Born in Vancouver, Canada, Taryn O’Neill started down the path of performing arts at a very early age.  By age three, she had begun training in figure skating, ballet and jazz; soon after she became involved in piano and voice.  Taryn had her first experience on the stage at age eleven when she won the role of The Artful Dodger in a local production of “Oliver!”.  She immediately fell in love with the stage and the rush of performing to an audience. 

Acting, however, took a backseat for many years to figure skating.  By age thirteen, Taryn had partnered with now renowned ice dancer Victor Kraatz and they began their three year career as one Canada’s brightest young ice-dance teams.  They relocated to Montreal in order to train at the prestigious Boucherville training center and skating became a full-time career- culminating in a National Bronze Medal.  Taryn’s career was cut short, however, because of chronic knee injuries and she was forced to return to Vancouver and channel her artistic energies into another medium.

Taryn quickly re-immersed herself into the world of theatre and vocal production, and became one of the top talents at her school.  Academics was also a top priority for Taryn and she graduated 2^nd in her high school class, securing a place at Duke University.  While at Duke she majored in Economics, initially planning to pursue a career in law or finance, but her love of performing motivated her to minor in both drama and film.  Her involvement in the film program gave her the opportunity to spend a semester in Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California and intern at the Gersh Agency.  She soon realized that Wall Street wasn’t for her and she moved to L.A. after graduation.

For two years Taryn gained invaluable Hollywood experience as an agent’s assistant at the William Morris Agency and then as a junior talent manager at Alliance Atlantis Communications.  Her passion to perform, however, only got stronger with time and she left her position to pursue a full-time career as an actor.  Since then she has trained primarily with Alice Carter at the Cameron Thor Studio as well as at the Gastown Actors Studio in Vancouver and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles.  She completed numerous shorts through the UCLA and USC graduate programs and then won a featured role in the Universal Picture “Josie and the Pussycats”.  In March of 2001, Taryn won her first lead role in the independent feature “Puzzled” where she plays the role of ‘Julie’, a high-maintenance, sarcastic, spoiled ‘princess’ at a critical crossroads in her life.  The film also stars Mariah O’Brien, Jordan Ladd, Bryce Johnson, Glenn Badyna and Susan Sullivan and it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience. 

 Taryn is currently residing in Vancouver, pursuing roles on the numerous TV series and movies that are filmed in British Columbia and training with some of Vancouver’s best working actors at the Lyric Studio.