Five Things You didn’t Know about Taylor Lautner

"Grown Ups 2" New York Premiere

Taylor Lautner is an American actor and model with an estimated net worth of $40 million. Lautner is best known for his role as Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga film series based on the novels of the same named by Stephenie Meyer. In total, the 22-year old actor has appeared in 14 films. His Twilight work is by far his most notable and successful. Outside of film, Lautner has appeared in 10 television series a lot of which has been voice-over work on series like What’s New Scooby Doo and Danny Phantom. In fact, Lautner started his career doing bits and pieces of work on comedy series like The Bernie Mac Show and My Wife and Kids.

Lautner’s rise to popularity is more so based on his physique and looks than his acting chops. No discredit to his work, but 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. Apparently good looks can get you quite far in Hollywood because that same year Lautner was named the highest paid teenage actor in Hollywood.

Those are the basics about Lautner you probably know (especially if your a Twilight fan), here’s what you may not know…

Interesting Ancestry

Lautner has quite a diverse heritage. He has Austrian, English, German, Swiss-German, French, Irish and Dutch heritage. He’s also gone on record saying that he has “distant” Native American roots specifically Ottawa and Potawatomi. He’s also a growin linguist as well as he speaks a little bit of Spanish and Native American.

Karate Kid

At the age of six Lautner took up karate. By the time he was eight years old he had won three gold medals at the World Karate Association. At the age of eleven he was number one in the world for NASKA’s Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons and Traditional Forms. So yes he could kick your butt.

Dancing Kid

Not only is Lautner a Karate Kid, he’s also a dancing machine. He even went on to make his own YouTube video for the song Apologize. He also participates in the hip-hop dance groups LA Hip Kids and Hot Shots.

Supportive Parents

When Lautner was seven years old his martial arts instructor encouraged him to audition for a Burger King commercial. He didn’t get the part, but he was clearly bit by the acting bug. Knowing this, his parents moved from Michigan to LA so he would have access to more auditions and have an opportunity to make it in Hollywood. Pretty amazing story of support from his parents.

Dating History

There’s no question that Lautner is popular with the ladies. He’s dated some interesting women in his life as well. In 2006, he was rumored to be dating Miley Cyrus. A few years later he was connected to Taylor Swift. Lautner is now connected to Marie Avgeropoulos and has been for several months. You can be sure his dance card is always going to be full.

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Similar Posts