Tyra Banks Bio

TYRA BANKS
Host and Executive Producer

A role model for today's young women, Tyra Banks has been recognized by several high-profile magazines for her inspirational achievements. In 2006 and 2007, Time magazine named Tyra as one of their "100 Most Influential People" and in the same two years, Forbes magazine included her in their "Celebrity 100" list. Early in 2007, Women's Wear Daily ranked Tyra as the #1 most recognized supermodel and was cited for her charity work in Newsweek. She was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host for the second season of her syndicated talk show and won the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV: Personality in August 2007. Tyra has become a role model for young women, having been nominated for a Teen Choice award, and recently gracing the covers of Shape, People and Redbook not as a model, but as a groundbreaking personality. She can also be seen all over the TV dial with appearances on "Larry King Live," "Today," "Good Morning America," "Extra" and CNN's "Showbiz Tonight," in addition to her own shows, "The Tyra Banks Show" and "America's Next Top Model."

When Tyra began her career as a teenager in the cutthroat fashion world, she relied on the guidance of her mother, Carolyn London, as both a confidante and manager. She learned valuable lessons about self-esteem and developed an inner-strength that kept her from falling prey to the many temptations in the modeling industry. Tyra became a fashion icon and managed to break down barriers as the first African-American model to grace the covers of GQ-for which she was named "Woman of the Year - 2000"-Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, and the famed Victoria's Secret catalog. She won the Michael Award for "Supermodel of the Year," signed an exclusive contract with Victoria's Secret, and became a CoverGirl. In 2005, Tyra retired from the fashion runway in style, with a televised final appearance and tribute in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

After gaining renown as a model, Tyra cultivated a successful acting career, co-starring with Will Smith in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," and appearing in films such as John Singleton's critically acclaimed "Higher Learning," "The Wonderful World of Disney" movie, "Life-Size," with Lindsay Lohan, and starring in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced "Coyote Ugly."

Tyra went on to create, host, and executive produce the wildly successful reality show, "America's Next Top Model," which debuted in 2003. The show set viewer ratings records, becoming the highest-rated show in UPN's history. The series, hailed by critics and audiences alike and already renewed though the 2009-2010 season, was chosen to launch the high-profile network in 2006. It remains the #1 show on the network.

Grateful for all that she's achieved, Tyra devotes a lot of energy to giving back. In 1992, she established "The Tyra Banks Scholarship," a fund that grants African-American girls the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls private school in the Los Angeles area. She also wrote Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out (HarperCollins). In the book, Tyra shares her own struggles with self-confidence, and tells teens what she's learned about achieving both inner- and outer-beauty.

Then, in July 2000, Tyra created TZONE, a Los Angeles-based program designed to enhance independence and self-esteem in teenage girls. TZONE began as an annual summer camp experience, but it has since grown into a year's worth of activities. Tyra is currently working on realizing her dream of taking TZONE nationwide. Eventually, TZONE will transition into an organization that will raise funds and give grants to pre-selected organizations throughout the United States that help girls and women between the ages of 13 and 35 from disadvantaged backgrounds become self-reliant contributors to society. For more information on TZONE, visit the website at www.tzonefoundation.org.

In September 2005, Tyra entered the world of daytime talk with the debut of "The Tyra Banks Show," which quickly became the highest rated new show in first-run syndication among young women. In its sophomore season, it was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Talk Show Host and Outstanding Talk Show, as well as an NAACP Image Award. Tyra serves as both host and Executive Producer of the five-days-a-week talk show. Now in its third season, the show has made the transition from Los Angeles to New York. Designed to entertain and inform, "The Tyra Banks Show" serves as a young woman's guide to life. Tyra explains, "After learning so much about my own struggle with self-esteem while writing Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out, and working through some of the same challenges with the TZONE girls, I realized that these issues don't go away. The day-to-day stuff changes, but inside, women are still dealing with the same growing pains they faced as girls. I wanted to create a place where women of any age could hear inspiring, enlightening, and moving stories that really speak to them, and where they could share their own stories too. I hope that ‘The Tyra Banks Show,' gives women the feeling that they have a support system to help them deal with life-that's an empowering feeling." "The Tyra Banks Show" is produced by Bankable Productions in association with Telepictures Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.

A pop culture icon often featured in the pages of weekly magazines such as Us Weekly, People, In Touch and others, Tyra presented a 2006 Grammy award to superstar John Legend and has handed out honors at the Daytime Emmys, the Primetime Emmys, and the NAACP Image Awards, for which her talk show was nominated. Her infectious air of confidence and success continues to inspire women everywhere.