Taylor

Taylor Lucas Wolfe, known mononymously as Taylor, (born October 19, 1987), is an American recording artist, television actor, model, celebrity spokesperson & entreprenuer.

Taylor rose to fame in 2004 where he played a major role in the teen drama television series, Summerland. In 2009, he launched his music career and quickly gained worldwide success with his first two studio albums, Trash Me and Pass Me By. To date he has sold over 8 million albums worldwide and has had all of his singles reached the top ten of the singles charts in the United Kingdom and the United States.

In 2010, while still pursuing his music career, Taylor returned to television where he starred in the highly rated, critically acclaimed, and award winning sitcom, Fratorities, in which he co-created and serves as executive producer. In 2011, he plays a supporting but important character in the Hollywood thriller The Hunger, with him starring opposite Paulo Araujo and MIDNIGHT.

Taylor is also known for his enterprenuership and his groundbreaking endorsement deal with Avon, where he became the first male spokesperson for the cosmetics company which is primarily marketed to women. He also has endorsement deals with various brands and companies such as DKNY, Zoo York, T-Mobile, and BlackBerry.

Early Life & Discovery (1987 - 2004)
Taylor was born to parents Jonah & Darlene Wolfe on 19 October 1987 in Rockwood Tennessee. Taylor is one of four children born to Jonah & Darlene and is the second youngest of the four children. Jonah worked as a self-employed plumber in Tennessee for eighteen years before he quit in 2001.

He is the brother of successful recording artist, model, and entrepreneur, Syd Wolfe. He also has a younger brother and another older sister.

The Wolfe family lived in Rockwood, Tennesse until 2001 when Taylor's father quit his job as a plumber and relocated his family to Los Angeles, California in order to have his children follow their dreams and aspirations. Once in Los Angeles, Jonah quickly found work and the Wolfes lived as happy financially-comfortable middle class family.

Taylor and his siblings attended Los Angeles High School and was apart of the graduating class of 2006. According to his transcript, he graduated with a 3.4 grade point average. Taylor attended high school while he was shooting his television show Summerland. Taylor briefly left Los Angeles High because of his conflicting schedule and was subsequently taught on the set of the show by a tutor. He eventually returned to LAHS to graduate.

Summerland


In 2004, Taylor auditioned for the role of Cameron Bale on the US teen drama television series, Summerland. He eventually won the part and this became not only his first major acting role, but his first ever.

Summerland first aired in September 2004 on The WB network and ran for two seasons; the show ended and went off the air in May 2006. Taylor featured for 7 episodes in season one and was promoted to a season regular in season two, where he appeared in all of the episodes.

The portrayal of his character and his performance were often praised by critics, as Taylor's character had an extremely difficult time on screen. Throughout the duration of the show, Cameron had to deal with his mother battling cancer and eventually passing away in season two. Due to his performance on the show, Taylor earned his first Emmy Award nominations for Best Young Actor and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Taylor also won the award for "Teen Heartthrob" at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, leading him to be midly popular on the teen circuit ever since. Summerland had both of its seasons released on DVD and is still syndicated and broadcasted worldwide.

His time on Summerland led to Taylor being offered a major role in ABC daytime soap opera All My Children. Taylor, however, declined the offer.

After Summerland, he opted to return to education and kept a low profile until his return to the spotlight in 2009. Taylor would not return to television until 2010 with the success of his sitcom, Fratorities.

Fratorities


In 2010, Taylor marked his return to television by signing on to star in the ABC Family sitcome television series, Fratorities. He developed and created the show with David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The show instantly became a major ratings hit and was also a critical success; in 2011, it was nominated for an Emmy for Best Comedy Series. So far 22 episodes have been ordered from the show and in July 2010, the show as renewed for a second season by ABC.

"Fratorities" followed 5 American college students (2 male & 3 female) who are forced to share their dormitory due to funding issues at their school. Each episode's storyline focuses on how the students begin to enjoy each others company and become close friends, then we follow their college life and the things they face in their day to day lives.

In season one, the ensemble cast was made up of former popstar Camilla Holmes, who starred as Jenny, and Pat Bevan from Gingers+Jesus, who was cast as Taylor's grandmother. Three relatively unknown actors rounded out the cast; Kate Snow (Melody), Matt Hatcher (Leon) & Fatima Goldsack (Jade). The majority of the core cast were replaced for the second season.

Season two of the show will begin as a mid-season replacement to an underperforming ABC show in February 2011; 10 episodes have already been filmed.

Since the majority of the core cast from the first season were to be written out in the second season opener, three new cast members were brought in. Much speculation about the three new characters has been rumored, however there has been no official announcement from Taylor or ABC about the identities of the three actors. Many believe popstar and friend of Taylor's, Paris will be joining the cast. It is also rumored that Taylor's former girlfriend, Venus Vegas, will be joining as a supposed promo appeared on the internet.

ABC has since confirmed that three new actors have been signed on to the show, but the format will stay the same. They also revealed that the show would now have 'special guest stars'.

The shows theme song is "I Hate You All" and is performed by Taylor, who is credited by his full name in the shows titles and on promotional posters.

The show is broadcasted on ABC on Wednesday nights at 8/7 in the US & on Thursday nights at 8:30 on ITV2 in the UK. It is also broadcast worldwide.

A DVD containing the complete first season was released in the US on December 14, 2010.

Film career (2011 to present)
Taylor was given the supporting role in the Hollywood film, The Hunger. The film also stars Paulo Araujo and MIDNIGHT.

Taylor has received positive buzz from his performance and is receiving "Oscar buzz" as well because of his role he portrayed in the film.

Trash Me (2009)


In 2009, Taylor released his debut album, Trash Me. Released and distributed by Elite Records, the album was critically and commercially successful where it went Diamond in the UK and also went 4x Platinum in the United States. It also debuted at #1 in the UK, US, Canada, and most of Europe and also went to the top ten in Ireland and Japan. The album was certified either multi-platinum, platinum, or gold in many other countries as well. A re-release of the album, Trash Me: Platinum Edition, was released shortly after the album went Diamond in the UK, where it featured six new tracks including the single "A Little Bit Too Far Gone".

The project spawned four singles which all reached the top ten in the US and the UK. "Trash Me" debuted at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and also reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart. Two more singles from the regular version of the album, "Guys & Dolls" and "Never Gonna Rescue Me", were also released and also became top ten successes in the US and UK.

"A Little Bit Too Far Gone" was released as the fourth single from the entire project and was the first from the re-release of Trash Me. Featuring New Zealander pop singer Crystal Barker, the single would be his biggest hit in the UK at that time where it reached #3 in the UK and Ausralia and also reached #9 in the US. Another single from the re-release, "Aim & Shoot", was planned for release but it was cancelled as Taylor wanted to start work on his sophomore album.

Pass Me By
Taylor parted ways with Elite Records during the promotion for his debut album, he then signed with Saturdays Records who took the reigns of this project. During this time, for his music career, he decided to be called by only his first name.

The singer had initially gone away to make a more rock oriented sound sophomore album, but instead began to record pop tracks. In 2010, Taylor released his sophomore album, Pass Me By.

The album features 6 collaborations (making up half of the tracklisting) and Taylor wrote just 4 of the 12 tracks on the record. It's first (and only single from the first release) was a collaboration with newcomer Butterscotch titled "A Little Less Talk, A Little More Touch Me". Though it charted at #4 on the UK Singles Chart, it was a relatively mild success in comparison to the four singles from his debut album. The single quickly fell down the charts and only sold 184,428 copies in the UK. Worldwide, it was met with the same reception where it peaked at #9 in Australia and #23 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song was planned to be released in the US but its official release was cancelled at the request of Taylor. Instead it was only released as a promotional single in the US where it charted at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 on digital sales alone.

The album debuted and peaked at #1 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Platinum in its fifteenth week. In the US, the album peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and #4 in ARIA Albums Chart in Australia and also on the Canadian albums chart.

Pass Me By2
After the relatively mild reception to the second album and its lead single, Taylor decided he needed a refresh and enlisted Jive Records to help him with his new transition. Spending 3 months recording new material, Taylor came back in October with a complete make over, a new style and a revamped album in which he titled Pass Me By2.

Pass Me By2 was Taylor's first transition into R&B music and the new style was well received both by fans and critics alike. The 10 track album consisted of urban remixes of previous Taylor album tracks and singles, plus 4 new tracks. Similarly to Pass Me By, this edition was heavy on collaborations. However, the collaborative artists were of the urban genre; Moodring, Genevere Johnson & L.E.X were just some of the artists featured.

The first single from Pass Me By2 was "She" (which was also the second single from the overall Pass Me By series). Produced by famed producer and rapper Kanye West, "She" proved to be Taylor's biggest hit where it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (becoming his first chart topper there) and reached #2 in the United Kingdom. The single also reached the top ten in many other countries also becoming his most successful single worldwide as well. Since its release, "She" has been nominated for a Grammy Award of Best R&B Song.

With the help of "She", the album managed to reached #1 worldwide in September 2010, including in the United States and United Kingdom. "Revolution Station" was the second single from the album (and third from the overall series) and was also highly successful where it reached #2 in the United Kingdom, United States, and eight other countries.

Pass Me By 3
After Pass Me By2 made such an impact, Taylor decided to do a triolgoy of albums for the Pass Me By series and ended it with a third and final album which consisted of 8 tracks, titled Pass Me By3. The album was released in stores on 10 January 2010.

Pass Me By3 was well known for its promotional campaign. Taylor's official website began an 'unlock' campaign in November 2010, which gave fans the chance to unlock 90 second previews of each track on the album by a free vote on his site.

The album, like the others, is heavily filled with collaborations with 5 on this album, bringing the total to 17 collaborations overall in the Pass Me By era. MIDNIGHT & Emily Henning were just two acts of the acts featured. The third installment of the collection was much more focused on an R&B style, moving on from the Hip Hop & Dance productions from the second collection.

Taylor told Interview Magazine that he "wanted the second and third to be completely different genres to the first one. The whole idea of the collection was to experiment with different sounds". Though it is part of the Pass Me By collection, there are no original songs taken from Pass Me By or Pass Me By2. However, a remix of "Revolution Station" featuring alternative singer Beastette was released as a iTunes bonus track. A commemorative boxset was also released the same day as the CD containing all 3 albums as well as a bonus DVD featuring all the music videos released from the collection so far.

The first single released from the album was "Promotion" and featured hot up and comer MIDNIGHT. The song was released worldwide in January 2011 and peaked at #1 in the UK. This also marked the first time Taylor would release different singles for different territories worldwide. He revealed during promotion in Madrid that Europe would receive a different track to "Promotion".

Endorsements and other ventures
Taylor has various endorsement deals with different companies and brands. In 2010, Taylor became the first (and to date) only male spokesperson/global ambassador for Avon and is the creative force in designing the company's first ever range of cosmetics for men. He is also in the final stages of creating a fragrance line with the company.

Taylor is also creative director for a range of underwear for fashion house DKNY & has a line of own-brand skateboards released through Zoo York. In the UK, he endorses T-Mobile & BlackBerry. He also has his own brand of Beats headphones which are constant best-sellers in the US and UK.

Personal life
Taylor had a long-term relationship with Macedonian urban pop singer Venus Vegas. Their relationship ended in late 2010. Since then, Taylor has been linked to urban pop singer MIDNIGHT and his fellow Fratorities co-star, Kate Snow.

Taylor admitted in an interview in mid 2010 that he was bisexual. Him admitting his sexual orientation came after much speculation that he was gay. He has also admitted that he has a crush on Jack Stevens.

Taylor oftentimes feuds with Brett Clarkson, who is seen by most of the media as a rival to Taylor.

Discography
Main article: Taylor Discography

Albums
2009: Trash Me 2010: Pass Me By

Singles
2009: "Trash Me" 2009: "Guys & Dolls" 2009: "Never Gonna Rescue Me" 2010: "A Little Bit Too Far Gone" 2010: "A Little Less Talk, A Little More Touch Me" 2010: "She" 2010: "Revolution Station" 2011: "Promotion" 2011: "Cry Them Tears" 2012: "Bullets"