TATYANA ALI [Actress / Singer]

2010 has only just begun, and Tatyana is already making waves. She is an NAACP Image Award Nominee for the “Best Actress in a Daytime Drama” for her role as “Roxanne” on The Young and the Restless. Her production company, HazraH Entertainment, has two shows under its belt, both starring Tatyana: the BET web series, BUPPIES, which has garnered over 5 million views to date and the TV One sitcom executive produced by Martin Lawrence and Raphael Saadiq, Love That Girl, which received stellar ratings. She moonlights as host of TV One Access, the number one rated show on the network, and this year moviegoers will watch Tatyana on the silver screen in the Guillermo del Toro production, Mother and Child, alongside Naomi Watts and Samuel L. Jackson. 2010 will also mark the release of Tatyana’s sophomore album, “The Light”.

Tatyana Ali is a Broadway-trained actress, singer, activist and graduate of Harvard University. Audiences best recognize the New York native as “Ashley”, the youngest in the Banks household on NBC’s hit comedy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which earned her numerous accolades including: the NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Youth Actor” and the 1995 and 1997 Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award for “Best Actress in a Comedy Series”. Now in worldwide syndication, Fresh Prince has secured Tatyana Ali’s place in pop culture history.
           
Tatyana has since appeared in numerous films, including: Paramount Pictures’ Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd; Sony Pictures’ The Brothers with Morris Chestnut and D.L. Hughley; famed Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s English-language gangster film, Brother, a Sony Pictures Classics film, and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Glory Road. Nora’s Hair Salon II, the follow up to 2002’s Nora’s Hair Salon, aired on BET and was one of the highest rated movies in the network’s history, second to John Singleton’s Hustle and Flow.

Tatyana Ali’s voice hit the airwaves in 1998 when she recorded her debut album, “Kiss the Sky”, under Epic/MJJ. The hit single, “Daydreamin’”, earned Tatyana a gold record, and the follow-up single, “Boy You Knock Me Out”, went silver in the U.K., earning Tatyana the coveted opening act spot for both *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys on their world tours. In 1999, Tatyana paid homage to “Sesame Street,” the kids’ show that propelled her television career, by recording “Precious Wings” for “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland” soundtrack. The recording won the Grammy for “Best Musical Album for Children”.

An inspiration to her millions of fans, this National Black Caucus of State Legislatures’ Visionary Award recipient began canvassing the country as a surrogate for Barack Obama in November 2007, speaking to college students and minority youth about the importance of voting. To bring attention to the Senator’s presidential campaign, she sang in the Emmy-winning Internet music video, “Yes We Can”, featured along with will.i.am, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Nick Cannon and Scarlett Johansson. The video has received more than 25 million views on You Tube to date. She also appeared in the follow-up will.i.am video, “It’s a New Day,” which premiered on The Oprah Winfrey Show following Obama’s win. Tatyana continues her advocacy work as spokesperson for the Millennium Momentum Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating and professionally developing young people for leadership roles that will impact their communities.

There’s only more to come from this multitalented woman.