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. In 2006, she choreographed the music video for Beyoncé's single "Ring the Alarm". In the following year, she signed a record deal with Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records to embark on a career as an recording artist. Taylor would then appear on MTV's My Super Sweet 16, prior to the 2008 release of her debut single "Google Me". Despite lukewarm commercial response, she later gained wider attention 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 her contract with Star Trak and signed to West's GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings two years later.Read More

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. In 2014, Taylor released her debut album VII, and followed up with her second and third studio albums, K.T.S.E. (2018) and The Album (2020); the latter of which charted within the top ten of the Billboard 200.

As an actress, Taylor has acted in the VH1 television series The Breaks, Lee Daniels' Star, and the Amazon Prime film Coming 2 America. Additionally, she starred in the VH1 reality show Teyana and Iman with her 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.