Birth Date: September 15, 1985
Weight: 50kg/102lbs
Height: 165cm/5' 6"
Languages Spoken: English, Thai, and a little Spanish
Joined MTV: January 2008
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Music Videos: All Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson videos, a big handful of Madonna videos, Amel Laurrieux - "Get Up", Jamiroquai - "Virtual Insanity", RJD2 - "Work It Out", Gwen Stefani - "Cool", D'Angelo - "Untitled", Guns N' Roses- "November Rain", Bjork - "It's So Quiet", Fiona Apple - "Criminal", REM - "Everybody Hurts", Tori Amos - "Silent All These Years"
Actors: Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling, Al Pacino, Robert Deniro, James McAvoy
Actresses: Angelina Jolie, Rachel McAdams, Ellen Page, Lucy Liu, Kate Beckinsale, Kiera Knightly, Natalie Portman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Movies: Aladdin, Moulin Rouge, Love Actually, Dirty Dancing, The Neverending Story, Breakfast At Tiffanys, Gigi, Juno, Sleeping Beauty, Hitch, Princess Bride, Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Lucky Number Slevin, City Of God, Gone With The Wind, Love & Basketball, 300, Pan's Labyrinth, In Her Shoes, The Secret Garden, Little Princess, My Best Friend's Wedding, Star Wars, Apocalypto, Troy, Running With Scissors, V For Vendetta, Fight Club, The Pursuit Of Happyness, Se7en, American History X, The Departed, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Hotel Rwanda, Marie Antoinette, Ratatouille, Back To The Future, Kill Bill, Indiana Jones, The Green Mile, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Children Of Men, Crash, Letters From Iwo Jima, Perfume, Stand By Me, The Sandlot, Toy Story, Roman Holiday, La Bamba, Crazy/Beautiful, Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Romeo & Juliet, 50 First Dates, Love Me If You Dare, Stardust and so many more.
TV Shows: MTV! I'm also a huge Food Network addict. I love Will & Grace, Friends, Sex & The City, M*A*S*H, Entourage
Cartoon: Family Guy
Books: The Alchemist, Eleven Minutes, I Sat Down By The River Piedra And Wept, The Secret Garden, Memoirs Of A Geisha, Island Of The Blue Dolphins, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Life Of Pi, Truth, A Wrinkle In Time, Molokai'i, Siddhartha, Tuesdays With Morrie, The Island, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Life Of A Wallflower, One Thousand Years Of Solitude, It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be, The Secrets Of A Fire King, Blink, The Memory Keepers Daughter, Alice In Wonderland, Whatever You Think Think The Opposite, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Catch 22, The Giving Tree, Bum Rush The Page, anything by E.E. Cummings, Pablo Neruda, Bukowski and Agatha Christie
Countries/Cities Visited: I love Italy, Japan, Australia. But I can't wait to discover the rest of the world.
Food: I LOVE food and I'll never turn it down! It's impossible to pick just one dish but I love Italian, Japanese, Hawaiian, Thai, and of course junk foods and all things sweet!
Color: Turquoise. I like jewel tones.
Activities: Beach days are my favorite because I can lay on the beach and listen to music, picnic with friends, surf, play volleyball, read a book, and completely enjoy being alive.
Mobile Ring Tone: I'm in between phones right now but my last ring tone was "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison (Love that song!)
February 2008
VJ TAYA
By Lennat Mak
Wonder how our new MTV VJ Taya got her fabulous tan? The affable, sunny 22-year-old dabbled in various sports like track & field, swimming, basketball, surfing and snowboarding before she moved to Singapore for a whole new career with MTV Asia. Now that she's in the Lion City and can't really surf or snowboard, she's giving wakeboarding a try. No one could epitomize the term "sporty" better than she does!
And if you find Taya familiar, you've probably seen her in the Boys Like Girls music video for the song "The Great Escape." Being the only child, Taya was initially a shy kid but overcame all the teenage bashfulness when she decided to give the entertainment industry a go. Read on and find out more about this new addition to the MTV VJ family!
Congrats on being the new addition to the VJ family! Can you tell us a little bit more about how did you land the role of a MTV VJ?
I came in and did the audition at the beginning of summer last year. MTV just kept bringing me back to try out with the audience and all the different VJs. I was sent to interview The Rock for MTV News, which was completely exciting and really terrifying at the same time.
How was it like working with Denise and Utt? Do you have a favorite?
No favorite but definitely different vibes. Obviously one's a girl and one's a boy. [Laughs] First off, if I work with Denise, we can talk about which guy and which artist is hot. If I'm VJ-ing with Utt, he's going to be like "She's hot!" Both of them are so good at what they do and they are so experienced. They have been with MTV for a long time so when I'm working with them, I'm trying to see what is it that makes them so good at what they do and how I can improve by working with them. Working with someone who's good at their job makes it much easier.
Do you look up to them as mentor figures?
Definitely. But they are really friendly. They don't carry themselves like they are above me or anything like that. In my perspective, I'm still a newbie and I'm really looking up to them. And they are treating me like, "Hey, you are on our team now. Congratulations!"
You mentioned you interviewed The Rock. Was it your first interview assignment?
Yeah! He was really cool and I was scared 'coz you know, The Rock is like 10 feet tall and huge and you kind of expect him to be intimidating in real life. You go in for five minutes and it was all they gave you. And I was like, "Okay! First of all, I've got to get my questions straight; I've got to think about the movie and try to make the interview good!" Whether he's an interesting guy in real life or not, I didn't really know before hand. But he was really cool, which really helped the interview. He was really down-to-earth and friendly and it came across that way. Once I got in there and started talking to him, all my nerves were gone!
What were you doing before you took up VJ-ing?
For the past six months, I was doing a drama in Thailand. That's where I started to work in the industry. I started working there when I was 12 but when I was 15, I moved back to California to finish high school and university. I was flying back once or twice a year to do work in Thailand. I just graduated in May 2007 before I got the drama in Thailand.
12 is a pretty young age to get started in the industry!
I was 12 and a (talent) scout wanted me to model in Thailand. I was like "No thanks!"
Why not?
'Coz I was really shy when I was little and I was really terrified of people! My mum was like, "Please do this so you won't be a loser and not have friends!" [Laughs] She knew that I was really ambitious and driven but I was really shy. She was really afraid that I won't reach out to my goals.
How did you overcome your shyness?
You just have to suck it up and do it! I went to auditions and I was like, "Alright, just get this over with!" Five auditions later, I booked two commercials, a music video and a movie. Within the first six months of my work, I booked all these different jobs and I started finding out that I really like it. It's fun and I'm bringing out the part that I always wished I could. So I ended up being really thankful for that.
You were a straight A's honor roll student. Did you foresee yourself doing all these after graduation?
Yes. I wanted to get a degree, I wanted to go to school and I liked going to class. But I always knew that I wasn't going to intern or find a 9-to-5 desk job. I wanted my Communications and Marketing degree but I didn't want to put it into use in L.A. When I graduated, I don't know what I was going to do just yet but I knew what I wanted to do, which was working in the industry.