Supermodel, Actress and Media Mogul Tyra Lynne Banks was born on
December 4, 1973 in Inglewood, California. Tyra started modeling at
age 15 while she was in high school and at age 16 she got signed to
Elite Model Management after being turned down by many agencies. Tyra
put her college plans on hold to travel to Europe for a modeling
opportunity. She moved to Milan and by her first runway season she
was booked for 25 shows at Paris Week in 1991. Soon afterward, Tyra
appeared on the covers of Elle and Teen Vogue
magazine, Tyra is now a contributor to the Vogue Italia website.
While in Europe, young Tyra Banks had become a regular on the catwalk
and was featured in several advertising campaigns modeling for some
of fashion's greats like Chanel, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph
Lauren and Nike. Tyra returned home to the United States in the
mid-1990's to further her career.
Tyra Banks broke color barriers in the modeling world when she became the first Black woman to grace the cover of two very popular men's magazines, the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Issue and GQ. In 1997, Tyra won VH1's "Supermodel of the Year" Award and in the same year she became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Victoria's Secret catalog. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997-2005.
No stranger to the camera, Tyra started acting appearing on various TV shows and movies. Most notable was her recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as lead character Will Smith's old friend Jackie, she also appeared on MADtv and Nick Cannon's Wild 'n Out. Her first big screen role came in 1994 in John Singleton's drama, Higher Learning, a film about students from different backgrounds dealing with responsibility, education and racial issues on a college campus. She starred opposite Lindsey Lohan in the Disney film Life-Size where she played a doll named Eve who comes to life and has to adjust to the real world. Tyra also had roles in Coyote Ugly, Love and Basketball, Love Stinks and Halloween: Resurrection.
With all of the talent Tyra Banks has she eventually started her own production company, Bankable Productions, home of the Tyra Banks Show, a popular daytime talk show she hosted from 2005-2010 winning two Daytime Emmy Awards and home to America's Next Top Model, the biggest modeling reality show to date. Tyra has also made dreams come true for many aspiring models as the host, judge and executive producer of America's Next Top Model, a show where young women and young men compete for the modeling opportunity of a lifetime. Tyra has truly taken her professional modeling experience and shared it with the world, giving the lucky contestants a chance to launch their careers and be on top. The show's popularity grew tremendously and earlier this year the curtain closed when America's Next Top Model completed Cycle 22. ANTM fans like myself will miss the show tremendously!
Did you know that Tyra did a song in 1994 with NBA star Kobe Bryant called "K.O.B.E." She also has a single called "Be A Star" on the soundtrack to her movie Life-Size and she recorded a single in 2004 called "Shake Ya Body" which was featured on America's Next Top Model Cycle 2, her contestants shot a music video for it.
In March 2011 Tyra released her first novel Modelland which made it to the New York Times Best Seller list. Pushing herself even more to be the best, that same year Tyra enrolled in a 9-week Owner/President Manager Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School's open-enrollment extension school and earned a certificate when she passed the exam for the Executive Education Training Program. Tyra Banks has always been someone to look up to, the TZONE program she established to help develop leadership and life skills and many of her topics on the Tyra Banks Show, were geared towards young women to help them deal with self-confidence and self-esteem. She recently launched Tyra Beauty, a fab cosmetic line and in addition to launching a cosmetics line, last week Tyra revealed her biggest project to date- America's Next Top Mom! Ms. Tyra Banks is a new mommy and her fans have been celebrating all of her fabulousness via her social media sites. Tyra is young, Black and beautiful. She took the phrase "beauty and brains" to another level and built her own fierce empire! Tyra Banks... Supermodel, Motivator, Dream Maker.
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