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Thai Tai's Vietnamese name is Thai Manh
Tai. As a youngster in Vietnam, he lived with his family in Nha Trang and
then Saigon. He is the third child in a family of nine children with two
older sisters, and six younger siblings. In 1975, Thai Tai came to the
United States with only his two sisters, and one brother. They first came
to Guam, settled in Dallas and finally moved to southern California in 1981.
In 1984, his family was reunited through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP).
Thai Tai was "discovered" while working in a clothing boutique on Melrose
Avenue in southern California at the age of 18. He modeled for printed ads,
TV commercials and finally got roles on TV sitcoms and the silver screen.
Around 1988-89, Thai Tai made his first
public appearance at Rex night club in Santa Ana. Thai Tai first appeared
in Thuy Anh Productions' CD called "Boys". In it, he performed the song
"Black is Black". In 1991, Thai Tai appeared in Lang Van's video titled
"Bolsa by Night". After his successful debut, Thai Tai consequently joined
many production companies as a freelancer and appeared in many videos and
CDs - most notably the Thuy Nga's Paris by Night series. His
most successful CDs to date are "Con Bao Tuyet" and "Chieu Hom Nay".
Since his start, Thai Tai has continued to enjoy success and acceptance in the
Vietnamese Music Industry. To date, he has appeared in 15 music videos
and has many CDs.
Thai Tai admires Duc Huy's work the most as
this is his material of choice when it comes to performing Vietnamese music.
However, he credits Mr. Trung Hanh a fellow musician as a mentor in his
early days as a singer. His two close friends in the industry are Lynda
Trang Dai and Phi Phi.
However, music wasn't on his agenda as Thai
Tai's first love is photography. He is the photographer of choice for many
of the Vietnamese singers in the US. In fact, his name probably appears on
more CDs than any other singers, since he is credited with doing most of the
album covers. He is also an accomplished make-up artist.
In recent years, this multi-talented young
artist has branched out into television and motion picture work. Thai Tai
has appeared in HBO's specials as well as the big screen. He appeared with
Dustin Nguyen and Le Thi Hiep in the film " Heaven and Earth", an Oliver
Stone film. He also has roles in "Universal Soldier" with Jean-Claude
Van Damme, "The Water Dance", "Killing Zoe", and "Rapid Fire". His biggest
role to date is probably Killing Zoe, a movie directed by Roger Avery, an
associate of writer/director Quentin Tarantino. His television credits
include roles on China Beach, Marshall Law, Life goes on, Ferris Beuller,
and City.
Thai Tai is a bachelor with a very busy
schedule. A typical day include 1-2 hour at the gym, phone calls, recording
sessions, taping, make-up consultation, photoshoots etc.. Thai Tai is
constantly on the move. On most weekends, he is probably in a different
city performing. His careers have taken him all over the world. For the film
Haven and Earth, Thai Tai stayed in Thailand for 5 weeks. His singing took
him to practically all the countries where there are Vietnamese people.
Although he seemed to have slowed down in appearing in music videos and CDs,
1997 will be one of his busier year as he has several major projects on the
work including a CD with Phi Phi, Bao Han and Simon Wong, another CD with
Nguoi Dep Binh Duong Productions, Primeval, a HBO movie, and a music video
in the Hollywood Nights series.
Copyright (c) 1997-1999 VEN Productions