacob is a Native American, but he also is a werewolf. He falls in love with Bella played by Kristen Stewart. The movie was based on the novel by the same by Stephanie Meyer. The movie was a huge hit making all of its stars a part of popular culture. Taylor was still basking in the success of the movie, when suddenly all of it was about to change. The character of Jacob goes through a lot of changes physically. The director wanted to cast someone else in the sequel. But Taylor was not going to let that happen. He bulked up, gained 30 pounds and built a great physique for the role. Taylor got to reprise the role and the sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon was a super hit.

Taylor then starred in Valentine’s Day (2010), a romantic comedy with a huge star-cast. This movie too was a hit and opened in at number in the charts. Overall the movie did a business of more than $200 million. Next came the third part in the Twilight franchise. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was biggest movie of the series so far. The movie collected close to $700 million and only further increased Taylor’s popularity.

Taylor is currently filming two movies; Abduction (In Production) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Both the movies are expected to be released in 2011. Taylor being only 18 years has had an uneventful love life, but he is still young and wants to concentrate more on his career.