Taylor Lautner

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Taylor Daniel Lautner was born on February 11th, 1992 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When he was six years old, he started studying karate and by seven he was already competing in tournaments and winning. His talent got him noticed and Taylor was asked to train with seven-time world karate champion Mike Chat. He competed in the World Karate Association where, at age eight, he became Junior World Forms and Weapons champion with three gold medals. By eleven years, he was number one in the world for NASKA’s Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons and Traditional Forms and when he was twelve, he had three Junior World Championships to his name.

Even though he spent his younger years in the karate world, he was interested in acting and went on auditions when he could and relocated to Los Angeles. In 2001, he made his feature film debut in Shadow Fury. Over the next few years, he was seen in guest starring roles on television.

In 2005, Lautner played Sharkboy in Robert Rodriguez’s The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D with Kristin Davis and David Arquette and appeared in Cheaper by the Dozen 2 with Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo and Tom Welling.

Lautner was then cast as Christian Slater’s son in the 2008 series My Own Worst Enemy, which was canceled after only 9 episodes. Taylor didn’t have to worry about slipping in obscurity though, as he was then cast as Jacob Black, the teen who has a crush on Kristen Stewart in Twilight with Robert Pattinson.

In 2009, he returned to The Twilight Saga: New Moon. In 2010, he appeared in the Garry Marshall comedy Valentine’s Day, whose cast featured Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift…among others. He’ll also be in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

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