Tyra Banks

**Tyra Lynne Banks** (born December 4, 1973) is an American supermodel, television personality, and television talk show host She first emerged to prominence on the catwalks of Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and New York, but her work in the commercial world was her breakthrough. She is best known as hostess/judge of the reality television show *America's Next Top Model* since its 2003 debut, and is currently hosting her own Daytime Emmy Award-nominated talk show, *The Tyra Banks Show*. Banks is endowed with the largest breasts of any major supermodel which appear to be a very full to small 34D cup. one of only four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by *Time* magazine.

## Acting career

Banks began acting on television in 1993 on *The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air*, and made her film debut in the John Singleton directed film *Higher Learning* in 1995. In 2000, she had major roles such as Eve in Disney Channel's *Life-Size* and Zoe in the box-office hit *Coyote Ugly.* She had small roles in the romantic film *Love & Basketball* (2000) and horror film *Halloween: Resurrection* (2002), and appeared in television series *Gossip Girl* and *Glee*.

In 2003, Banks created and began presenting the long-running reality TV 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 remained executive producer for the revival of the series, and enlisted Rita Ora as host for the twenty-third cycle before reassuming the duties herself for the twenty-fourth cycle. Banks was 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. In 2017, Banks replaced Nick Cannon as host of *America's Got Talent* for its 12th season.

## Personal life

Tyra has previously been linked romantically to musical artist Seal, NBA players Rick Fox and Chris Webber, hockey player Mark Messier, and director John Singleton. She has said repeatedly that she has no plans on dating or getting married any time soon. Currently, she is enjoying the single life and has recently moved to New York City where she focuses on both of her TV shows.

Banks dated Norwegian photographer Erik Asla during the 2010s, and in January 2016 they had a biological son born via surrogacy. Banks has stated that she tends to avoid drinking and has never used other recreational drugs.

In 2005, when asked about her relationship history, she stated, "I won't be using a lot of names on the show, but a specific relationship had not just cheating but emotional abuse. It was really bad, but that made me strong." In 2009, she opened up about her past relationships when she made a guest appearance on *The Oprah Winfrey Show,* hosting alongside Oprah Winfrey. The episode was dedicated to dating violence in response to the assault of Rihanna by Chris Brown.

### "Modelland" book

In 2010, Tyra published a young adult novel titled *Modelland*, based on her life as a model. It topped *The New York Times* Best Seller list in 2011. 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. She is also one of only seventeen models to be ranked as a Legendary Supermodel by MODELS.com.

## References

1. ↑ http://www./2003/05/19/earlyshow/leisure/main554520.shtml
2. ↑ http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/BeautySecrets/story?id=1280787
3. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/free\_forbes/2006/0703/120.html
4. ↑ "Hilary Duff, Tyra Banks appear in same episode of 'Gossip Girl'", New York Daily News, 2 October 2009. Retrieved on 20 January 2019.
5. ↑ 'Glee': Tyra Banks Is Fierce And Hyper-Critical As A Modeling Agent (VIDEO). huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved on 20 January 2019.
6. ↑ 'America's Got Talent' Sets Tyra Banks As New Host For Season 12. Deadline (March 12, 2017). Retrieved on March 12, 2017.
7. ↑ "Tyra Banks Welcomes Son York", *People*, January 27, 2016. Retrieved on January 27, 2016.
8. ↑ Tyra Banks' sexy drink (June 1, 2007). Retrieved on April 20, 2017. “I've never had any drugs and I had a little taste of alcohol when I was 12-years-old, but that's about it”
9. ↑ Cruz, Clarissa. "Looker Who's Talking", *www.ew.com*, August 26, 2005. Retrieved on August 1, 2012.
10. ↑ Breaking the Dating Violence Cycle. *Oprah.com*. Retrieved on August 1, 2012.
11. ↑ Garrett Stodghill, Alexis. "Time 100 Gala 2012: Black stars shine at party honoring world's top influencers", *thegrio.com*, April 25, 2012. Retrieved on July 20, 2012.
12. ↑ Tyra Banks: Biography. Movies.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2013. Retrieved on March 25, 2015.
13. ↑ MODELS.com's Legends.

## External links

* Tyra Banks Biography
* Tyra Banks links at FreeOnes
* Tyra Banks at Babepedia
* Tyra Banks article at *Wikipedia*