December 4th, 2007 - Happy Birthday Tyra Banks!

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 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 Banks (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 attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, California, a popular Catholic girls’ school, where she insists that her classmates made fun of her because of her height and weight. Prior to graduating in 1991, she wanted to pursue modeling. She was accepted to Loyola Marymount University. However, instead of attending the university, she moved to Paris to pursue her modeling career.

Banks’ television career began on the fourth season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which she played lead character Will’s ex-girlfriend Jackie Ames, and made eight appearances throughout the series. Other screen credits include Felicity, MADtv, Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘N Out (in which she was featured as special guest host and team captain), and The Price Is Right (guest-starring as a Barker’s Beauty).

Currently, Banks can be seen on television as the hostess, head judge, and executive producer of the UPN (now the CW) television show America’s Next Top Model. In addition, she hosts The Tyra Banks Show, a daytime talkshow aimed at younger women, which premiered on September 12, 2005 and recently began its third season, drawing over 1.9 million viewers an episode. The show features stories about everyday people mixed in with celebrity interviews, much like the early format of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Under the slogan “Every woman has a story…and it happened to Tyra too”, Banks promotes her show using emotional flashbacks to her own childhood and adolescence. Many of the episodes deal with issues facing women today. The first two seasons of the show were taped in Tyra’s hometown of Los Angeles, but beginning with the fall 2007 season, the show moved to New York City.

On the big screen, Banks has had minor roles in a few movies. Her first big screen role came in 1995 when she co-starred in the drama Higher Learning. She went on to co-star with Lindsay Lohan in the Disney film Life-Size, playing a doll named Eve who comes to life. Other notable roles include 1999’s Love Stinks, 2000’s Coyote Ugly, and 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection.

Jeff Bridges-Actor -58
Patricia Wettig-Actress -56
Chelsea Noble-Actress -43
Marisa Tomei-Actress -43
Jay-Z-Rapper -38
Kevin Sussman-Actor/Ugly Betty -37

DISCLAIMER: This posting was submitted by a user of the site not from The Insider editorial staff. All users have acknowledged and agreed that the submission of their story and its contents is in compliance with our Terms of Use.