Who Is Tila Tequila, What Happened to Her and Where Is She Now?

Tila Tequila is a Singaporean-born American television and social media personality, musician, actress, and model best known as the queen of Myspace.

Although multitalented and known to be involved in many things within the entertainment industry, the singer is very controversial and well-known in the media space for that. The strong-willed celebrity has enjoyed great success, but she has also had to deal with a lot in life right from her early childhood.

Tila Tequila was Born to Parents of Vietnamese Descent

Tila was born to a Vietnamese father and a French-Vietnamese mother on the 24th of October 1981. At birth, her parents named her Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen, but her nickname eventually swallowed up her real name. Even though she was born in Singapore, she grew up in Houston with her older brother, Daniel, and Older sister, Terri. She lived in a strict gated Buddhist community till she was eight. As she grew, she started to change her environment a lot, a pattern she claims affected her negatively.

Concerning her education, the model managed to graduate from Alief Hasting High School in 2000 but never completed college because she was distracted by so many things at an early age. During one of her escapades, she had a near-fatal drinking experience because she was allergic to alcohol.

This won her the nickname Tila Tequila from her friends.
When she was only eleven years old, she joined a dangerous group in her locality and started trying addictive substances. At thirteen, she started drinking and going to nightclubs a lot. She used to use her sister’s credentials to enter clubs because she was not old enough to start attending them.

Later, when she was fourteen years old, she was transferred to a boarding school for some months, but that did not help to calm her down. She soon got her first tattoo and started smoking at age fifteen. At sixteen, she ran away to Queens, New York City. She got pregnant at seventeen but miscarried. Eventually, she went back to complete high school at Alief Hastings in 2000, and at age nineteen, Tila moved to California to start a career in modeling.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tila Tequila (@tila_tequilla)

Her Many Career Endeavors

From modeling to music, to acting, Tila Tequila has dabbled into many things although with different levels of success. Here’s a rundown of all the things she has ventured into.

She Started off Modeling for Playboy Magazine

Tila Tequila was inspired in the year 2000 to move to South California and start a career in modeling after a scout from Playboy made her an offer to model nude for the magazine. Two years later, in April 2002, Tequila was featured as Playboy’s Cyber Girl of the Week. She also did some photoshoots for the magazine. The star girl became the first Asian to be featured as the ‘Cyber Girl of the Week’ and ‘Cyber Girl of the Month’ for Playboy.

Apart from Playboy, the model also appeared in a number of other magazines, including Import Tuner and Maxim UK. By 2003, Tila joined a social networking site, MySpace. She soon gained popularity with over 1.4 million friends. She also started to gain fans on Facebook.

Tila’s Venture into Music was Hugely Unsuccessful Despite Her Doggedness

Ms. Tequila started paying attention to her musical talent after she turned twenty. She became interested in rock music but couldn’t find any band that she could join. As a result, she created ‘Beyond Betty Jean’, a band group of which she was the singer and songwriter, but not too long after, the band broke up.

Bent on pursuing her music dream, she went on to join another band called ‘Jealousy’. There, she became their lead singer, and the group released a few songs before they eventually broke up as well. Against all odds, Tila Tequila released her first song, ‘I Love U’ in 2007. Sadly, the song got a lot of negative reviews. She also released her first EP that year. By 2010, she released her second EP titled ‘Welcome to the Darkside’ and it got better reviews this time.

Later, on the 9th of October 2007, she released her second single, ‘Stripper Friends’. The song was available on different music sites but did not do well. The pretty lady was not discouraged, and she continued to release more songs.

She was Remarkably Successful as an Actress and Reality TV Star

Concerning her journey as a reality TV star, she started at age twenty-two with the VH1 series, ‘Surviving Nugent’. Later, she appeared in ‘Pants-off Dance-off’ in 2006 and NBC’s game show Identity. She appeared in more shows like ‘THS Investigates’, ‘Online Nightmares’ (2006), and ‘Bullrun: Cops, Cars and Superstars IV’ (2007). The show that made her more popular was ‘A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila’. Unfortunately, the show lasted for only two seasons. While the show was on, she made a comment that attracted a lot of criticism.

The superstar was an actress for a few years. During the course of her acting career, she featured in ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuk and Larry’ (2007), ‘Robot Chicken’ (2008), ‘My Dad Says’ (2011), and ‘Masterminds’ (2012).

Tequila also Authored a Book

To further explore her many talents, Tequila released her book on hooking up and socializing on the 2nd of December 2008. The book is titled Hooking Up with Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party.

What Happened To Tila Tequila?

Tila Tequila’s career nosedived after her antisemitic outbursts. She also attempted to take her own life. After her last appearance on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2015, she went under the radar, and fans became worried over her whereabouts. One of the things that caused her disappearance from social media was her comment about antisemitism.

As the bold and controversial speaker that she is, Tila took to her social media accounts in December 2013 to declare that she was in support of Hitler and antisemitism. She also showed her undying support for Trump in 2016, and she was met with a lot of criticism.

In 2013, she posted a controversial photo on Facebook that stirred up outrage from fans. This caused Facebook to block her account. Later, in a bid to show support for Trump, the actress posted a National Socialism salute picture, and this led to the suspension of her Twitter account. This greatly affected her social media presence, and she was soon nowhere to be found.

She Attempted Taking Her Life in 2013

Earlier, in 2012, the actress had attempted to take her life by overdosing on pills. This incident followed the death of her girlfriend, Casey Johnson, in her apartment and her eventual mental breakdown. She managed to survive, thanks to the early intervention of her roommate.

She, however, claimed that the overdose was an accident as she had only taken the pill to stop a headache, only to find herself vomiting a few minutes later. Her roommate, on the other hand, had insisted that she tried to take her life on different occasions throughout that week. Later, she started going to rehab in March. By April 2012, she had completed her treatment.

The Truth About Tila Tequila’s Sexuality

Tila previously revealed that she was gay through a Twitter post in 2009. She was also reported to have dated a few women like Casey Johnson (who was found dead in her house), Kate Major, and Courtenay Semel. However, in March 2018, the TV personality announced that she is not gay or bisexual. According to her, she only pretended to be gay in order to gain more popularity and boost her TV ratings.

Other people she has been involved with include;

• Ray J (2006)
• Bobby Banhart (2007)
• Dani Campell (2007)
• Kristy Morgan (2008)
• Will.i.am (2008)
• Billy Corgan (2009), and a list of others.

Is Tila Tequila Married?

Tila Tequila is not married yet, but the actress has been linked with different men and has two children with two of them. Her first daughter, Isabella Monroe Nguyen, who was born on the 16th of November 2014, is fathered by Thomas Paxton Whitaker. In August 2018, Tequila gave birth to her second daughter but did not reveal the identity of the baby’s father.

The former reality TV star is now focusing her attention on her kids and has previously revealed that having them saved her life.

Where is Tila Tequila Now?

Tila Tequila is enjoying her life away from the public attention and interest. She is focusing on raising her family and running her various businesses.

A few years ago, the popular singer picked up what was left of her career and turned a new leaf. In 2017, she started a YouTube channel after being banned on different social media platforms. On her YouTube channel, she talks about different controversial topics, including condemning lesbians and transgender people. She said they are an abomination. She also claims that she is now a repentant Christian and that she received a call from God to release testimonies.

In line with her new path, she promised to release gospel music. However, she is yet to release any as of 2021. Nonetheless, she continues to post YouTube videos where she talks a lot about the Lord and the messages he has sent to her. On her social media, she now goes by the name Tornado Thien.

FAQs about Tila Tequila

Who is Tila Tequila?

Tila Tequila is an American TV and social media personality who was quite popular on MySpace back in the day. She contested on Celebrity Big Brother and also got her own reality TV series on MTV.

How Old is Tila Tequila?

Tila Tequila is presently 42 years old. She was born on the 24th of October 1981 in Singapore. Her zodiac sign is Scorpio.

What is Tila Tequila’s Nationality?

Tila Tequila is of American nationality, though she was born to Vietnamese parents in Singapore. She migrated to the United States as a child and has since gained citizenship.

What is Tila Tequila’s Ethnicity?

Tila Tequila is of Vietnamese Asian ethnicity. Her parents are Vietnamese, and her real name at birth is Nguyễn Thị Thiên Thanh.

What is Tila Tequila’s Net Worth?

Tila Tequila’s net worth is $500,000. She earned her fortune from her modeling career, reality TV show appearances, etc.