American media personality, singer, model, actress, and businesswoman Tyra Banks have a net worth of $90 million. Banks began her career in the fashion industry as a model, but she has found much greater success in the television industry.
Early Life
The date of Banks’ birth is December 4, 1973, and her place of birth is Inglewood, California. She started modeling when she was a senior in high school. She was turned down by four different modeling agencies before landing a contract with L.A. Models. Next, at the age of 16, she moved to Milan after signing with Elite Model Management of Paris.
In 1991, at Paris Fashion Week, she made her first appearance on the runway. Twenty-five shows were scheduled for her debut runway season.
Career
Banks began working with the U.S. beauty firm CoverGirl in 1993. And then, a few years later, she went back to the United States to continue her commercial modeling career.
Banks is a rare example of a black model who has made it to “supermodel” status. Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Spanish Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and many more have all featured her on their covers over the years.
She has appeared in runway shows for a wide range of designers, including Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Valentino, Fendi, Isaac Mizrahi, and Giorgio Armani. Furthermore, she has been featured in a wide variety of ad campaigns, including those for Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Victoria’s Secret, Pepsi, Nike, and many others.
Both the first issue of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and the first issue of GQ magazine to feature an African-American model were graced by her presence.
Banks’ modeling career opened doors for her and led to numerous TV appearances. She first gained recognition for her role as Will Smith’s childhood friend Jackie Ames on the hit television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire, on which she made seven guest appearances.
The 1994 John Singleton drama Higher Learning marked her film debut. In the Disney film Life-Size (2000), she starred alongside Lindsay Lohan as Eve, a doll that comes to life. (And then, in the sequel Life-Size 2, Banks made an appearance eight years later.) She has appeared in a number of films, including Love Stinks (1999), Love & Basketball (2000), Coyote Ugly (2000), and Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009).
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Banks launched her cosmetics company, Tyra Beauty, with the help of a non-degree certificate from Harvard Business School that she earned in 2004. In 2015, she released tyra.com, an e-commerce website selling cosmetics.
Ty Ty Baby Productions was another company founded by Banks (now operating as Bankable Productions). The company’s credits include the daytime talk show The Tyra Banks Show and the reality series America’s Next Top Model, which debuted in 2003. (2005–2010). As of the show’s 24th season, Banks has hosted 23 of them.
The Tyra Banks Show, hosted by Banks, won two Daytime Emmy Awards in 2008 and 2009 for outstanding, information talk shows. The host and her other endeavors brought in an estimated $18 million per year for her at the time.
Time has consistently placed Banks among the list of the 100 most influential people in the world. There are only four other African Americans and seven women who have received this honor repeatedly, but she is one of them.
She hosted the first two seasons of the reality show America’s Got Talent before Nick Cannon took over for the next eight years. In addition to The New Celebrity Apprentice, Banks has made guest appearances as a judge or consultant on the following reality competition series: Mexico’s Next Top Model, Vietnam’s Next Top Model, Asia’s Next Top Model, Korea’s Next Top Model, Australia’s Next Top Model, and Vietnam’s Next Top Model.
Her nonprofit, the Tyra Banks TZONE, teaches young people to become leaders and provides them with the tools they need to succeed in life. She also endowed funds for African-American female students to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School, by creating the Tyra Banks Scholarship.
In August of 2016, Banks agreed to speak as a guest lecturer on personal branding at Stanford University.
Banks revealed her new modeling name to Entertainment Tonight in 2019 after she came out of retirement to appear on the cover of the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated.
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Real Estate
In 2004, Banks spent just over $3 million on a 5,740 square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills. The four-bedroom Spanish Colonial she owned until 2016 when she sold it for $6.33 million.
Banks currently resides in a Manhattan duplex that spans 7,000 square feet and features a salon, fitness center, and mirrored dressing room. She spent $10.13 million on a duplex in Battery Park City with four apartments in 2009.
In March of 2015, she advertised the rental apartment on Craigslist for $50,000 monthly. As of now, the home that Banks listed in the spring of 2017 for $17.5 million has not been sold.
Banks has just recently gotten into the Los Angeles real estate flipping business. Two of her Pacific Palisades residences were put up for sale in the month of May 2018. The first home was a 6-bedroom, 9-and-a-half-bathroom mansion listed for $9.25 million, and the second was a 3-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom mansion purchased for $4.25 million.
She bought the smaller house for $3.25 million in 2014 and the larger one for $7.35 million just two years ago. Within a short period of time, she was able to sell both properties for $8.9 million and $4 million, respectively. She also sold a Los Angeles townhouse for $1.47 million in the same year.
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Personal Life
Banks had a biological son, York Banks Asla, with her boyfriend at the time, Norwegian photographer Erik Asla, via surrogate in January of 2016. In the late autumn of 2017, the couple decided to separate.
Banks has also stated that she does not partake in alcoholic beverages and has never tried any illegal drugs.