Tyra Banks Biography

Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973) is an American actress, television producer, author, television personality and former model. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and was the host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

Early life

Tyra Banks was born in California. She is the daughter of Caroline London; now London-Johnson a NASA photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. In 1979, when Banks was 6 years old, her parents divorced. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. As a child Tyra Banks suffered from what she calls an "Ugly duckling" period in her life; when Banks was eleven years old she grew three inches and lost thirty pounds in three months.

Career

Modeling

When Banks was 15 years old, she started modeling while attending school in Los Angeles. She was rejected by six modeling agencies before she was signed by L.A. Models and then switched to Elite Model Management at age 16. When she got the opportunity to model in Europe, she put college on hold and moved to Milan. In her first runway season, she was booked in 25 shows at the 1991 Paris Fashion Week. She would later appear on the covers of magazines such as Elle, Teen Vogue and Vogue. She walked the runways for Chanel, Valentino, Fendi and others. She has featured in advertising campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren and Nike. In the mid-1990s, Banks returned to America to do more commercial modeling.

Banks was the first African American woman on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 1997, she received the VH1 award for, "Supermodel of the Year." That same year, she became the first-ever African American chosen for the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalog. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. In 2010, Banks re-signed with her former modeling agency IMG Models. Banks is now a contributor of the Vogue Italia website.She has since started focusing on her film career and hosting her own TV show. Working with Chiandra Davis and Toni Nkhahle this Winter in Europe, sponsoring ET modeling agency. Tyra Banks shall remain a legendary supermodel, lives on and has prospered beyond all expectations.

Move into television and film

Banks's television career began on the fourth season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which she played lead character Will Smith's old friend Jackie Ames. She made seven appearances in the series. Other TV credits include Felicity, All That, MADtv, Nick Cannon's Wild 'n Out (in which she was featured as a special guest host and team captain) and The Price Is Right (guest-starring as a "Barker's Beauty"). She also appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast in an episode entitled "Chinatown."

Tyra Banks started her own production company, Bankable Productions (previously named, "Ty Ty Baby Productions"; she did not rename it until the second cycle of America's Next Top Model), which produced The Tyra Banks Show, America's Next Top Model and the 2008 movie The Clique. Banks is the hostess, judge and executive producer of The CW Television Network show America's Next Top Model. In addition, she hosted The Tyra Banks Show, a daytime talk show aimed at younger women, which premiered on September 12, 2005, and ran until May 28, 2010. In 2008, Banks won the Daytime Emmy Award for her work and production on The Tyra Banks Show, and won for the second time in a row for outstanding, informative talkshow in 2009. In 2010, Oprah Winfrey congratulated Tyra Banks for a good job done on her talk-show for inspiring and mentoring young women.

In late-January 2008, Banks got the go-ahead from The CW Television Network to start work on a new reality television series based on fashion magazines called Modelitha. The show premiered on October 22, 2008. Banks's first big screen role came in 1994, when she co-starred in the drama Higher Learning. She then co-starred with Lindsay Lohan in the Disney film Life-Size, playing a doll named Eve who comes to life and has to learn how to live in the real world. Other notable roles include Love Stinks (1999), Love & Basketball (2000), Coyote Ugly (2000) and Halloween: Resurrection (2002)." She and Miley Cyrus poke fun at the excesses of the Hollywood lifestyle with a battle over a pair of shoes in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). Banks appeared in the fourth episode of the third season of Gossip Girl playing Ursula Nyquist, a larger-than-life actress. She also appeared on the Disney Channel show, Shake It Up as their shy school librarian.

Music

Banks has appeared in several music videos, including Michael Jackson's "Black or White", Tina Turner's "Love Thing", Mobb Deep's "Trife Life", George Michael's "Too Funky" (with supermodels Linda Evangelista, Estelle Lefébure, Emma Sjoberg and Nadja Auermann ) and Lionel Richie's "Don't Wanna Lose You". In 2004, she recorded her first single, "Shake Ya Body," which had a music video featuring the final six contestants on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 2. The video world-premiered on UPN. Banks released a single with NBA player Kobe Bryant, entitled "K.O.B.E.," which was performed on NBA TV." She also has a single on the soundtrack to Disney Channel's Original Movie Life-Size called "Be A Star."

Books

Banks announced in May 2010 that she would be writing a novel, titled Modelland, loosely based on her own modelling experience. Published September 2011, it is the first of a planned three-part series. On an interview with Good Morning America, Banks stated that Modelland is the story of four girls who are accepted into an "exclusive" modelling school in the world of Modelland. Her first novel, Modelland, hit the New York Times best seller list in October 2011. In 1998, Banks co-authored a book entitled Tyra's Beauty, Inside and Out.

Website

In March 2011, Banks launched her fashion and beauty website called "typeF.com", which she co-created with Demand Media.

Other projects

In 2011, Banks enrolled in the three-year-long Owner/President Management Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School. Admission to the program, as described on HBS's website, "is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential." Banks graduated from the Executive Education Training Program in February 2012, earning a certificate. Tyra has come under intense criticism for implying she was a Harvard "graduate." A biting article in Jezebel referred to her statements on Harvard as "disingenuous," and called upon her to "stop lying" about Harvard. Harvard's own newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, was critical of Tyra's public statements about "attending" Harvard.

Despite the harsh criticism, and the conclusion of her time as a HBS student, "Banks will be remembered within the HBS curriculum. Professor Rohit Deshpande is preparing a case study on Bankable Productions, Banks' independent film and television production company, to be incorporated into future coursework for the Executive Education Owner/President Management Program." as cited on a different, and much more positive, article on The Harvard Crimson. According to HBS Harbus, Harvard Business School's newspaper, on February 14, 2013, Tyra spoke with Harvard Business School Professor and Senior Associate Dean Youngme E. Moon in front of select audience at HBS. More than 100 students and faculty were invited to attend the event and hear Banks speak about her business and the reasons behind her decision to attend the program.

Personal life

Banks was romantically linked to musician Seal, film director John Singleton and actor Will Smith in the 1990s. She dated basketball player Chris Webber from 2001 to 2004.

She is known for being outspoken on abusive relationships, having been a victim herself. In 2005, when asked about her relationship history, she stated, 'I won't be using a lot of names [on the show], but a specific relationship had not just cheating but emotional abuse. It was really bad, but that made me strong.' In 2009, she opened up about her past abusive relationship when she made a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, hosting alongside Oprah Winfrey. The episode was dedicated to dating violence in response to the assault of Rihanna caused by Chris Brown.

Philanthropy

In 1999, Tyra Banks established the TZONE program, which aimed at leadership and life skills development. Banks acts as the patron for TZONE. She has also established the Tyra Banks Scholarship, a fund aimed at providing African-American girls the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School. In 2005, TZONE transformed from a camp into a public charity, the Tyra Banks TZONE

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	Higher Learning	Deja
1999	Love Stinks	Holly Garnett
2000	Love & Basketball	Kyra Kessler
	Life-Size	Eve Doll	TV movie
	Coyote Ugly	Zoë
2002	Halloween: Resurrection	Nora Winston
	Eight Crazy Nights	Victoria's Secret Gown	Voice
2007	Mr. Woodcock	Herself	Cameo
2008	Tropic Thunder	Herself	Cameo
2009	Hannah Montana: The Movie	Herself	Cameo
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Jackie Ames	TV series (credited as "Tyra") Where There's a Will, There's a Way: Part 1 Where There's a Will, There's a Way: Part 2 All Guts, No Glory Father of the Year Blood Is Thicker Than Mud Fresh Prince After Dark Take My Cousin... Please You've Got to Be a Football Hero
1999	Felicity	Jane Scott	TV series A Good Egg Kissing Mr. Covington One Ball, Two Strikes
	Just Shoot Me!	Herself	TV series Nina Sees Red: Part 1 Nina Sees Red: Part 2
2000	MADtv	Katisha Latisha Parisha Farisha Johnson	TV series Episode #5.17 Episode #5.25
2001	Soul Food	Nina Joseph
2003"present	America's Next Top Model	Host	Reality TV series created, judged and hosted by Banks
2004	American Dreams	Carolyn Gill	TV series Chasing the Past
	All of Us	Roni	TV series O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2005"2010	The Tyra Banks Show	Host	Talk show
2009	Gossip Girl	Ursula Nyquist	TV series,season 3 Dan de Fleurette
2011	Mexico's Next Top Model	Guest judge	Reality TV Series Episode Finale in Mexico's Next Top Model, Cycle 2
2012	Vietnam's Next Top Model	Guest judge	Reality TV Series Episode Finale in Vietnam's Next Top Model, Cycle 2
	Shake It Up	Miss Burke	Disney Channel Original Series Episode: "Parent Trap It Up" Episode: "My Fair Librarian It Up"
	Top Model po-russki	Guest judge	Reality TV Series Episode Finale in Top Model po-russki, Cycle 3
2013	Asia's Next Top Model	Guest judge	Reality TV Series Episode Finale in Asia's Next Top Model, Cycle 1