Tyra Banks is an American television personality, producer, businesswoman, actress, author, model, and occasional singer. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15, and was the first woman of African-American descent to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared three times. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world's top-earning models. In 2020, she joined "Dancing with the Stars" as a host and executive producer.

Banks began acting on television in 1993 on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and made her film debut in Higher Learning in 1995. In 2000 she had major roles on Life-Size and Coyote Ugly. She had small roles in the film Love & Basketball and Halloween: Resurrection, and appeared in television series "Gossip Girl" and "Glee".

In 2003, Banks created and began presenting the long-running reality television series "America's Next Top Model", which she executive produced and presented. Banks was the co-creator of True Beauty, and had her own talk show, "The Tyra Banks Show", which aired for five seasons and won two Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative. In 2017, Banks replaced Nick Cannon as host of "America's Got Talent" for its 12th season.

In 2010, she 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.

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