Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks

Tyra Lynne Banks, also known as BanX, is an American television personality, model, producer, businesswoman, actress, singer and author. She was the first woman of African-American descent to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Banks will replace Tom Bergeron as host of Dancing with the Stars for the 29th season.

About Tyra Banks in brief

Summary Tyra BanksTyra Lynne Banks, also known as BanX, is an American television personality, model, producer, businesswoman, actress, singer and author. She was the first woman of African-American descent to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2010, she published a young adult novel titled Modelland, based on her life as a model. Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly been ranked among the world’s most influential people by Time magazine. In 2020, Banks will replace Tom Bergeron as host of Dancing with the Stars for the 29th season. She is also the co-creator of True Beauty and had her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, which aired on The CW for five seasons and won two Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative. She co-hosted the talk show FABLife for two months. She has appeared in fashion shows for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Anna Sui, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Herve Fendi, Isaac Mizrahi, Rafaella, Sonia Rykiel, Michael Kors and others. She appeared on the cover of magazines such as Elle, Harper’s Bazaar; Spanish Vogue; Cosmopolitan; Seventeen and Teen Vogue.

Banks has said that while growing up, she was teased for her appearance and considered an \”ugly duckling\”; when Banks was 11 years old, she grew three inches and lost 30 pounds in three months. Her mother, Carolyn London, is a medical photographer, and her father, Donald Banks, is a computer consultant. She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School, and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. In 1993, Banks signed a contract with L.A. Models. She switched to Elite Model Management at age 16. In 2000 she had major roles such as Eve in Disney Channel’s Life-Size and Zoe in the box-office hit Coyote Ugly. In 2003, Banks created and began presenting the long-running reality television series America’s Next Top Model, which she executive produced and presented for the first twenty-two seasons, until the series’ cancellation in October 2015. She remains executive producer for the revival of the series.