Nguyễn Thị Thiên Thanh[1] (born October 24, 1981),[2] better known by her stage name Tila Tequila, is an American model, singer, television and social media personality.

Born in Singapore and raised in Houston, Texas, Tequila moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue her modeling career.

After being featured as a model in numerous men's magazines (including Playboy, Stuff and Maxim), she made her reality television debut on the VH1 show Surviving Nugent (2003).

Her bisexuality-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second-highest-rated series premiere of that year.

Her book, Hooking Up With Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party, was published in 2008.

[11]: 6  When she was one year old, the family relocated to a neighborhood in Houston, Texas and was eventually admitted to a gated community run by a strict Buddhist temple.

[3] Then, at the age of 19, she was discovered at the Sharpstown Mall by a Playboy scout and was offered a chance to model nude for the magazine.

She did a test shoot, then eventually moved to Southern California and was featured as Playboy's Cybergirl of the Week on April 22, 2002,[16] and soon thereafter she became the first Asian Cyber Girl of the Month.

Beyond Betty Jean eventually broke up and Nguyen started working in recording studios to sharpen her vocal skills and wrote music.

[21] During the first season of Fuse TV's dance show, Pants-Off Dance-Off, on which a group of contestants strip to music videos, Nguyen was the most frequent host.

In March 2007, Washington-based record label The Saturday Team released an EP called Sex, by Tila Tequila.

[2] On July 27, 2007, Italian website MusicBlob reported that The Saturday Team and distributor Icon Music Entertainment Services sued Nguyen over breaching her contract related to the album.

In May 2007, Nguyen began filming for a reality show which first aired on MTV on October 9, 2007, as A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.

The program was a bisexual-themed dating show where 16 straight men and 16 lesbian women competed for Nguyen's affections, the twist being that the contestants were not aware of her bisexuality[12] until the end of the first episode.

[25] After seeing the article, Nguyen wrote an impassioned response in her blog on September 28, 2007, criticizing churches for "bashing" the gay community while thanking God for saving her life.

On December 2, 2008, Nguyen released a self-help book, Hooking Up with Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party (ISBN 9781439101537).

[34] Released under her newly established label Little Miss Trendsetter, the single received negative reviews and failed to be successful in charts.

Influenced by classical music and artists such as Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, Welcome to the Darkside received more positive reviews.

However, she was ejected from the house after just one day, due to many viewer complaints of her controversial statements made in 2013, when she posted anti-Semitic comments and praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler on Facebook.

[42] Tequila posted a snippet of "Drunk Dialing" again in September and confirmed it would be released by the end of October along with a music video.

Originally the site featured information, quotes, blog, and pictorials requiring adult verification and a monthly fee.

[50] In December 2009, Nguyen partnered with Joe Francis to launch the now-defunct dating website TilasHotSpotDating.com,[51] aimed at people ages 18 and up.

[53] Nguyen was featured on the cover of the April 2006 issue of Stuff magazine; in the interview, she claimed that her nickname "Tila Tequila" came about when she experimented with alcohol at the age of 13.

[60] In August 2015, Tequila became a contestant in the sixteenth series of British television reality game show Celebrity Big Brother, but was asked to leave the program on its second day when producers became aware of her comments about Hitler and photos.

[6] She subsequently apologized for her earlier comments, blaming them on depression and drug addiction saying that she is “deeply sorry for my irresponsible, reckless and selfish actions and I hope that everyone can forgive me for the pain that I may have caused.”[7] On May 6, 2016, Nguyen tweeted that Jewish-American political commentator Ben Shapiro should "be gassed and sent back to Israel" and later posted that "There are only two things in this world, for which I would gladly sacrifice my own life; the destruction of all Jews and preservation of the white race" and "You know what will help Asians earn respect?

[61][62] In June 2016, Tila Tequila accused Sarah Silverman and the Jews of killing Jesus before saying the comedian was next on a "celebrity sacrifice" list.

[9] On November 19, 2016, she attended an alt-right National Policy Institute meeting celebrating the election of Donald Trump, organized by white supremacist Richard B. Spencer, and posted photos on social media of herself doing a Nazi salute.

Tequila released a video on YouTube expressing anti-vaccine views saying "vaccines causes 240% of black boys to have Autism.

[71] Shortly afterwards, Banhart posted a message on his Myspace stating he had never dated Tequila and that she "never called him after the last show and no one would give him her number.

She only pretended to be lesbian and bisexual in order to create ratings for A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila; she had a boyfriend while filming the show.