SCORPIO HOTTIE

The Multi-Faceted Taryn Manning Is Now Ready For Her Full Close-Up



By Nikki Playne



It's so easy to look at the fine bones, big blue eyes and porcelain skin of Taryn Manning and categorize her as just another born in Beverly Hills up and coming starlet.



But push aside the films including the breakthrough 8 Mile with Eminem and the critically lauded Hustle and Flow with Terrence Howard. Forget her upcoming roles in several major motion pictures slated for release this year. Ignore that she's the lead singer of Boomkats and has partnered with her best friend, actress Tara Jane, to relaunch their contemporary lifestyle clothing line, Born Uniqorn. Manning is anything but a stereotypical Hollywood prima donna.



First, there are the cultural and psychological changes when her mom sought to escape her abusive father and plucked Taryn and her brother from their childhood home in Falls Church, Virginia. Various moves, including to Arizona and California, brought more turmoil as her parents divorced and her father committed suicide. And, as an adult who moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and dancing, found her faced with a new set of cultural mores.



"If you want to read my diary, listen to my music," said Manning. "On my MySpace page the first song that comes up is "Runaway." It's sometimes you just want to run away from life. When you see so clearly but other people around you are trying to fake it. I'm just like, `Ok, I don't get you and you don't get me so I just need to run away. The video is cool because it's a party I throw, but I'm like a phantom at my own party. Everyone is so involved with themselves, so involved in their own conversations, and their lives are so much more interestingÉ it's like I'm a phantom and no one ever sees me. For me, that's like a big part of LA."



Of course, some people did see her. It was her mom's efforts, taking the young Manning to dance and acting classes, that got her career started. And, yes, some well-connected industry insiders she met through happenstance plugged her in with the right people who landed her a guest spot on the TV hit The Practice. But it's clear in talking to Manning that this is a woman who captains her own ship.



"It's been a long journey," said Manning. "A lot of people like to automatically assume that I knew someone, but I didn't know anyone when I came to Los Angeles. I went step one, head shot; step two, write a resume. I took dance classes, acting classes; I started on the ground floor and worked my way up."



And her star is still rising. She has at least two films slated for release this year: Jack Ôn Jill vs. the World, a comedy with Freddy Prinze Jr., and The Kill Theory a teens go to summer-camp horror flick with some gnarly twists. She's also on the brink of releasing her second album with Boomkats and re-launching her clothing line, Born Uniqorn.



"It's hard," she said. "I'm pretty much stressed a lot and I don't like living under those conditions. It's definitely hard when I go away to film; I take my laptop and am as involved as I can be. There are times I think, `Oh, God, what am I doing? I'm stretched so thin.' But then I'm so thankful and grateful I have created so many interesting things in my life."



Take Born Uniqorn, a twist on the phrase "Born Unique," which Manning and her best friend adopted as a mantra when they were 13-years-old. To Manning, the business, for which she and Tara Jane do all the designing and color selection, is just another creative outlet born from their early love of fashion.



For the complete story get ISSUE 82 "THE FASHION ISSUE"