November 2: Singer and actress Katelyn Tarver – “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” – is 24-years-old today.

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Katelyn Marie Tarver from Glennville, Georgia, was born on November 2, 1989. The American singer-songwriter and actress is also known for her recurring roles as Jo Taylor on Big Time Rush, Natalie on No Ordinary Family and as Mercedes on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Tarver took part in the only season of the reality television program American Juniors. Competing against thousands of others who auditioned for the show, she succeeded in making it to the finals, but did not win a spot on the five member band. Her debut "Wonderful Crazy" featured songs written and produced by Mattias Gustafsson (Backstreet Boys) and Kevin Savigar (Josh Gracin, Rod Stewart), as well as Christian recording artist Scott Krippayne who wrote the title track.

On June 14, 2011, Tarver released her EP "A Little More Free" independently and began a tour with Honor Society as an opening act on the "Wherever You Are Tour" from June–July 2011. In the summer of 2012, Tarver toured alongside the bands The Cab and Parachute.

Using motion capture, Tarver acted as the title character in the direct-to-video movie The Barbie Diaries, released in 2006. Sensors recorded her movements, which controlled the movement of the animated figure of Mattel's Barbie.

She also starred played the lead role in Mitchel Musso's single "The In-Crowd" and is featured on the duet "Us Against The World" on Mitchel Musso's album. This came about when she was in the studio working on a track entitled "Fastlane" when Mitchel arrived early to his session. When it was Mitchel's turn to record he finished the song and his dad suggested trying it as a duet. Because Katelyn was already there, she sang with him. 

On January 29, 2010, she made her acting debut on Big Time Rush as Jo Taylor, a girl which the boys have a crush on. Her debut episode was "Big Time Love Song" which aired on February 5, 2010. She began to have feelings for Kendall Knight (Kendall Schmidt) and they started dating. But everything had changed since the worldwide tour started: Jo became a television star and Kendall is a pop star.

 

On the episode "Big Time Break-Up" which aired on June 25, 2011, she lands a role in a movie overseas in New Zealand and won't be able to see Kendall for three years. She returned in the third season via the episode "Big Time Surprise," which aired on September 22, 2012.

From 2010 to 2011, Tarver had a recurring role as Natalie Poston on the ABC series No Ordinary Family, she appeared in five episodes.

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