Tara Crespo
- Actress
Tara was born in New York City to parents of Irish, Russian and
Ecuadorian descent. Being a native New Yorker, she thought her hometown
was the center of the universe. When it came time to go to college,
Tara decided to follow in the famous footsteps of actor
Denzel Washington and chose to attend
Fordham University in the city. She had auditioned for and got a
singing scholarship and was thrilled to explore her alto voice and pay
for school, at the same time. The two singers she most admires are
Etta James and "La Princessa de la Salsa",
La India. After graduating with a
bachelor's degree in English Literature from Fordham University, Tara
began her acting career. She spent a few months building her resume,
and then realized it was time to broaden her horizons and move to Los
Angeles. Crespo started working in film, commercials and television.
Tara was thrilled to book a role with
Cuba Gooding Jr. in
Murder of Crows (1998), as
the young lady in awe of his character at a book signing. Soon after,
she got her first starring role in
La Cucaracha (1998) as "Lourdes
Aguirre", opposite Eric Roberts and
Joaquim de Almeida, as the innocent
girl, in a small Mexican town, who the two men fall in love with. Tara
then left acting to have a family. Her sons, Aidan and Roman, are her
heart and soul. Once her sons were a little older, Tara was blessed
with a phone call from producer/manager Denise Barrett, giving her the
opportunity to be in a film project Denise was working on. Crespo
welcomed the chance to come back to acting, and the two women then
worked together to bring Tara back to the industry. Barrett suggested
her new discovery learn how to do stunts and start training in martial
arts. Tara had the good fortune to be invited into
Bob Yerkes' stunt training, where she
learned high falls, acrobatics, the ratchet and how to fly with an air
ramp. She is honored to learn from a legend in the stunt community. The
golden opportunities in training continued. Tara started working with
Third Degree black belt in Hapkido and Combative Concepts founder,
Tony Villalobos. Under his guidance and
teaching, Crespo has learned kick boxing, weapons disarm, joint locks,
grappling and fight choreography. Crespo booked a cameo role in
The Bronx Bull (2016), in a scene
with Joe Mantegna,
William Forsyth and
Tom Sizemore. Tara plays the flirtatious
woman who breaks up their fight with a kiss. Her second role as
"Saundra White" in "Clean Ops" gave Tara the chance to showcase her new
skills as a martial artist in a vicious fight to the death with
Gloria Govan. Despite their
characters being enemies, Tara absolutely loved working with Gloria.
Crespo and the VH1
Basketball Wives (2010) star
were thrilled at how much fun they were having beating each other up.
Up next, Tara is set to play in the upcoming
Digger Mesch romp, "Agent 88". Tara resides
in Los Angeles with her two sons.
