Teyana Taylor Biography
Teyana Me Shay Jacqueli Shumpert (née Taylor; born December 10, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, model, dancer, choreographer, and music video director. After choreographing the video for Beyoncé's 2006 single "Ring the Alarm," she signed a recording contract with the Neptunes' Star Trak Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records to embark on a career as an recording artist the following year. Taylor appeared on MTV's My Super Sweet 16 prior to the release of her 2008 debut single, "Google Me." Despite lukewarm commercial response, she later gained wider attention in 2010 for her uncredited guest performances on the songs "Dark Fantasy" and "Hell of a Life" by Kanye West, from his highly-acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). She parted ways with Star Trak and Interscope in favor of signing with West's GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings two years later. The following year, she appeared on the GOOD Music compilation album Cruel Summer (2012), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Her debut studio album, VII (2014) received positive critical response and peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard 200, along with her second and third studio albums, K.T.S.E. (2018) and The Album (2020); the latter peaked in the top ten of the chart, while K.T.S.E. spawned the single "Gonna Love Me" (remixed featuring Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Raekwon), which received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In her acting career, Taylor made her film debut in the 2010 comedy Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, and appeared in the Tyler Perry film, Madea's Big Happy Family the following year. Taylor had roles in two seasons of the Lee Daniels television series Star (2017–18), and the Amazon Prime film Coming 2 America (2021). She and her then-husband, Iman Shumpert were given the reality television series Teyana and Iman by VH1, which aired from 2020 until 2023. She received critical acc...