Best Known As: Other

Gist:  Tila Nguyen She was raised in Houston, Texas but resides in West Hollywood, California. Her MTV reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila premiered on October 9, 2007 and ended July 8, 2008, after two seasons on air.

Life Facts:  Nguyen was born in Singapore, where her family emigrated from Vietnam after the Vietnam War. When she was a year old, she and her family lived in a neighborhood in Houston until they were admitted to a gated community run by a strict Buddhist temple. The family left the community when Nguyen was eight.

While in middle school, Nguyen became a tomboy and was eventually sent to a boarding school for six months for her combative behavior before transferring to another school. Later, friends outside the gang briefly helped turn her life around. However, her past caught up with her, and she fled to Queens, New York at the age of 16.

In July 2001 Nguyen started up her website entitled "Tila's Hot Spot". Originally it was a website featuring her information, quotes, blog, and pictorials including content that required adult verification and a monthly payment fee to view. Later the site format was revamped by TAJ Designs Inc. to feature all-ages content and information to promote her current career, business ventures, personal information, and a premium membership section including videos, non-nude picture galleries, blogs, and chat sessions. In 2008, Buzznet partnered with Tequila to transfer the site and transform it into a social network.

During 2005 Nguyen launched Tilafashion.com, a site featuring her custom line of clothing for men and women originally using the slogan "So hot you'll just want to take it all off!" In 2006 Tila created a website entitled "Tila Zone," which features content to use on Myspace and other social networking websites including layouts, widgets, and clipart.

Career Facts:  Tila used modeling as a stepping stone for other ventures. At age 20, she acted on her interest in rock music and started looking for bands willing to have her join. She eventually assembled a band called Beyond Betty Jean, for which she was singer and songwriter. Following the breakup of Beyond Betty Jean, Tila started working in recording studios to sharpen her vocal skills and wrote music. Tila Tequila became the lead singer of a band called Jealousy, which released a few songs online before breaking up.

A major turn in Tequila's music career occurred during the April 24, 2006 taping of MTV's Total Request Live. In an interview with the TRL VJs, will.i.am announced that Tequila was signed to the Will.I.Am music group, a record label under A&M Records. Despite her major-label signing, Tequila independently released her first single "I Love U" through iTunes on February 27, 2007, justifying the independent release through her desire to become famous by herself. She shot a music video for the song, which is available for free after the song is downloaded. A preview for the video debuted on February 14, 2007 on her MySpace page.

In March 2007, Washington-based record label The Saturday Team released an EP called Sex, by Tila Tequila. However, Tila claimed in a MySpace bulletin that the EP was not authorized for release by her, and was removed from most retailers. The Saturday Team won a legal case, making Sex available for digital purchase.

On October 9, 2007, the same day her reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila premiered, Tila released her second official single, "Stripper Friends". In mid-November Tila shot the video for her third single "Paralyze".

She shot the music video for "Stripper Friends" in early December 2007 at a Los Angeles strip club. The video premiered via Yahoo! Music on February 26, 2008 and was released to iTunes on March 4, 2008. The single failed to chart. On April 2, 2008 the music video for "Paralyze" was released, again via Yahoo! Music and the single was released to iTunes on April 8, 2008.

On April 7, 2009 the "I Love U Remixes" EP was released to digital music retailers.