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. In 2010, Taylor made her film debut in Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, and later appeared in the Tyler Perry film, Madea's Big Happy Family in 2011. The following year, she appeared on the GOOD Music compilation album Cruel Summer (2012), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. 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). As an actress, Taylor had roles in two seasons of the Lee Daniels television series Star (2017–18), and the Amazon Prime film Coming 2 America (2021). In 2023, she received critical acclaim and Oscar buzz for her starring performance in the film A Thousand and One.She appeared in the VH1 reality series Teyana and Iman with her ...