Photo Source: ABC Family
From a small town in Mississippi, Taylor participated in local and statewide beauty pageants before moving to New York to work as a model. She did a notable stint on "Days Of Our Lives" in which her character, a homeless pregnant teen, gave birth onscreen.
She's made the move to primetime with the role Lennox, niece of Melissa Joan Hart's character on ABC's Family's new hit comedy "Melissa & Joey." Taylor has a dry sense of humor and is exceedingly polite, but does admit to listening to heavy metal when she's angry.
Chosen as this week's Actor2Watch, Taylor will be featured in a series or articles, fun facts and social media tweets through this week for subscribers of Girl2Watch.com.
Actor2Watch: What was your first real break as an actor?
Taylor Spreitler: I did a Motrin commercial. That was the first real acting I did.
A2W: Was your family supportive about your decision to go into showbiz?
TS: I have the most supportive parents and family in the entire world. I was in New York before I moved here, so some of us went to New York and some of us stayed in Mississippi. Then, some came to L.A. when I decided that I wanted to do film and TV and not so much Broadway and all that. My dad still lives in Mississippi, which kind of sucks.
A2W: What were the best and the most challenging parts of being a child actor?
TS: I never really encountered a bad part of being young. Sometimes you get torn in that you work in an adult industry but you're still a child, so you have to learn how to do both. You have some people who treat you like a child and some who treat you like an adult.
But that's really it. A lot of times it's just having fun. It was never really work—and it still isn't. I love it, so there's not really any bad part yet.
A2W: What kind of training have you received, and who do you study with now?
TS: Right now I'm not studying with anybody. I'm still kind of shopping around for an acting coach. I've worked with John Homa and Andrew McGary.
A2W: How do you use the Internet—Facebook, Twitter and your website—to advance your career?
TS: I think it's very helpful having Twitter and all that. I mainly talk about work on Twitter. I keep my personal life separate from my work life, but I think it helps because everybody's on the Internet now—everybody has Facebook, everybody has Twitter. I don't think people even have a MySpace [account] anymore, but everybody uses Google. So I think it's definitely helpful because it's easy to find follow people on Twitter and see what they're up to. It brings fans a lot closer.
A2W: Do you get recognized when you go out?
TS: I've gotten recognized a couple of times from "Days of Our Lives," but I haven't really been out of the house since "Melissa & Joey" aired. I went to the Geek Awards last night and one lady recognized me, but that was about it.
A2W: Is there anything you wish someone had told you when you first started out as an actor?
TS: I wish somebody would have told me "Don't try too hard," because when I was younger I wanted to try really hard. I wanted to please everybody and be this perfect, polite little girl.
And also a tip for people from the South: If you're trying to be an actor, do not call people in New York or Los Angeles "ma'am" because they get very offended because they think you're calling them old. I got yelled at in a commercial audition one time because I called the lady "ma'am."
