Tara Reid was a promising starlet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but a series of unfortunate choices quickly reduced her to B-list status.
How did the American Pie star go from lovable girl-next-door to a messy tabloid topic? Get the whereabouts of Tara Reid today, and find out if she’s managed to leave her party-girl persona in the past.
Tara Reid Had A Promising Career
Reid has spent almost her entire life in front of the camera. She started acting at age six and was educated at the Professional Children’s School in New York, where her classmates included Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jerry O’Connell, and Donald Faison.
Reid appeared in dozens of major commercials as a child (Jell-O, McDonald’s, Crayola), but her breakout role came in her early twenties when she was cast in the 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. The following year, she starred as Vicky in American Pie—a role that kickstarted her reputation as a teen movie queen.
In the years following, Reid appeared in a handful of popular films: Cruel Intentions, Van Wilder, and an American Pie sequel. But she saw the big picture and envisioned career longevity that would outlive her teen flick phase.
“I’m proud of where I am at 26, so getting older is not so bad,” Reid told The Bryan Times in 2002. “I want to age on film. I want to be the old lady in Titanic one day.”
Unfortunately, her party girl exploits and other questionable choices began to outweigh her potential as a future Hollywood star.
She’s Made A Few Career Mistakes Since Her Big Break
Reid attached herself to projects with A-list stars: Richard Gere (Dr. T & The Women), Rosario Dawson (Josie and the Pussycats), and Ashton Kutcher (My Boss’s Daughter).
However, none of them helped advance her career. In fact, Josie and the Pussycats only made $14.9 million at the box office against a $22-39 million budget, resulting in an embarrassing commercial failure for the actress.
She later started receiving multiple nominations for Razzies. She was up for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screen Couple for 2003’s My Boss’s Daughter. When she won the Stinker Award for Worst Actress in 2005, it was the only accolade she had ever received outside of a Young Hollywood Award for American Pie.
Reid blamed her failed career on a number of bad decisions, including her one-season travel show, Taradise, and botched plastic surgery. But her penchant for partying didn’t help, either.
In 2008, after dancing on one too many tables, she checked into Promises in Malibu for a two-month detox. Just two months before the rehab stint, she told People she was a “social drinker” who enjoyed the occasional glass of wine.
Reid emerged ready to jump back into acting. From 2013 to 2018, she starred in six installments of the campy cult franchise Sharknado. Critics actually enjoyed the absurd premise, and Rotten Tomatoes described it as “so bad it’s good.”
At first, Reid wasn’t sold on Sharknado. “It was the worst movie I ever read,” she told W Magazine. But these days, she’s proud of her role in the franchise and even refers to herself as “cult kween” on Instagram.
What Is Tara Reid Doing Now?
Despite her resume of teen flicks and B movies, Reid is doing her best to stay relevant in Hollywood.
Earlier in 2021, she confirmed to ET that American Pie 5 is in the works. She revealed the existence of a script but said logistics had to be ironed out. Reid seemed thrilled by the prospect of reconnecting with her old castmates.
“We have to get all the actors and at the same time to get our schedules together,” she said. “We all stay in touch in different ways … When you grow up with someone and you get your first breaks with someone, you can never forget that.”
As of now, IMDB indicates the project is still in development, so it’s hard to say when the movie will actually be released. However, if it does come to fruition, It should be a nice change from her work in recent years, which includes a string of grim reality TV appearances (Celebrity Big Brother, Marriage Bootcamp).
She’s also working behind the scenes as a producer in the upcoming film Masha’s Mushroom. The thriller stars Reid, Vivica A. Fox, Billy Zane, and Beverly D’Angelo. Reid hasn’t shared too many plot details but believes it will be “a big franchise.” This is also in pre-production, according to IMDB.
We are glad to hear that Reid wants to shed her party-girl image. And given that she had a whopping 21 projects in progress as of early 2023 (according to her IMDB page), she certainly is keeping busy.