Tara Donna Reid (born November 8, 1975) is an American actress. She began her television career with several guest appearances on television shows such as
Saved By The Bell: The New Class,
Days of our Lives, and
California Dreams. She is known for her recurring role as Danni Sullivan on
NBC comedy drama series
Scrubs.
Her screen debut came in
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987), followed by the hit films
The Big Lebowski (1998),
Urban Legend (1998), and
American Pie (1999). She has since portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in several films, including
Dr. T & the Women (2000),
Josie and the Pussycats (2001),
National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002),
My Boss's Daughter (2003), and
Alone in the Dark (2005).
Early life
Reid was born and raised in
Wyckoff, New Jersey, the daughter of Donna and Tom Reid, both of whom were teachers and day-care center owners.
She attended St. Elizabeth's Catholic Elementary, Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School,
Ramapo High School,
John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills and graduated from Barnstable Academy, an
alternative high school. She also attended
Professional Children's School, in
Manhattan, along with fellow actors
Christina Ricci,
Jerry O'Connell,
Sarah Michelle Gellar and
Macaulay Culkin.
Reid has twin younger siblings Colleen and Patrick and another brother, Tom.
Career
Reid began acting at age nine, being a regular on the game show
Child's Play, and appeared in over 100 commercials including
Jell-O,
McDonalds,
Crayola and
Milton Bradley. As a teenager, she was on
Saved By The Bell: The New Class and on
All My Children.
After moving to Hollywood in 1997, Reid transitioned to movies, landing her break out role in 1998's
The Big Lebowski, a
cult favorite, and her first #1 box office role. She finished the year by appearing in two more box office toppers,
Cruel Intentions and
Urban Legend. Reid portrayed the role of virginal Vickie in the wildly successful film,
American Pie (1999), which grossed over $102,000,000 in United States box office receipts and becoming her fourth #1 in a row. Reid starred in a string of unsuccessful movies, such as
Josie and the Pussycats and
Dr. T and the Women. In 2001 and 2002, she reclaimed her box office success with
American Pie 2 and
National Lampoon's Van Wilder, alongside
Ryan Reynolds. She returned to the small screen as a re-occurring character on the
NBC sitcom,
Scrubs, appearing in 11 episodes of Season 3. She appeared alongside
Ashton Kutcher in
My Boss's Daughter, for which she was nominated for both Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screen Couple at the 2004
Golden Raspberry Awards.
She played the main character in the 2005 horror film
Alone in the Dark. The film was panned by critics, and Reid received a
Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress. In January 2007, Reid filmed a commercial with
Daniel Conn for
Dodo, an
Australian budget telephone and
Internet provider. Reid signed on to host the
E! Channel's Wild On Tara Reid (later renamed
Taradise), a program that showcased high society vacations and hot spots. The show aired in October 2005 and was cancelled in February 2006, due to poor ratings, with only 8 of the 14 episodes aired. Between 2007 and 2008, she starred in a string of
direct-to-video films, including
7-10 Split/Strike,
If I Had Known I Was a Genius (which was released at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival), and
Clean Break/Unnatural Causes. She also played the main character in the
made-for-television horror film
Vipers. In 2010, she landed the role of Bonnie in the thriller
The Fields, which is scheduled to be released in 2011.
Reid also has designed a clothing line with
Ed Hardy designer,
Christian Audigier, entitled Mantra, which will hit high end department stores in 2009. Reid appeared in a pictorial in the January/February 2010 issue of
Playboy, although earlier reports had indicated she had posed nude for the magazine
Tara Reid will be teaming up with Hollywood PR flack Charmaine Blake to become the spokesperson for Human Trafficking. Tara Reid will be hosting a swanky Golden Globes dinner party with Jon Lovitz at Universal Studios Citywalk on January 16, 2011 starting at 3:30pm as reported by
Personal life
Reid was romantically linked to
Carson Daly starting in early 2000. Daly made a
cameo appearance in
Josie and the Pussycats (also starring Reid), in which he
jokes while attempting to kill Reid's character that the two could have had a romantic
relationship given different circumstances. In June 2001, Reid and Daly broke off their engagement.
She had previously dated
Russian hockey star
Sergei Fedorov.
In October 2006, Reid acknowledged in an interview with
Us Weekly that she had
liposculpting.
In the interview she discusses how her
plastic surgery "went wrong" and also explains why she decided to have plastic surgery done, saying that her breasts were uneven and that she wanted a "six pack" for a new movie role. The
liposuction resulted in deformity. In the same interview, Reid's new plastic surgeon, Dr. Steven Svehlak, reported that he performed a procedure called a "doughnut
mastopexy" to correct her original augmentation, and performed additional liposuction in hopes to even out her
stomach.
On January 18, 2010, Reid's boyfriend Michael Axtmann, an internet entrepreneur from
Nuremberg, proposed to her at The Little Door restaurant in Los Angeles. The couple had reportedly planned an intimate ceremony for summer 2010.
However, on April 20, it was reported that the wedding had been called off and her relationship with Axtmann had ended, with a representative stating: "Tara Reid has confirmed that she will not be moving forward with her May 22 nuptials."
