People | October 14, 2015 02:11 PM EDT
45 Interesting Facts About The Stylish Model Tyra Banks - She started modeling at an early age of 15 in Los Angeles
Tyra Banks is an American model – one of the original angels of Victoria’s Secret Angels, a television personality, talk show host, producer, author, actress, singer and business woman. Here are 50 interesting facts about the famous model.
- She is the first African American woman to be on the covers of GQ magazine and sports illustrated Swimsuit issue.
- Born as Tyra Lynne Banks on December 4, 1973 in Ingle wood, California.
- Born to Caroline London, a NASA photographer and Donald Banks, a computer consultant.
- She has a five year older brother named Devin, who according to her tormented her during childhood. Now, they are good friends.
- Her parents got divorced when she was 6 years old.
- She started modeling at an early age of 15 in Los Angeles. She was attending school at the same time.
- Her modeling career started with L.A. Models after being rejected by 4 other modeling agencies. Later, she joined Elite Model Management after a year.
- She got an opportunity to model in Europe and moved to Milan. She was booked for 25 shows in Paris Fashion Week in 1991.
- She was bullied and teased during her school days. She was considered as an “ugly duckling” for her appearance.
- She attended the John Burroughs Middle school and graduated from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, an all-girls school in 1991.
- She ended up on the covers of magazines such as “Elle,” “Cosmopolitan,” “Harper’s Bazzar,” “Seventeen,” “Teen Vogue,” and Spanish Vogue.”
- She had walked the ramp for Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, and many others.
- Covergirl Cosmetics had roped her in and launched their advertising campaign with her in 1993.
- She had also featured in many ad campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Pepsi, Nike, and Yves Saint Laurent.
- She was named as “Supermodel of the Year” and received a VH1 award by the same television network in the year 1997.
- She became the first ever African American to be on the covers of Victoria’s Secret Catalog.
- She was one of the original angles from Victoria’s Secret Angles from 1997 to 2005.
- In a Nike Commercial in 1996, she played as herself with basketball stars Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway and "Little Penny" Hardaway.
- During her modeling days, she followed some strict rules and restrictions such as – no frontal nudity, no alcohol, no cigarettes and no animals like cat, birds or fish.
- It is reported that she is allergic to dogs and hence she avoided animals during modeling too.
- She was romantically involved with musician Seal, film director John Singleton and actor Will Smith during the 1990’s.
- She is nicknamed as “Black Widow” by her friends as she would break up with men she was dating before they get the chance to do the same.
- She has often claimed that her modeling career was difficult due to her rivalry with top model Naomi Campbell, who was more famous. Campbell would throw her off fashion shows, as once stated by Banks.
- She dated basketball player Chris Webber from 2001 to 2004. Hockey player Mark Messier was also linked with her.
- She is known to be outspoken about abusive relationships and during an appearance in “The Oprah Winfrey Show” she spoke about one of her relationships that had cheating as well as emotional abuse involved. She did not reveal any names.
- Her first Television debut was in the fourth season of the comedy series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” alongside Will Smith.
- She also appeared in an episode titled “Chinatown” of the animated talk show “Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” as a special guest.
- She started her production company named “Bankable Productions, which produced “Tyra Banks Show” and “America’s Next Top Model.” The production house was initially named as “Ty Ty Baby Productions.”
- By producing the show “America’s Next Top Model,” she also became its hostess and judge.
- She was also the host of her own production “The Tyra Banks Show” a talk show aimed at younger women that aired from September 12, 2005 till May 28, 2010.
- She was awarded with Daytime Emmy Award for her work on “The Tyra Banks Show” in 2008. She won it for the second time in succession in 2009.
- Her first film debut was in the year 1994, in the drama “Higher Learning.”
- She then co-starred alongside Lindsay Lohan in the movie “Life-Size” as Eve, a doll that came to life due to a spell cast on her.
- In the movie “Hannah Montana: The Movie” in 2009, she played as herself who fights with Miley Cyrus over a pair of shoe.
- It was reported in 2012 that she would produce and co-create a comedy movie title “Fivehead” based on her life during teenage years.
- She is the founder of Tzone program that helps African American young girls to develop life skills and leadership skills.
- She came under intense criticism for implying that she is a “Harvard Graduate.” She had applied for a nine week Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School and earned a certificate on completion of the training.
- “The Harvard Crimson” an undergraduate student newspaper, also reported that "Banks will be remembered within the HBS curriculum. Professor Rohit Deshpande is preparing a case study on Bankable Productions, Banks’ independent film and television production company, to be incorporated into future coursework for the Executive Education Owner/President Management Program."
- She has appeared in various musical videos including Michael Jackson’s “Black or White.” She also appeared in “Trife Life,””Love Things,” “Too Funky,” “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” and many more.
- Her first single music video was “Shake Ya Body” where six contestants from cycle 2 of “America’s Next Top Model” took part.
- She also released her single with NBA player Kobe Bryant title “K.O.B.E.”
- She is the author of the novel series - “Modelland” based on her own modeling experience. The first of the three novels was published on September 11, 2011 and topped the list of Best Sellers by “The New York Times” the next month.
- The series “Modelland” is about four girls who are accepted into an "exclusive" modeling school in the world of Modelland.
- She co-created a fashion and beauty website named “typeF.com” with the help of Demand Media, which was launched in March 2011.
- Earlier in 2015, she started a cosmetics brand – Tyra Beauty and also launched a cosmetic e-commerce site called “tyra.com”.
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