Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973)[3] is an American television personality, Emmy Award-winning talk show host, actor, supermodel, former teen idol, and businessperson.[4][5] She became famous first as a model in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and New York, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough. She is known best 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- winning talk show, The Tyra Banks Show. Banks is one of 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,[3] the daughter of Carolyn (née London), a fashion manager and NASA photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant.[6] The couple divorced in 1980, when Tyra was six, although the relationship of her parents and especially her brother Devin Banks (born 1968) stayed friendly.[citation needed] Later, Carolyn married Clifford Johnson; she now goes by Carolyn London-Johnson. Banks grew up in Inglewood and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. She began modeling in the 11th grade.[7]