Tyra Banks
Banks in 2011, kathclick/bigstock.com
Birth Name: Tyra Lynne Banks
Place of Birth: Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: December 4, 1973
Ethnicity: African-American
Tyra Banks is an American model, television personality, producer, businessperson, actress, author, and singer. She was the host of The Tyra Banks Show from 2005 to 2010, created, and presented, the show America’s Next Top Model, and appeared in the films Coyote Ugly and Halloween: Resurrection, among other works. She is also known as BanX.
Her parents, Caroline (London) and Donald Banks, are both African-American. A picture of Tyra with her parents can be seen here.
Tyra has a son with her former partner, Norwegian photographer Erik Asla.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show America’s Next Top Model (2014) stated that Tyra’s genetic ancestry is:
*79% African
*14% British
*6% Native American
One of Tyra’s great-great-grandfathers was named Walter Taylor.
Tyra’s maternal grandfather possibly was Ernest London (the son of Edward London and Ophelia Christopher). Ernest was born in Louisiana. Edward was the son of Charles London and Maria. Ophelia was the daughter of Antoine/Antony Christopher and Susan West Duncan/Champ.
Tyra’s maternal grandmother was Florine B. Coleman (the daughter of Fletcher Coleman and Lucinda/Loucindy Wisner/Hampton). Florine was born in Texas. Fletcher was born in Texas, the son of Ezekle “Zeke”/Ezekiel Coleman and Julia Beasley.
Sources: Genealogical information on Tyra Banks – https://blogs.ancestry.com
The article also said: “It’s actually quite rare to have such a high percentage of Native American blood — only 1 percent of test takers have more than 5 percent in their DNA..”
She is the daughter of Caroline London and Donald Banks.
“On a recent episode of America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks turned her reality show into a DNA laboratory… So, she submitted a saliva sample with the AncestryDNA test, and the experts at Ancestry looked at more than 700,000 locations on her DNA map to reveal that the 5’10” California beauty is:
-79 percent African
-14 percent British
-6 percent Native American”
http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2014/12/29/tyra-banks-gets-surprising-dna-results-on-americas-next-top-model/
A lot of mixed people only claim black, so her parents could be mixed but only as identify as “black”. I don’t think she looks 100% black, she probably has a significant amount of white in her.
I wouldnt say a significant amount, thats sounds like too much. I am unsure what 100 percent black looks like to you but it can look like Tyra Banks. There are 100 percent black nigerians with her look.
Both her parents are black.
http://www.arogundade.com/Resources/tyra-and-parents.jpg
Intersting that Tyra Banks ,mother, brother, and father are all dark skinned with brown eyes link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/photos/tyra-banks-years-8490526
@midori
Well that does happen, skin color does vary in families here, as I ‘m sure it does with your people.however who knows.
@nieltenant what a sick twisted comment thats also racist. People black people in Africa can have different eye colors wow, what a crazy thing to say. Black Africans were the 1st human people on earth.
@midori….White wannabe clown. Sorry, subsaharan Africans are virtually made up of dark-skinned folks with exceptionally dark eyes. Unless if you want to count Ethiopians, who may have lighter skin…..
Yes, black Africans were the first humans — glad you know that part. When some of them moved out from Africa 200K years ago, they evolved fair skin and their eye color mutated. Which makes sense because Western Asia and Europe are cooler. Why would someone naturally have coloured eyes and fair skin in a hot place like Africa? Please, educate yourself.
You’re the self-hating person with a Hitler complex, who wants to whitewash pure Africans with Caucasoid features –green eyes, blue……. NOW THAT IS RACIST….Shame on you…..
@Etereal have you READ Tyra Banks DNA test? She is 79% black subsharan African. Are you black?, have you traveled to Africa? Stop being so racist, please. Subsaharan Africans can get as light as cafe au lait light light caramel and as dark as black licorice, then every shade in between. They can have red, black and brown hair and dirty blonde even. Subsaharan Africans can have blue, green, and grey eyes too. In this day and age of the internet there is NO excuse for racial ignorance. Also, wavy, curly, near straight hairI hate when non-black people try to state what black is, go somewhere else with your nonsense,. South Africans get light skinned too.
check the link : http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/02/blacks-with-blue-eyes-natural.html
@midori29
Here’s another little baby born with blue eyes from Uganda:
http://www.chichinwaafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/4-5.png
The story goes, that the mother took the child to the doctor, because she didn’t know why the baby was born with blue eyes. She thought the child was sick, but was told the baby was fine
They seem to be popping up more and more lately. However IMO they were always popping up , we just didn’t have the internet to see them
@midori29 Just because her DNA test said 79% African, doesn’t mean she is mostly African and African over European. It depends on what she identifies as which determines your primary ancestry