Biography

Tara Cardinal is the daughter of a psychic and a musician. Tara grew up on a small farm in Indiana. Cardinal moved out on her own at age 16 and worked three jobs in order to initially support herself. She was discovered in a shopping mall and acted in her first movie in 2006. Tara frequently appears in horror and fantasy films and likes to perform her own stunts. Moreover, Cardinal has not only acted on stage, but also has modeled for various comic book characters, performed at Renaissance Festivals, and even done live shows as a professional wrestler. A dedicated humanitarian and staunch advocate for children's rights, Tara co-founded the non-profit peer counseling organization C.L.U.B. (Children Living Under Blindness) at age 12 and has toured middle schools in both America and Canada educating children on their rights and resources since the age of 15. Cardinal has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. In addition, Cardinal writes poetry as well as writes for the websites the IndependentCritic.com and NerdRemix.com. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders

Originally from a tourist town in Canada, Cardinal was shuffled around until she ended up in foster care. At 12 years old, she co-founded a peer counseling organization dedicated to assisting children suffering from sexual abuse. By 16 she'd decided to move to the US to live the American dream, working 3 jobs to make ends meet. At 19, misdiagnosed with cancer and only holding a grade 7 education, she turned her life around, went back to school and earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology on full scholarship. A natural leader, she was unanimously elected president of the theatre club and held that position until she graduated. It was then she knew the movie business was the only place for her. Still in school and working a full time corporate job, she booked the female lead in the Warner Brother's slasher flick "Delivery". Soon, other offers came in. While juggling a budding film career, University and a full time job, she honed her improv skills at the Florida Renaissance Festival. Her first year performing as a man, because the festival director wouldn't let her sword fight as a woman.

A few films later, Cardinal combined the skills she'd learned at her corporate job, her love of the Renaissance and sword play, and her name as an up and comer to create "Legend of the Red Reaper". Seasoned pros and aspirings alike flocked to her side and the project took on a life of its own. No sooner was production underway than adversity came with it. Midway through filming, a co-production company embezzled 40% of the production funds - but Tara used her credit, her savings, and finally her own home to make up the difference. But it wasn't enough, and all of her above the line crew quit when the money ran out. Cardinal taught herself screen writing, submitted her body to a 4 month invasive medical study and became a professional wrestler to raise the money to finish the shoot. With no other producers on set, she promoted all of her department heads to producer and went on to direct and produce, while staring in the film. Her cast and crew stood by her side and the film was finished within months. Post production offered a new set of challenges. Over 120 minutes of footage was lost by a shady post house. Three editors failed to complete so much as a rough cut. One distribution company tried to extort the film from Cardinal, trying to use her hard won film as b-roll and putting Steven Segal in the lead. Cardinal held her ground and her movie, even when the big shots threatened to sue.

Finally, she caught the attention of movie mogul Uwe Boll, who took one look at the assembly her third editor compiled - and unfortunately passed.

Resolute, she made him a deal. If she edited a new cut, would he reconsider? He would and she did. But first, she had to learn how to edit. When Uwe Boll saw her cut, he decided on the spot to not only rep the movie, but to throw his full weight behind the project, bringing on an award winning post production team. Helmed by Cardinal, the movie was recut, colored and scored to reflect a new vision. As Cardinal evolved, so did the film. Cardinal polished the film with a personal narration, bringing the final product together as one cohesive unit.

In the midst of finishing Red Reaper, another project fell into her lap. Half finished, with 9 of 19 reels destroyed in a freak Fed-Ex accident, Cardinal put her skills to work, re-writing, re-casting, and re-shooting "Scarlet Samurai" (which originally went by the title "Terminal Descent"). Cardinal based the lead character on her martial arts master Sean Wyn, who trained her in both the physical and spiritual martial arts, creating a part Asian, part Jewish (lesbian) superhero infused with powers by her training in Buddhism. Cardinal not only stars as the samurai in training, but plays her own twin. She also co-edited both sound and picture, audio-mixed, color graded and did some of the visual effects.

In addition to creating two feature films, Cardinal also co-authored a novel based on the Red Reaper characters with fantasy novelist Alex Bledsoe. She is in talks to do a short run comic series for both properties and released an ashcan version of Red Reaper, featuring the art of George Perez at San Diego Comicon. She continues to accept roles in movies of all genres and her spare time gathers her celebrity friends for charity events at Dark Delicacies in Burbank. Since moving to Hollywood, California she has raised over $10,000 for charity to relieve the Tsunami victims in Japan, the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile, Homeless youth and abandoned dogs in Los Angeles.

She currently resides in Hollywood California where she is catching up on some much needed sleep in between producing charity events, writing novels and comic books, and creating superheros.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Basha Barron