Isis King
Born	Darrell Walls (1985-10-01) October 1, 1985 (age 26)[1] Prince George's County, Maryland
Other names	Isis King, Isis Tsunami
Ethnicity	African-American
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1]
Hair color	Dark Brown
Eye color	Dark Brown
Dress size	2 (USA), 32 (EU)
Shoe size	9.5 (USA), 42 (EU)

Isis King (born as Darrell Walls on October 1, 1985)^[1] is an American fashion model and a fashion designer. She was a contestant on both the eleventh cycle and the seventeenth cycle of the reality television show America's Next Top Model. She was the first trans woman to compete on the show, and became one of the most visible transgender people on television.^[2]

Biography[link]

King is originally from Prince Georges County, Maryland, and currently resides in New York City. King was assigned male at birth but has stated that "mentally [and] everything else" she was "born female."^[3] She has stated that people might refer to her as "transgender" or "transsexual", but she prefers the phrase "born in the wrong body".^[3]

While in high school, King came out as "gay". However, she felt that it was still not the accurate label for her orientation.^[4]

In 2007, King appeared in an MSNBC special titled Born in the Wrong Body, which documented the lives of transgender teens from across the United States.^[5] King began hormone replacement therapy in the summer of 2007, as part of her transitioning process.^[6] She hoped to have sex reassignment surgery as soon as possible.^[7]

Early career[link]

King has an associate degree from the Art Institute of Philadelphia.^[6] While in college her designs won her a 2005 award for Best Woman's Evening Wear.^{[citation needed]}

King had been runway modeling for seven years before participating in America's Next Top Model. Her experience included competing in the underground ball culture scene. In a promotional interview for ANTM, King stated she was looking forward to runway as she had been "walking" for seven years. Her post-show runway credits include the Amore Fashion Show, Howard University Fashion Show, Colors Fall/Winter 2009–10 Line, Secret Society, and Images Fashion Show (for which she received an award).^{[citation needed]}

She has also worked as a receptionist at a hair salon, and as a program assistant for a nonprofit organization.^[8]

[edit] America's Next Top Model

King was living at the Ali Forney Transitional Living Program when she learned about an upcoming photo shoot for the tenth cycle of America's Next Top Model.^[9] As the shoot's theme would be the issue of homeless youth, real homeless women would be used as background models, recruited in conjunction with the Reciprocity Foundation, which works to move homeless and high-risk youth into careers in the "creativity economy".^{[citation needed]}

King asked ANTM art director Jay Manuel whether she could be accepted as a girl "born in the wrong body" if she were to audition as a contestant for the program.^[9] After the shoot, show host and producer Tyra Banks had her staff search out King to encourage her to audition based on her performance in the photo shoot. King became one of fourteen finalists for the eleventh cycle of the show.^[7][10] She placed tenth overall.

She participated in Cycle 17 of America's Next Top Model—also known as the "All-Stars Cycle"—along with 13 other returning contestants from past Top Model cycles. She was eliminated in the third week of the competition.

After ANTM[link]

King has appeared on The Tyra Banks Show twice. In her first appearance she discussed her life story further, along with fellow contestant Clark Gilmer. Banks surprised King by introducing her to Marci Bowers, a fellow trans woman and top gender reassignment surgeon, who offered her an all-expenses-paid surgery.^[11] According to King's Facebook page, the surgery was conducted on February 27, 2009.^{[citation needed]} The results of the operation were revealed in her second appearance, in which new test shots taken after the surgery were revealed. Isis' transition to being anatomically female was deemed "complete." She also appeared on Larry King Live on July 25, 2009.^[12] It has been announced that King will compete in the seventeenth overall and first 'All Star' cycle of America's Next Top Model, which aired on the September 14, 2011. She has since been eliminated.

Print work[link]

King appeared in Us Weekly (September 2008), was in Seventeen magazine (December 2008/January 2009), Out magazine, Mallard International magazine, and the cover of the Spring 2010 Swerv magazine.^{[citation needed]} King also did a variety of test shots that were used to promote her visit to The Tyra Banks Show.

As of present time,^[when?] King is not signed with any modeling agency, though she works as a freelance fashion model.

Cultural impact[link]

King is one of a small but growing number of transgender people and characters in film and television, and her inclusion on ANTM has been called an "unprecedented opportunity" by Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.^[13] By competing on the show, King has brought national and prime time attention to issues of gender transitioning and gender expression.^[14][15] New York magazine has called King the cause célèbre of Cycle 11, comparing her transsexualism to previous contestant "issues" featured on the show such as Cycle 9 contestant Heather Kuzmich's Asperger syndrome.^[16] ANTM executive producer Ken Mok stated that her casting was done in support of "redefin[ing] what beauty is," one of "Tyra's original missions" for the show.^[17]

Due to the intimate nature of the program, which films the contestants living together during the several weeks of the competition, GLAAD spokesman Damon Romine noted that "the show deals head on with the contestants confronting their own phobias. There's going to be support, and the reverse of that. It opens the door for the other girls and the viewers to get to know Isis and the transgender community." Some of King's fellow contestants revealed prejudices in speaking about how her gender transitioning would be poorly received in their own small communities or in the southern United States.^[7] Contestants have referred to King pejoratively as a "he/she" and a "drag queen".^[18] Facets of King's transitioning process have been portrayed in the show, such as her hormone injections and subsequent nausea.^[19]

New York magazine noted that King is one of few transgender models in history to rise to public prominence, comparing her to Teri Toye, former club kid Amanda Lepore, and the gender-bending club promoter and model André J.^[20] Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York, told ABC News that the time may be right for a transgender supermodel: "Maybe it's time for a tranny [sic] to end up on the cover of Vogue."^[17]

See also[link]

• List of transgender characters in film and television
• List of transgender people
• List of transgender-related topics
• List of transgender-rights organizations
• Transphobia
• Cisgender
• Gender identity disorder
• Transgenderism (social movement)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile page on America's Next Top Model
• Isis King on Facebook
• Isis' Interview with Adam Benjamin Irby on AdamIrby.com
• [1]

Tyra Lynn Banks
Banks at the 2012 Time 100 gala
Born	Tyra Lynn Banks (1973-12-04) December 4, 1973 (age 38) Inglewood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Model Actress Author Singer
Years active	1991–present
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1][2]
Website
typeF.com

Tyra Lynn Banks (born December 4, 1973). is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman.^[3][4][5] She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Early life[link]

Tyra Banks was born in Inglewood, California. She is the daughter of Caroline (née London; now London-Johnson), a medical photographer,^[6] and Donald Banks, a computer consultant.^[3][7] She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. In 1980, when Banks was 6 years old, her parents divorced. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. Tyra Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

Career[link]

Modeling[link]

When Banks was 15 years old, she started modeling while attending school in Los Angeles. She was rejected by four modeling agencies before she was signed by Elite Model Management at age 16. When she got the opportunity to model in Europe, she put college on hold and moved to Milan. In her first runway season, she was booked a record 25 shows at the 1991 Paris fashion week. She would later grace the covers of ELLE and Vogue Spain. She walked the runways for Chanel, Isaac Mizrahi, Anna Sui, Sonia Rykiel, Todd Oldham, Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, Badgley Mischka, Marina Spadafora, Michael Kors, Perry Ellis, Gemma Kahng, Valentino, Tracy Reese, Nicole Miller and Fendi as well as appearing in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren and others.^[8] In the mid-1990's, Banks returned to America to do more commercial modeling.

Banks was the first African American woman on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.^[9] In 1997, she received the VH1 award for, "Supermodel of the Year."^{[citation needed]} That same year, she became the first-ever African American chosen for the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalog.^[10] She is one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels.

In 2010, Banks re-signed with her former modeling agency IMG Models.^[11] Banks is now a contributor of the Vogue Italia website.

Move into television and film[link]

Banks at Cannes Film Festival in 2000.

Banks's television career began on the fourth season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which she played lead character Will Smith's old friend Jackie Ames. She made seven appearances in the series.^{[citation needed]} Other TV credits include Felicity, All That, MADtv, Nick Cannon's Wild 'n Out (in which she was featured as a special guest host and team captain) and The Price Is Right (guest-starring as a "Barker's Beauty").^{[citation needed]} She also appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast in an episode entitled "Chinatown."

Tyra Banks started her own production company, Bankable Productions (previously named, "Ty Ty Baby Productions"; she did not rename it till the second cycle of America's Next Top Model), which produced The Tyra Banks Show, America's Next Top Model and the 2008 movie The Clique.

Banks is the hostess, judge and executive producer of The CW Television Network show America's Next Top Model. In addition, she hosted The Tyra Banks Show, a daytime talk show aimed at younger women, which premiered on September 12, 2005, and ran until May 28, 2010.

In 2008, Banks won the Daytime Emmy Award for her work and production on The Tyra Banks Show.^{[citation needed]}, and won for the second time in a row for outstanding, informative talkshow. In 2010, Oprah Winfrey congratulated Tyra Banks for a good job done on her talk-show for inspiring and mentoring young women.

In late-January 2008, Banks got the go-ahead from The CW Television Network to start work on a new reality television series based on fashion magazines called Modelitha. The show premiered on October 22, 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Banks's first big screen role came in 1994, when she co-starred in the drama Higher Learning.^[12] She then co-starred with Lindsay Lohan in the Disney film Life-Size, playing a doll named Eve who comes to life and has to learn how to live in the real world. Other notable roles include Love Stinks (1999), Love & Basketball (2000), Coyote Ugly (2000) and Halloween: Resurrection (2002). She and Miley Cyrus poke fun at the excesses of the Hollywood lifestyle with a battle over a pair of shoes in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009).

Banks appeared in the fourth episode of the third season of Gossip Girl^[13] playing Ursula Nyquist, a larger-than-life actress who works with Serena.

Music[link]

Banks has appeared in several music videos, including Michael Jackson's "Black or White", Tina Turner's "Love Thing", Mobb Deep's "Trife Life", George Michael's "Too Funky" (with supermodels Linda Evangelista, Estelle Lefebure, Emma Sjoberg and Nadja Auermann ) and Lionel Richie's "Don't Wanna Lose You". In 2004, she recorded her first single, "Shake Ya Body," which had a music video featuring the final six contestants on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 2. The video was world-premiered on UPN, but the single turned out to be a failure.^[14]

Banks released a single with NBA player Kobe Bryant, entitled "K.O.B.E.," which was performed on NBA TV.^{[citation needed]} She also has a single on the soundtrack to Disney Channel's Original Movie Life-Size called "Be A Star."^{[citation needed]}

Books[link]

Banks in Santa Monica on September 14, 2011

Banks announced in May 2010 that she would be writing a novel, titled Modelland,^[15] loosely based on her own modelling experience.^[16] Published September 2011,^{[dated info]} it is the first of a planned three-part series.^[17] On an interview with Good Morning America, Banks stated that Modelland is the story of four girls who are accepted into an "exclusive" modelling school in the world of Modelland.^[18] Her first novel, Modelland, hit the New York Times best seller list in October 2011.

In 1998, Banks authored a book entitled Tyra's Beauty, Inside and Out.^[19]

Website[link]

In March 2011, Banks launched her fashion and beauty website called "typeF.com", which she co-created with Demand Media.^[20]

Other[link]

In 2011, Banks enrolled in the nine-week-long Owner/President Manager Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School's open-enrollment extension school.^[21] Banks passed the Executive Education Training Program in February 2012.^[22]

Philanthropy[link]

In 1999, Tyra Banks established the TZONE program, which aimed at leadership and life skills development.^[23][24] Banks acts as the patron for TZONE. She has also established the Tyra Banks Scholarship, a fund aimed at providing African-American girls the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School. In 2005, TZONE transformed from a camp into a public charity, the Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation.^[23]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tyra Banks

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tyra Banks

• Tyra Banks at the Internet Movie Database
• Tyra Banks at the Fashion Model Directory
• Tyra Banks at AllRovi
• banks Tyra Banks at People.com
• The Tyra Banks Show website
• The New York Times Profile/Interview