Tyra Banks's Real Name: Tyra Lynne Banks

Quick answer: Tyra Banks's documented full name is Tyra Lynne Banks. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that form and gives her birth date as December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California. Encyclopedia.com gives the same date but places the birth in Los Angeles, while also describing her childhood in an Inglewood duplex (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Britannica lists Tyra Lynne Banks and says she was raised in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, where she attended an all-girls Catholic school. Encyclopedia.com names her parents as Don Banks, a computer consultant, and Carolyn (later Carolyn London-Johnson); Britannica likewise gives those occupations, calling her mother a photographer. Encyclopedia.com says her parents divorced when she was six. She began modeling at 15, signed with Elite Model Management in 1990, and appeared in Seventeen. After high school in 1991 she enrolled at Loyola Marymount University, then left when a French scout offered runway work in Paris. Both sources say she walked a record 25 shows in her first season there.

Career highlights

She became a face of CoverGirl in 1993 and later one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels (1997), Britannica records, and was the first African American woman on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, a first Encyclopedia.com also notes. She appeared in music videos including Michael Jackson's "Black or White" (1991), had a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1993, appearing with Will Smith, and made her film debut in Higher Learning (1995). Britannica says that in the mid-1990s, as runway work receded, she shifted toward lingerie and swimwear rather than yield to pressure to lose weight, and later launched Bankable Productions and, with her mother, the Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation. In 2003 she began hosting and executive-producing America's Next Top Model, which ran, with a later revival, through 2018. She retired from modeling in 2005, the year she launched The Tyra Banks Show (2005–10), which won Emmy Awards in 2008 and 2009 for outstanding talk show in the informative category, Britannica says. She later hosted America's Got Talent (2017–18) and Dancing with the Stars (2020–22).

Name notes for searchers

Tyra Lynne Banks is the documented full name; she is known professionally as Tyra Banks. Searchers looking for a Victoria's Secret Angel, the host of America's Next Top Model, or the host of The Tyra Banks Show are usually aiming at the same person.