Tyra Banks has a net worth of $90 million. She earned her fortune as a supermodel, TV host, producer, and entrepreneur. Banks is best known for creating America’s Next Top Model and for hosting The Tyra Banks Show, America’s Got Talent, and Dancing with the Stars.
Quick Facts
| Net Worth | $90 Million |
| Born | December 4, 1973 (age 52) |
| Birthplace | Inglewood, California |
| Profession | Model, TV Host, Producer, Actress, Author, Entrepreneur |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Nationality | American |
From Supermodel to Media Mogul
Tyra Banks did not just become famous as a model. She turned that fame into a business empire.
In the 1990s, Banks broke barriers in the fashion world. She was the first Black woman to cover GQ magazine. She was also the first Black model to appear solo on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She walked runways for top designers like Chanel and Christian Dior. She became one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels.
But modeling was only the beginning. Banks made most of her fortune from television.
In 2003, she created America’s Next Top Model. She served as host, executive producer, and part-owner of the show. It became one of the most successful reality shows in TV history. At the peak of her TV career in the late 2000s, Banks earned around $30 million a year.
She has kept reinventing herself ever since. She returned to modeling for magazine covers and the Victoria’s Secret runway. She launched an ice cream brand. She moved her family to Australia. And in 2026, she joined the judging panel of Project Runway.
Early Life
Tyra Lynne Banks was born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California. Her mother, Carolyn London, worked as a medical photographer. Her father, Donald Banks, worked as a computer consultant. Her parents divorced when Tyra was six years old. She has an older brother named Devin.
Banks has said she felt awkward as a child. She went through a major growth spurt as a teenager. She attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and started modeling at age 15.
Modeling agencies rejected her at first. She later signed with L.A. Models, then moved to Elite Model Management at age 16. She planned to attend Loyola Marymount University, but she delayed college to model in Europe instead. That choice changed her life.
Her Supermodel Breakthrough
Banks moved to Paris in 1991 and became an instant success. In her first season alone, she booked 25 fashion shows. That was an incredible number for a newcomer. She walked for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Valentino, Fendi, and Donna Karan.
People compared her early on to supermodel Naomi Campbell. But Banks wanted to build her own brand, not follow someone else’s path. As her body changed in her early 20s, she moved away from strict European runway modeling. She shifted toward commercial, lingerie, and swimsuit work instead.
That shift made her even more famous. She landed a major CoverGirl contract. In 1996, she became the first Black woman on the cover of GQ. That same year, she appeared with model Valeria Mazza on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover.
In 1997, Banks made history again. She became the first Black woman to appear alone on the Swimsuit Issue cover. She also became the first Black model on the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalog and one of the brand’s original Angels.
She walked her first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 1996. She retired from the runway in 2005 to focus on TV production.
That retirement did not last forever. Banks returned to the Swimsuit Issue cover in 2019 at age 45. She joined the magazine’s 60th-anniversary Legends shoot in 2024. That same year, she closed the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show for the first time in nearly two decades.
Her Acting Career
Banks started acting while her modeling career was at its peak. In 1993, she landed a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Jackie Ames.
She made her film debut in the 1995 drama Higher Learning. She later appeared in Love & Basketball, Coyote Ugly, Halloween: Resurrection, and Hannah Montana: The Movie.
One of her most memorable roles was Eve, a doll who comes to life in the 2000 Disney Channel movie Life-Size. She reprised the role nearly 20 years later in Life-Size 2.
Banks also guest-starred on shows like Felicity, Gossip Girl, Glee, and Black-ish. Acting became a fun side project. But TV hosting and production made her far more money.
Creating America’s Next Top Model
In 2003, Banks created America’s Next Top Model. The show mixed fashion modeling with the elimination format that was popular in early-2000s reality TV. Banks served as host, executive producer, and the driving creative force behind the series.
The show became a huge hit. The American version ran for 24 seasons between 2003 and 2018. It moved networks from UPN to The CW, then to VH1. Banks hosted 23 of those seasons. Rita Ora briefly took over hosting duties for season 23.
America’s Next Top Model also became a global franchise, with local versions produced around the world. Photo shoots, makeovers, and dramatic judging panels became a fixture of 2000s pop culture. Banks’ catchphrase “smize” (smile with your eyes) became so popular that she later built a business around it.
Unlike a typical hired host, Banks owned a piece of the show. Reports from the height of its popularity said she owned about 25% of America’s Next Top Model. That ownership stake, combined with her salary, played a huge role in growing her wealth.
How Much Tyra Banks Earned From TV
By the mid-2000s, Banks had become one of the most successful women in television. She owned part of America’s Next Top Model. She ran her own production company. She also held an ownership stake in her daytime talk show.
In 2006, Banks earned more than $18 million from her various shows and businesses. Her income kept climbing as America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show both aired at the same time.
Between June 2008 and June 2009, Banks earned an estimated $30 million. She earned about the same amount the following year. That made her one of the highest-paid women on television at the time.
That money did not come from hosting fees alone. Her production company developed other shows, including True Beauty and Stylista. That gave her extra income as a producer and owner, on top of hosting fees, modeling contracts, acting roles, and brand endorsements.
The Tyra Banks Show
Banks launched The Tyra Banks Show in 2005 while America’s Next Top Model was already a hit. The syndicated daytime show mixed celebrity interviews and fashion segments with deeper topics like body image, relationships, race, and self-esteem.
The show ran for five seasons. It won back-to-back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Informative Talk Show in 2008 and 2009.
Banks also owned a stake in the show, so she earned money beyond her hosting salary. The Tyra Banks Show ended in 2010 as Banks shifted focus to other projects.
Later TV Hosting Work
Banks kept moving between hosting, judging, and producing after her talk show ended.
- 2015: She helped launch the lifestyle talk show FABLife as co-host and executive producer.
- 2017: She replaced Nick Cannon as host of America’s Got Talent for two seasons.
- 2020: She took over as host and executive producer of Dancing with the Stars, succeeding Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews. She hosted three seasons before leaving in 2023.
- 2026: She joined Heidi Klum on the judging panel of Project Runway season 22, reuniting two of the biggest model-turned-TV-star names of their generation.
SMiZE & DREAM: Her Ice Cream Business
Ice cream became Banks’ biggest consumer business after her hosting years. She launched the idea as SMiZE Cream in 2021, then expanded it into SMiZE & DREAM, a premium ice cream and retail brand named after her famous catchphrase.
Banks has said the idea came from childhood memories of eating ice cream with her mother while talking about their dreams. The company tried direct-to-consumer sales, pop-up shops, live events, and partnerships with airlines and cruise lines.
The business hit a legal snag with a planned flagship store in Washington, D.C. The company backed out of a 10-year lease, and in 2025, the landlord sued Banks, her partner Louis Bélanger-Martin, and a company linked to SMiZE & DREAM for about $2.8 million. Banks and her co-defendants pushed back, saying the property had serious problems and the landlord failed to deliver what was promised.
Meanwhile, Banks shifted the company’s focus to Australia. After many trips to Sydney while developing the ice cream, she moved there with her family. SMiZE & DREAM opened a roughly 3,000-square-foot flagship store in Sydney’s Darling Harbour in 2025, then expanded to new markets, including Dubai.
In 2025, the brand also went viral with “Hot Mama,” a warm dairy dessert Banks marketed as “hot ice cream.” The unusual product generated big buzz online, continuing Banks’ habit of building attention-grabbing brands.
Books, Beauty, and Business Education
Banks has built several businesses outside of TV and ice cream. She launched the cosmetics line TYRA Beauty in 2014. She runs her media ventures through companies including Bankable Productions and The Tyra Banks Company.
She is also a published author. Her fantasy novel Modelland, released in 2011, became a New York Times bestseller. In 2018, she co-wrote Perfect Is Boring: 10 Things My Crazy, Fierce Mama Taught Me About Beauty, Booty, and Being a Boss with her mother, Carolyn London.
Banks also completed Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management program in 2012. This is a nine-week executive education course, not an MBA or Harvard degree, despite a common misconception.
The Netflix Documentary and Lawsuit
Years after America’s Next Top Model ended, old clips resurfaced online. Some of the show’s more extreme moments drew fresh criticism. Banks admitted the show made choices she would handle differently today, while also defending its role in widening beauty standards and giving opportunities to underrepresented models.
In February 2026, Netflix released the three-part documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Banks sat for an extensive interview for the project.
Four months later, Banks sued Netflix and the documentary’s directors for defamation. She claimed producers cut her roughly three-and-a-half-hour interview down to about 16 minutes and edited her answers in a misleading way. The edits, she says, made it look like she knew about an alleged sexual assault involving a former contestant. Netflix has denied the claims and filed a motion in August 2026 to get the lawsuit dismissed.
Personal Life
Banks was in a long-term relationship with Norwegian photographer Erik Asla during the 2010s. In January 2016, they welcomed a son, York Banks Asla, through a surrogate. The couple separated in 2017.
She later began dating Canadian businessman Louis Bélanger-Martin. She eventually moved to Sydney, Australia, with her son and Bélanger-Martin as SMiZE & DREAM expanded there.
Tyra Banks’ Real Estate Portfolio
Banks has bought and sold an unusually large number of luxury homes, especially in Southern California.
- Beverly Hills (2004): Bought a 5,700-square-foot Spanish Colonial home for $3.085 million, spent about $2 million renovating it, then sold it in 2016 for $6.33 million.
- Manhattan (2009): Paid about $10.13 million to combine four units at the Riverhouse condo in Battery Park City into a 7,000-square-foot duplex with five bedrooms and Hudson River views.
- Pacific Palisades (2016–2018): Bought a 6,100-square-foot home for $7.35 million and sold it for $8.9 million two years later.
- Pacific Palisades (2018–2021): Bought another mansion for $6.995 million and sold it for its full $7.895 million asking price.
- Pacific Palisades (2019): Bought a fixer-upper for about $3 million and later sold it for around $3.2 million.
- Malibu (2021): Paid $4.7 million for an oceanfront fixer-upper, continuing her long run of buying and flipping high-end homes.
Tyra Banks Net Worth FAQ
How did Tyra Banks make her money?
Banks built her fortune through modeling contracts, TV hosting, and ownership stakes in shows like America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show. She also earns from her ice cream company, cosmetics line, book deals, and real estate deals.
How much did Tyra Banks earn per year at her peak?
Between 2008 and 2009, Banks earned an estimated $30 million, largely from America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show.
Does Tyra Banks still own part of America’s Next Top Model?
Reports from the height of the show’s success said Banks owned about 25% of the series, in addition to her salary as host and executive producer.
What is SMiZE & DREAM?
SMiZE & DREAM is Tyra Banks’ premium ice cream and retail company, named after her famous “smize” catchphrase. It has locations in Sydney and Dubai.
Where does Tyra Banks live now?
Banks relocated to Sydney, Australia, with her family as she expanded her SMiZE & DREAM ice cream business.
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