Actress and rock ‘n’ roller Taylor Momsen made her screen debut at the age of three, appearing in a 1997 Shake ‘n Bake commercial. In the ad, she noted that Shake ‘n Bake dinners were an excellent sign of her mother’s love, and she demonstrated the product with aplomb. It’s Shake ‘n Bake, and she helped. Momsen was also, at the time, working as a child model, something she recalls hating. In a 2011 interview with Bethesda, Momsen said that she recalls being busy a lot as a toddler and that she wasn’t given a lot of time to spend with friends. Her whole life, she said, she was in and out of school.
That same year, while she was still in preschool, Momsen started appearing on a few TV shows, notably the 1997 “The Cosby Show” spinoff “Cosby,” and in a 1998 episode of “Early Edition.” Momsen’s first feature film was director David Worth’s 1999 serial killer thriller called “The Prophet’s Game,” starring Dennis Hopper. She only had tiny roles in those shows, however, and was hardly in “Game.”
When Momsen was six, however, she had what might be considered her big break, playing Cindy Lou Who in Ron Howard’s gigantic 2000 Christmas hit “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” That film starred Jim Carrey as the titular Grinch, a green-furred, misanthropic yeti who hates all the secular trappings of the Christmas season in the fantasy kingdom of Whoville. The Whos of Whoville (played variously by Christine Baranski, Jeffrey Tambor, and Molly Shannon, have lost themselves in the bustle of the season, and have little time for gentleness amid the jollity. Only the young Cindy Lou still seems to possess warmth and compassion.
In 2012, however, Momsen left acting to focus on a career in music. She currently fronts the band The Pretty Reckless and has talked a lot about her transition from film to music.