Tyra Banks

Now let’s take a look at her amazing accomplishments.

Tyra Banks Career Moves

Despite appearing in many fashion shows around the world, Tyra Banks did not become a famous household name until she started modeling lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. As one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels, she participated in many of their famous fashion shows up until recently. She is also notable for breaking the racial barrier to become the first African-American to appear on the cover of the Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit edition and Gentlemen’s Quarterly. Throughout her career she was involved with about 20 different magazines including: CoverGirl, Nike, Ralph Lauren, LensCrafters, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Tommy Hilfiger, Pepsi, Swatch, McDonalds, Liz Claiborne, Chanel, XOXO and Elle. In 1994 and 1996 People magazine named her as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People”. Another notable award for her was in 1997, when she was awarded the prestigious Michael Award for Supermodel of the Year.

In 1998, Tyra wanted to share her knowledge of beauty, modeling and other topics important to young women by writing a book called Beauty: Inside and Out”.

Aside from her successful modeling career, Tyra became involved with film and television. In 2003, Tyra Banks decided to start her own production company called Ty Inc. From here she became the executive producer and creator of “America’s Next Top Model”, a reality-based show where young women compete to win a year contract with a famous modeling agency and receive a large cash prize. Currently in it’s 6th season, the UPN networked show has been a great success.

In 2005, Tyra created and produced a new talk show, appropriately named “The Tyra Banks Show”. Combining topics important to everyday women with appearances from celebrities, it is hoped to be a successful addition to an already flooded market of talk shows catered to women in production.

Tyra’s Timeline of TV and Movie Projects

• 1993 – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Played Will Smith’s love interest) – appeared in a couple of episodes on this popular TV series of the time.
• 1995- Higher Learning
• 1999- Love Stinks
• 2000- Coyote Ugly
• 2000- Disney’s Life-Size
• 2000- Love and Basketball
• 2000- Appearance on Mad TV
• 2001- Soul Food
• 2002 – Halloween Resurrection
• 2002- Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights- cartoon voice of the “Victoria’s Secret Gown”
• 2004- Larceny

Tyra Banks gives back to the Community

Despite all her successes, Tyra has not forgotten where she has come from. Her childhood in Inglewood, California exposed her to the hardships of inner city life. In 1992, she created the Tyra Banks Scholarship- a fund created for African-American girls to attend her alma mater- the Catholic Immaculate Heart High School. But that wasn’t enough, Tyra wanted to do more. In 1999, she created the TZONE Foundation, a non-profit organization where young, low-income disadvantaged young girls could join a camp where they could deal with the insecurities of body image, dating and other important teen issues. Recently, Tyra is moving TZONE into a fund-raising grant organization to give money other non-profit organization to help disadvantaged girls and women.

Related Links

• Tyra Bank’s Official Website
• Lingerie Bowl
• Lingerie Party
• Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows
• Victoria's Secret Models