Taryn Southern

Taryn Southern is an American filmmaker, TV host and digital strategist known her for her work with emerging technologies. She was formerly known for her work as a YouTuber, singer, and actress.

She was part of American Idol season three's Top 50, but first gained national attention with her YouTube video Hot4Hill during the 2008 Presidential race. She went on to host and executive produce DirecTV's first original series, Project My World before landing other jobs in the entertainment industry and building a YouTube channel.

In April 2019, Southern co-directed and produced her first full-length sci-fi documentary, I AM HUMAN with Elena Gaby, which explores the co-evolution of human and technology. I AM HUMAN had its worldwide premiere when it debuted at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Early life
Southern grew up in Wichita, Kansas and landed her first starring role in a pre-Broadway theatrical production at the age of 10. As a teenager, she co-hosted a regional talk show for WB Kansas that discussed teen issues. She graduated from Wichita East High School in 2003.

At 20, Southern graduated from the University of Miami, earning a B.S. in Anthropology and a B.A. in Journalism. While in school she competed in American Idol and received a grant to travel to Peru to study the shamanic use of ayahuasca among rainforest communities.

In May 2019 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Career
In 2004, at 17, she appeared on third season of American Idol, making it to Hollywood week and the Top 50.

In 2006/2007, she produced a travel show, Project MyWorld, for DirecTV, which followed her and two friends as they traveled the world and met their MySpace friends.

On July 2, 2007, she released a comedic YouTube video called Hott4Hill in support of the first presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. In the video, which she wrote and performed as a satire of the Obama Girl video, she sings about how much she would like to see Clinton win the election. That same year, Southern appeared as a guest on Hardball with Chris Matthews and was hired to be the face of Cosmopolitan.com's first daily online series.

In 2008, she starred in the first online series for The WB, Sorority Forever, alongside best friend and lonelygirl15 star Jessica Rose. In November 2008, Southern and Jessica Rose launched Webutantes, a new media studio.

In 2008/2009, Southern wrote/produced her first comedic musical web series, Private High Musical, which was released across various media platforms, and which was later sold to MTV as a half-hour comedy pilot, with David Zuckerman (Family Guy) as co-writer/executive producer.

In 2010, she had a recurring role in the 5th season of the CBS comedy series Rules of Engagement, as well as a part in the movie Battle: Los Angeles as a reporter.

In 2011, Southern was a correspondent for the US version of The X Factor. She also provided voice overs for the character Judy on the Fred animated series on YouTube.

In 2012, she appeared as a guest star and voice on New Girl, American Dad!, The League, and Guys with Kids. Notably, Southern launched her YouTube channel in 2012 by releasing one video per week for a year. As of 2015, she had more than 450,000 subscribers.

In 2013, Southern released her comedy album, which contained a few earlier releases, reached #20 on the iTunes comedy chart, and was recognized by Billboard." The song “Crush”, which was on the album, made it to the Top 100 in radio play that August. Since then, Southern has released more than 50 original songs and covers as well as an 80's inspired album, Flashback Friday.

In 2013, Southern was hired to be a correspondent on Shark After Dark Live during Shark Week on Discovery Channel, which earned the #1 ratings spot in their time slot all week. Southern was later hired to continue her role as correspondent for Naked After Dark on Discovery Channel, a companion late-night show to Naked and Afraid.

In 2014, Southern's YouTube Channel was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #52.

In May 2015, Southern began hosting the 2000s and Today Countdown on The Pulse for Sirius XM. She also debuted a series with Marriott that was later renewed for a second season. Later in 2015, Maker Studios announced that they would be launching a late night talk show with Southern as the host. The series, which launched in 2015 and 2016, was an exploration of internet culture and featured guests ranging from celebrity/science enthusiast Seth MacFarlane and #1 Vine Star "King Bach" to psychedelic advocate Zach Leary and activist musician Kate Nash.

In 2016, Taryn was featured in article in Vanity Fair, alongside several other popular video creators.

By 2017, Southern had stopped posting regular content on her YouTube channel and removed many of her past videos. She cited the YouTube algorithm as problematic for the digital community, and a desire to focus on other creative endeavors and emerging technology.

In 2017, Southern received a grant from the Google VR Creator Lab to create several pieces of experimental VR content, one of which was later nominated for a streamy. Southern was also chosen to be an ambassador for The Geena Davis Institute Gender in Media #ShesGotDrive campaign to promote female voices in media.

Southern's VR project led her to begin work on her 2018 album titled I AM AI, where the backing music was generated using a variety of AI-based musical composition tools including Amper, an open source product which allows users to create music based on user generated inputs. The first single from I AM AI, Break Free, was released in August 2017 and features backing music generated using Amper. The song is about a woman who wants to break free of biological limitations. The album received international attention, and radio play in the US. For the song New World, Southern released a token using blockchain technology to enable hundreds of potential collaborators to split backend royalties on sales and streams of the track.

In 2019, Southern and co-director Elena Gaby premiered I AM HUMAN at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. The Winner of four "Best Feature" awards following its premiere, I AM HUMAN chronicles the emotional journey of three real-world pioneers with implantable brain interfaces: a paraplegic, blind retiree, an artist struggling with Parkinson’s, and the scientists and entrepreneurs on the frontlines of pressing technical and ethical quandaries. I AM HUMAN won: Best of the Fest at the 2019 El Dorado Film Festival, Audience Choice for Best Feature at the 2019 Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Outstanding First Feature at the Tallgrass Film Festival, Best Feature at Other Worlds Austin, Best Director at the Oslo Film Festival. I AM HUMAN was released on March 10, 2020 on video-on-demand platforms.

Discography

 * On My Face (2012)
 * Flashback Friday (2015)
 * I AM AI (2018)