Tyra Banks at 2011 VH1 Do Something Awards

Born Tyra Lynne Banks
December 4, 1973 (1973-12-04) (age 37)
Inglewood, California, U.S.
Occupation Model
Actress
Talk show host
Years active 1991–present
Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973) is an American supermodel, media personality, actress, occasional singer, and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and New York, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough. 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 host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

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 fellow supermodel Linda Evangelista) 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 was world-premiered on UPN, but the single turned out to be a failure. On America's Next Top Model, Cycle 2 Banks said, "Singing has been a passion of mine for a long, long time...six years on the down low - been ducking in and out of studios cutting tracks." Later, on her talk show, she said, "I can't believe I wasted six years of doing something that I didn't finish...I was almost able to release my album T.Y.R.A., but since my music career hit rock bottom, I quit."

Banks released a single with NBA player Kobe Bryant, entitled "K.O.B.E.," which was performed on NBA TV.[citation needed] She also has a single on the soundtrack to Disney Channel's Original Movie Life-Size called "Be A Star."

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Tyra Banks at 2011 VH1 Do Something Awards

Tyra Bank - Awards - 2011 Teen Choice Awards

Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973) is an American supermodel, media personality, actress, occasional singer, and businesswoman.[3][4][5] She first became famous as a model in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and New York, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough. 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 host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Tyra Banks was born in Inglewood, California, the daughter of Carolyn (née London), a medical photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant.[3][7] The couple divorced in 1980, when Banks was 6 years old. However, the relationship between her parents, and between her and her brother Devin Banks (born 1968), stayed friendly. Later, Carolyn married Clifford Johnson; she now goes by Carolyn London-Johnson. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. She was accepted by USC and UCLA but declined to attend, instead pursuing a career in modeling

Banks announced in May 2010 that she would be writing a novel, called Modelland, loosely based on her own modelling experience.Scheduled to be released in 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

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Tyra Banks - 2011 Teen Choice Awards