Karen Tellman (The Perfect Boyfriend)

Karen Tellman (Jennifer Taylor) is the villainess of the 2013 Lifetime film The Perfect Boyfriend. She was the assistant of construction company owner Chuck Gridge and the wife of Jacob Tellman, the main villain of the movie. Together, the two plotted to bilk the inheritance of veterinarian April Hill, Chuck's ex-wife and the daughter of wealthy journalist Clara. As part of the plan, Jacob approached and romanced April at their high school reunion, manipulating her into a relationship. This caused the mentally unstable Karen to grow intensely jealous of April, as shown in the opening when Karen erratically brushed her hair while convincing herself that Jacob wouldn't fall in love with her.
When Karen was able to use her hacking skills to uncover Chuck's involvement with corrupt developer Marcus Rizo, she and Jacob initiated their evil plan to kill Clara and frame Chuck for her murder so Jacob could marry April and kill her, thus giving him complete control of her fortune. After sending the information anonymously to Clara (who was planning to expose Rizo in an article), Karen sabotaged the electrical system of the home of Clara's maid's mother so she would have to miss Clara's birthday celebration and be alone afterwards. She also went on a date with co-worker Dwight Figly so he would skip his meeting with Chuck, eventually drugging him to go sneak into Clara's house with Jacob's help. After erasing the security footage to cover her tracks, the evil Karen killed Clara by shoving her down the stairs. Having left Chuck with no alibi, he was suspected of Clara's death, which Jacob took advantage of to kill him and stage his death as a suicide. But throughout their plot, Karen's mental health began to rapidly decline as she came to believe Jacob was going to leave her.
Towards the end of the movie, April's cousin Riley Parks began to have suspicions about Jacob when he caught him and Karen having dinner, despite Jacob claiming that Karen was his sister. Riley and her boyfriend Aiden were able to uncover Karen's villainous nature when they found a picture of her on the camera of April's son Sammy. At that moment, April and Jacob were at her mother's country home, where Karen showed up with a pistol. When Jacob claimed that Karen was just a delusional ex-girlfriend, the psychotic villainess, realizing that Jacob was trying to save his own skin, shot her lover dead in a blind rage. Karen instantly began bemoaning Jacob's death and angrily chased after April, holding her at gunpoint and claiming she was to blame. After revealing her and Jacob's plans, Karen tried to kill April, but was stopped by Aiden when he and Riley arrived. Karen was last seen being held down by Aiden as he waited for the police to arrive and arrest her for her crimes, while sobbingly continuing to say that Jacob loved her, trying and failing to deny the cold, hard truth that Jacob didn't truly love or care about Karen; he only loved and cared about himself.
== Trivia ==
* Jennifer Taylor also appeared in the 2015 Lifetime film A Date to Die For as the evil Rachel Edwards, and in 2018's Family Vanished as the villainous Carol.
* Karen is similar to Lifetime villainess Lexi from 2018's Fiancé Killer; both are women who plot with their equally villainous lovers in a scheme to get rich, with the man seducing a wealthy woman into marriage before they killed her and made off with her money. Both women also killed their lovers after believing they planned to abandon them for their target and later attempted (unsuccessfully) to kill their romantic rival, having been growing jealous of them.
== Gallery==
Karen Tellman drinks.jpeg|Karen having drinks with Dwight
Karen Tellman spying.jpg|Karen spying on Jacob and April
Karen Tellman gunpoint.jpg|Karen holding April at gunpoint
Category:2010s
Category:Attempted Murder
Category:Betrayed
Category:Brunette
Category:Conspirator
Category:Deceiver
Category:Delusional
Category:Greedy
Category:Hacker
Category:Hero's Friend
Category:Incapacitator
Category:Jealous
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Gun
Category:Murder: High Fall
Category:Pistol
Category:Psychotic
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Fate: Inconclusive