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Biography of Tyra Banks

Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973) is an American supermodel, television personality and talk show host. She first emerged to prominence on the runways of Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and the U.S., 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 on UPN (later CW), and is currently hosting her own Daytime Emmy Award-nominated talk show, The Tyra Banks Show. Banks is one of only four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

Banks was born in Inglewood, California to Carolyn (née London), a business manager and medical photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. The couple divorced in 1980, when Tyra was six, although the relationship of her parents and especially her brother Devin (born 1968) stayed friendly. Later, Carolyn married Clifford Johnson; she now goes by Carolyn London-Johnson.

Banks would often parade around the family's duplex in her mother's high heels and long robes, play-acting at being a model. Banks attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, California, a popular Catholic girls' school, where her classmates made fun of her because of her height and weight. Prior to graduating in 1991, she wanted to give modeling a try. She applied and was accepted at Loyola Marymount University, that Elite modeling agency gave the 17-year-old, her first modeling job. Afterwards, she had been rejected many times for modeling assignments, which led her to drop out of college so quickly.


She 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.