Tyra Banks
Birth Name: Tyra Lynne Banks
Birth Date: 4th December, 1973
Age: 35
Birth Place: Inglewood, California, United States
Profession: talk show host, actress, model, singer, businesswoman
Height: 1.78 m [5feet 10 inches]
Tyra Banks was born to Donald Banks [a computer consultant] and Carolyn [NASA photographer and fashion manager], though her parents separated when she was just sixteen years of age. Her early schooling was from John Burroughs Middle School and she graduated from Immaculate Heart High School, located in Los Angeles in the year 1991. She further went on to attend colleges for television production like the UCLA and USC.
Tyra got into modeling when she was in the 11th grade and went to create a record for a new comer in Paris when she got a twenty – five shows contract within one week of modeling in Paris. Tyra has done lot of modeling work for some big names like CoverGirl, Christian Dior, Swatch, Tommy Hilfiger, Pepsi, Chanel etc and many more.
She even featured on the covers of fashion magazines like Elle, Vogue and Cosmopolitan. In 1997 she was crowned the title of VH1 Supermodel of the Year. She also bagged certain distinctions which no African-American had achieved before. Finally she retired in 2005 from modeling after walking on the ramp last time during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
On television Tyra, appeared on many shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Felicity, Madtv etc.
She now focuses all her attentions to the hit reality TV show America’s Next Top Model, in which he is the hostess, judge and also the executive producer. She also is working on a day time talk show named The Tyra Banks Show for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award in 2008. Another show, Tyra has created is titled Stylista which is also a reality TV show.
On the big screen, Tyra featured in films like Higher Learning, Life Size, and Coyote Ugly etc.
This multifaceted woman has also penned down a book named ‘Tyra’s Beauty, Inside and Out.’
On the music front, Tyra Banks has done many music videos which include Tina Turner’s Love Thing, Michael Jackson’s Black or White and George Michael’s Too Funky, to name a few.
Having a passion for music she sang for the first time, “Shake Ya Body” but it was not quite successful. Apart from that she has sung the song “K.O.B.E.,” with Kobe Bryant, the NBA player, “Be A Star” for the movie Life-Size.
Though Tyra had a past with NBA player Chris Webber with whom she stayed for three years up till 2004, she is now living with her friend and model Amber Rivers in New York City.