Taylor Lautner
Taylor Daniel Lautner[1][2] (/ˈlaʊtnər/;[3] born February 11, 1992) is an American actor. He gained fame for playing werewolf Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga film series (2008–2012).[4][5]
Taylor Lautner
Actor
2001–present
Lautner began his acting career playing bit parts in comedy series such as The Bernie Mac Show (2003) and My Wife and Kids (2004), before having voice roles in television series like What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2005) and Danny Phantom (2005). In 2005, he appeared in the film Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and starred in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D. He also starred in the 2011 action film Abduction.
From 2014 to 2018, Lautner starred in the BBC sitcom Cuckoo as the son of the titular character. In 2016, he played a leading role, Dr. Cassidy Cascade, in the second season of FOX black comedy series Scream Queens.
The late 2000s saw Lautner become a teen idol and sex symbol, after extensively changing his physique to keep the role of Jacob Black in further Twilight installments, and generating media attention for his looks. In 2010, he was ranked second on Glamour's "The 50 Sexiest Men of 2010" list, and fourth on People's "Most Amazing Bodies" list. Also in the same year, Lautner was named the highest-paid teenage actor in Hollywood.
Early life
Lautner was born on February 11, 1992,[6] in Grand Rapids, Michigan,[6] the son of Deborah and Daniel Lautner.[7] His mother works for a software development company, while his father was a Midwest Airlines pilot.[7][8] He has one younger sister named Makena.[7] Raised as a Roman Catholic,[9][10] Lautner has Dutch, French, and German ancestry, and has stated that he has "distant" Native American ancestry (specifically Odawa and Potawatomi, both Anishinaabe peoples) through his mother.[11][12] He grew up in Hudsonville, Michigan, a town near Grand Rapids.[13] He has stated that he was bullied in school because he was an actor. He commented, "I just had to tell myself 'I can't let this get to me. This is what I love to do. And I'm going to continue doing it.'"[14]
He took his first karate class at the age of six.[7] A year later, he attended the national karate tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, where he met Michael Chaturantabut, the founder of Xtreme Martial Arts. Chaturantabut invited Lautner to a camp he held at University of California, Los Angeles.[7] Lautner trained with Chaturantabut for several years, earning his black belt by the age of eight, and winning several junior world championships.[13] He appeared in an ISKA karate event televised on ESPN in 2003[15] that was later lampooned on the sports-comedy show Cheap Seats that first aired in 2006.[16]
In junior high, Lautner—who was involved in karate, baseball and hip-hop dance—won the award for "Best Smile" and played in the school's Turkey Bowl American Football game.[17] He went to public school at Valencia High School in Santa Clarita, California until his sophomore year.[18] Chaturantabut, who once portrayed the Blue Ranger in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, suggested to Lautner that he take up acting.[7] For a few years, the Lautners flew from Michigan to Los Angeles for auditions when his talent agency called, and returned to Grand Rapids for school sometimes the same day.[7] Lautner balanced karate and acting with being on the football and baseball teams at his school, and taking up jazz and hip-hop dance.[19] After that became tiring, Lautner and his family decided to move to California for a month, to try it out, before moving to Santa Clarita, California, in 2002.[7][19]
Career
2001–2007: Career beginnings
In his first months after moving to Los Angeles, Lautner appeared in small television roles, small film roles, and ads and commercials. In 2001, Lautner first appeared in the made-for-television film, Shadow Fury. He then got a voice-over job in a commercial for Rugrats Go Wild.[13] He then appeared in small television roles on The Bernie Mac Show, My Wife and Kids, and Summerland.[7] Lautner then earned voice-over roles in animated series such as Danny Phantom, Duck Dodgers, and What's New, Scooby-Doo?. The same year, he earned his first breakout role, starring in the film, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.[7] Lautner spent three months on location in Austin, Texas, to film the movie,[7] which was received with negative reviews from critics, and was a minor international success. However, Lautner was nominated at the 2006 Young Artist Awards for Best Performance in a Feature Film by a Leading Actor.[20] For the film, Lautner choreographed all of his fight scenes after director Robert Rodríguez learned of his extensive martial arts training.[19] Months later, he played Eliot Murtaugh in Cheaper by the Dozen 2, which was panned by critics, being named one of the "Worst Films of the 2000s" by Rotten Tomatoes.[21] After returning from Canada filming the latter movie, Lautner said he realized his newfound fame, from Sharkboy and Lavagirl.[7] In 2006 he appeared in the show Love Inc. and the TV special He's a Bully, Charlie Brown. Two years later, Lautner appeared in a lead role in the short-lived NBC drama My Own Worst Enemy, portraying Christian Slater's son, Jack Spivey.[22] Rolling Stone coined his early roles as either "the popular kid, jock, or bully."[14]
2008–2009: Breakthrough and The Twilight Series
In 2007, filmmakers began a search for actors to portray Jacob Black, a Native American friend of lead character Bella Swan in Twilight, the first film in The Twilight Saga film series.[22] In January 2008, an open casting call was held in Portland, Oregon. Lautner had not heard of the Twilight series before, but was urged by his agent to audition.[22] At his audition, he read lines with Kristen Stewart, who had already been cast as Bella, and they acted out scenes from The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.[22] The film was a commercial success, earning $69 million its opening weekend, and has grossed $392 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, having a "Rotten" rating with a weighted average of 5.5/10.[23] In describing the critical consensus, it stated: "Having lost much of its bite transitioning to the big screen, Twilight will please its devoted fans, but do little for the uninitiated."[23] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, it has an average score of 56 from the 37 reviews.[24] At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Lautner was nominated for Male Breakthrough Performance, which was won by co-star Robert Pattinson.[25]
Personal life
Lautner has an intricate workout plan, which was covered by Men's Health, and has a specific diet after developing his body for The Twilight Saga: New Moon.[8] In addition, he still practices and trains in martial arts regularly.[8][14] He has stated that he is drug- and alcohol-free.[14]
Lautner is a fan of the Detroit Lions.[67]
While filming Valentine's Day in October 2009, Lautner began a romantic relationship with co-star Taylor Swift; they broke up later that year.[68][69] After filming Abduction with Lily Collins, he began dating her in November 2010. They split in September 2011.[70] From 2013 to 2015 he was in a relationship with Canadian actress and Tracers co-star Marie Avgeropoulos. Lautner began dating actress and Scream Queens co-star Billie Lourd in December 2016; the two split in July 2017.[71] In 2018, Lautner announced that he was dating Taylor "Tay" Dome, a nurse from California. The pair married on November 11, 2022, in California. Lautner previously stated Dome would take his last name upon marriage, making her name "Taylor Lautner".[72]