Tara started modeling in her early teens.
"I was discovered when I was 13 at Fisherman's Wharf," she recalls. "I was on the pier, and I was with my father, and I was wearing an Ozzy T-shirt and ripped-up jeans. I bleached my hair. I was a punk kid."
Tara spent five years as a fashion model (Ford Agency), but she wanted to do something more with her life. "When I was modeling, there wasn't a lot of work for girls of mixed ethnicity, though I think now that's changed. When I came into the adult business, I didn't think I'd make it. I thought, 'Oh, I don't have blond hair, blue eyes and silicone boobs.' So I'm really happy to be here. I wanted to be the first girl who other girls could admire and look up to and go, 'Wow, sex is okay. She's beautiful and she's intelligent and she's personable and this is great, but she's open about her sexuality too.' So that's my agenda. That's why I'm here."
A tall order for a 23-year-old, but Tara is audacious. For example: Somewhere between photo shoots all over Europe and the Far East and med school, Tera and her dad bought a llama/alpaca ranch. In Argentina. This led to Tera's interest in rock climbing and spelunking the Andes, which she counts among her favorite forms of relaxation - besides reading. "I'm very boring," she says of her off-screen life.
Tara used her modeling money to pay her way through medical school.
Tara's first XXX role was in Andrew Blake's Aroused.
"It was really great to work with him, and it was really good for me, since I'd never done anything nude like that," Patrick recalls. "He's a very good director, and he was able to tell me exactly what he wanted me to do. And he's great about making you look so beautiful."
"I've done a lot of foot fetish stuff. People seem to like my long toes. I have long, slender feet with long, graceful toes and a really high arch. I [did] a lot of work for FM Concepts under the name Brooke Thomas, and I did a lot of bondage under the same name."
Bondage?
"I'm fascinated by fetish and bondage," Tara admits, "but in my personal life, I can't say I practice it. I don't mind being tied up, but I don't like to be - well, I do like to be smacked around... It comes out now: I like to be beat up. I don't like to be whipped, though, but I like to be slapped and choked and all that. But when it comes to sex, I'm a pillow queen. I just lie there and make the guy do all the work. The guys I work with will tell you that."
Tara's first boy/girl scene was in Fire & Ice from Adam & Eve.
"It was a hard movie for me, but it was great, because Jane Waters, who's one of my dearest friends, shot camera. I was terrified. I didn't know what to do. I was having sex like I have sex at home, and I didn't know what these 'code words' were: 'b.j.', 'mish,' 'hardcore,' 'softcore.' I was completely lost, so if it hadn't been for Jane..."
Since her February 2000 Penthouse Pet appearance, Tara is now the contract gal/spokesmodel for Digital Playground, which is planning a publicity campaign built around her, plus they're putting together a Website for her with content unavailable from any other source.
"I decided I was going to go back and pursue my doctorate degree in microbiology," she notes. "I was going to get out of the business when I got this phone call one day from [Digital Playground owner] Samantha Lewis. She'd asked me to do a Virtual Sex. I'd just done a layout with Jenna Jameson, and she had only good things to say about them. I was really happy to do that project, and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.
"Virtual Sex is the best project I've ever done," she continues. "I got to do everything... a lot of girls don't get to see the editing, the pictures, any of the work they've done. Now that I'm a part of the family with Digital, I have control over my work, and that's so important to me."
Tara would also like to try a few mainstream projects, and plans some auditions for later this year.
Based on: Mark Kernes, AVN
Tara Patrick was born in Montana to a Thai mom and an English dad, but moved to San Francisco at a young age. Her mom returned to Thailand when Tera was young because, Tera opines, she "never got used to the climate."
"I got a degree in microbiology," she states proudly. "I love being a nurse, but it just wasn't paying the bills, and I really missed being in front of the camera, because that's really, truly what still inspires me today. [And] I'd always wanted to model nude, so I thought I'd give [adult] a shot.
Name
Tara Patrick
Also known as
Tera Patrick, Brooke Thomas,
Sadie Jordan, Sara Jordan, or
Linda Shapiro
Date of Birth
July 18, 1976
Place of Birth
Montana, USA
Ethnicity
Thai/English
Measurements
35D-24-36
