Tatyana Ali is on top. Her hit TV One sitcom, “Love That Girl!” executive produced by Martin Lawrence, Bentley Kyle Evans and Raphael Saadiq is now in its third season and still the network’s #1 show. This year she also won the NAACP Image Award for “Best Actress in a Daytime Drama” on The Young and the Restless and was also named a BET “Black Girls Rock” honoree. In addition to “Love That Girl!” her production company, HazraH Entertainment, produced the acclaimed BET web series, “Buppies,” which has garnered over five million views and also starred Tatyana.
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: the Guillermo del Toro production, Mother and Child, alongside Naomi Watts and Samuel L. Jackson; Paramount Pictures’ Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd; Sony Pictures’ The Brothers with Morris Chestnut and D.L. Hughley; Jerry Bruckheimer’s Glory Road; and the cult classics, “Nora’s Hair Salon” and “Nora’s Hair Salon II.”
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. She recently served as host of the United Negro College Fund’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Empower Me Tour.
Catch Tatyana on “Love That Girl!” Mondays @ 8PM on TV One.
