Teyana Taylor

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 asked to be released from Star Trak and signed to 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 starred 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 reached 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 has acted in the VH1 television series The Breaks, Lee Daniels’ Star, and the Amazon Prime film Coming 2 America. Furthermore, she starred in the VH1 reality series Teyana and Iman with her then-husband, basketball player Iman Shumpert. Taylor has collaborated with musicians such as Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and Missy Elliott, and has co-written songs for artists including Usher, Chris Brown, and Omarion. As a music video director, she has directed videos for artists including herself, Diddy, Schoolboy Q, and Queen Naija. She won the BET Award for Video Director of the Year in 2020 and 2023.

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