Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks (born Tyra Lynne Banks) is a model, television host and producer best known for creating and hosting America’s Next Top Model. Banks was raised in Inglewood, California, and graduated from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. She planned to attend Loyola Marymount University but chose to pursue modeling full time after being signed by Elite Model Management at age 16.

Banks began her modeling career in Europe, walking runways for Chanel, Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent. She became one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels and the first Black woman to appear on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2003, she created and began hosting America’s Next Top Model, which ran until 2018. She later began hosting The Tyra Banks Show, a talk show which won her two Daytime Emmy Awards.

In addition to her hosting and modeling work, the Emmy winner has acted on shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and New York Undercover. Her other notable appearances include Coyote Ugly (2000), Black-ish and Gossip Girl. She has also appeared on various reality TV shows and in music videos such as Michael Jackson’s “Black or White.” From 2020 to 2022, she served as a host of Dancing With the Stars.

In 2014, she founded her cosmetics brand Tyra Beauty. She is also a published author and wrote the novel Modelland in 2011.

Banks was in a long-term relationship with photographer Erik Asla, with whom she shares a son, York (born in 2016) via surrogate. The couple split in 2017. She later moved on with businessman Louis Bélanger-Martinwas in 2019.