As a child Tamara knew she wanted to act. But it was not until she was in college that she realized she wanted to pursue it as a career. She was excelling in school as a Psycholgy major, spending all of her spare time pursuing a minor in drama and theatre. "Every time I went to a play, I would find myself longing to be on the stage. I felt that I was missing something important for me," muses the actress. After a lot of self explorations, Tamara made the decision to pursue her passion full-time and immediately enrolled in acting classes in her hometown of Chicago.

Tamara went on to London to study at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts for a summer, where she studied Shakespeare and spent time backpacking through Europe. She returned to Chicago, where she continued studying and landed a commercial agent. Commercial work came quickly for the actress and she finally made the decision to move to Los Angeles in the summer of 1995. She almost immediately booked an agent and her first guest-starring role on The Sentinel. This was followed by guest-starring roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Party of Five, 7th Heaven and The Prentender, among others. Her film credits include a featured role in Soul Food and a leading role in the independent feature film Fallen Arches.