Tara was born in Sharonville, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, to Patricia, a vocalist, and Harry Patrick, an entertainer and guitarist; her mother died of a brain tumor in 1998. She had an older sister, Debbie, who died from a heart attack, also in 1998. Tara attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati and dropped out from Princeton High School in Sharonville.
Patrick was discovered in San Francisco by a talent scout for the Eileen Ford Modeling Agency, and at the age of 13 she was signed to a contract to be a model. She moved to New York City shortly thereafter and her career as a runway and catalog model began. At 18, she left the world of modeling and enrolled at Boise State University[5] where she received her associate's (two year) degree in nursing and a BS in Microbiology.[6] She then transferred to University of California, Santa Barbara, where for financial reasons she began modeling again.
In the late 1990s, Patrick transitioned to appearing in nude and soft-core features. In 2000, she made the transition to hard-core porn in Andrew Blake's Aroused. Since that time, she has become one of the most popular and recognized porn stars in the world, having graced the pages of Playboy and Penthouse, where she was the "Pet of the Month" for February 2000[7] and was selected as "Pet of the Year" runner-up, as well as having appeared in more than seventy adult features. Patrick is noted for her sultry voice and her aroused and enthusiastic portrayals of sex. Because of this, she has won several awards from the adult-movie business organizations. Today, she hosts the popular webcast The Tera Patrick Show and she is active in the adult film community, raising money for both the Free Speech Coalition and A.I.M Healthcare.
In an interview with the Adult Film Database in February of 2007, Patrick stated she will only continue to work in front of the camera for two more years, but plans on releasing her starring adult titles over the next decade.[8] The March 2007 DVD release, 'inTERActive' set the record as the fastest selling Hustler release ever.