Don't let the grit fool you. Even grit sometimes sparkles in the sun!

From the moment she takes center stage, although she’s below average in height, the actress known as Taryn Manning, like a flash of light, steals every wandering eye.

Her look is not typical of most Hollywood stars.  Some might say “below average.”  Her forehead, for size, rivals fellow actress Christina Ricci’s and may eclipse rock star Rihanna’s.  Her lips are a little crooked and on the thin side.  Her skin is often white-sheet pale.  Her face may even show signs of early wrinkling, instead of the usual sparkle and glow of other stars aided by expensive BB crèmes.  And yet there is something about the way her eyes hold space in the shade of her forehead, combined with the quiet rasp of her voice, that makes her mesmerizing.

Something special.

It’s as though Taryn Manning has lived a life of many trials and tribulations, a life far from Hollywood, its lush hills and even brighter lights.  And perhaps she has.

Taryn Manning was born in Tucson, Arizona to musician Bill Manning and his wife, Sharyn.  Bill, Taryn’s father, was first cousin to Archie Manning; Archie’s famous sons, Peyton and Eli, are Taryn’s second cousins.

When Taryn Manning had been in the world for only two months, her parents divorced.  Then, just two years after her mother moved her and her brother Kellin to California, when Taryn was 14 years old, her father committed suicide.

Taryn Manning offers a breakthrough performance in Hustle & Flow.

A past checkered in pain may be why in a breakthrough role, she was believable as Nola, a prostitute in Memphis, Tennessee in the 2005 film Hustle & Flow.  Manning was so exceptional in the film alongside Terrence Howard, she was nominated by the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards for Best Breakthrough Performance.

After seeing only a picture of Taryn Manning, Director Craig Brewer was convinced that the actress who played Nola should look just like her.  As though beholding the dishwater blonde micro-braids, dark roots, the Tennessee humidity glistening on her skin in a short-cropped top and booty skirt, Director Craig Brewer said it best:

“There are some people who put on trashy like a wardrobe, and Taryn can play those roles with dignity and earnestness.”

To show the soft vulnerability of a woman living a hard-knock life is why we remember the magic in the downward tilt of her head and the emotion in just the tips of her fingers moving down her braids when Taryn as Nola realizes DJay, in a humiliating moment, has sold her to the shopkeeper for microphones.

Taryn Manning is still in charge.

It is why she is perfection in such roles as Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett in the original Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

This especially fine-tuned ability to show the human side of human beings living in sub-human conditions is why Taryn Manning won the role of Michelle Knight in Cleveland Abduction, a much awaited Lifetime movie.

Taryn told People Magazine that upon learning she was offered the role, her mother was horrified.  “She’s like ‘Taryn, you don’t need to be playing these types of roles.’”  Manning added, “My mom followed this story very closely, and she couldn’t wrap her head around me playing a role that had such negativity.  She gets concerned.  My mom knows I go there.”

Indeed she does.  And we, her fans, are thankful for every gut-wrenching moment.

That’s why we pray that Taryn Manning, 36, never becomes the Susan Lucci of the Oscars ceremony.  Because for any eye lulled into thinking Taryn Manning is a one-trick pony, we, her fans can tell you, unlike Lucci, she is not.

In 2003, the singer-songwriter formed the band Boomkat with her brother Kellin.  The band first signed a major label deal with American Idol producer Randy Jackson, but the deal fell through.  Little Vanilla Records, Boomkat’s record company, is owned by Manning.

In the fall of 2005, Manning also founded a clothing line called Born Uniqorn with her best friend Tara Jane, which often hosts benefits for charities in Los Angeles.  But you already knew she had heart. . . and a soul sprinkled in moon dust.  Didn’t you?

So when she’s playin’ bad, it’s all good.  Taryn Manning never disappoints.