Tatyana Ali

Tatyana Marisol Ali born January 24 1979 is an American actress and singer Shes best known for her role as Ashley Banks on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air At the age of four she started singing and got a taste of fame when she begged her mother to take her to an audition for Sesame Street In 1985 as a 6yearold she began her acting career as a regular performer on the PBS childrens educational program Sesame Street She went on to perform in many productions in her native city New York including the Broadway show Fenceswith James Earl Jones and later Billy Dee Williamsand the offBroadway show Orfeo del Campo When she was seven she appeared on Star Search and won twice receiving a fourstar rating when she appeared for a second time At age 11 she moved from New York to Los Angeles to establish her career and not long afterwords landed her breakthrough role as Ashley Banks Will Smiths characters cousin on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of BelAir 19901996 While filming The Fresh Prince she also had side projects including guest roles in television shows such as The Cosby Show 1984 The All New Mickey Mouse Club 1989 aka The Mickey Mouse Club Kynos Storytime 1992 Are You Afraid of the Dark 1990 and Fosters Field Trip 1994 Her vocal talent was featured on several episodes of Fresh Prince in later seasons prompting the shows star Will Smith to ask her if she would seriously consider pursuing a musical career She ultimately decided for the time being to continue to concentrate on her acting career In the series final season however she performed several songs and she began to be cleaned for her musical debut the culmination of which was her debut album Kiss The Sky in 1998 It was certified gold in early 1999 only months after its release Boy You Knock Me Out featuring Will Smithwhich peaked at No 3 and is her biggest hit to date She made an appearance on Smiths album Willennium on the track Who Am I with MC Lyte In early 2008 she performed on the song Yes We Can a william project supporting Barack Obamas presidential campaign She also appeared in the subsequent music video which garnered coverage on the What the Buzz segment of ABCs World News Now In January 2014 she released an EP titled Hello Apart from her musical career she continued to land roles in films such as The Brothers Glory Road and Noras Hair Salon and its sequel among others From 2009 to 2010 she produced and starred in the BET web series Buppies She was on recurring status on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Roxanne from 2007 to 2013 She starred in the TV One original series Love That Girl as Tyana whose name was derived from Alis given name In 2013 she costarred as Maya in the BET comedy Second Generation Wayans alongside Craig Wayans and Damien Dante Wayans In 2011 she received the Living Legacy Award from the Caribbean Heritage Organization in Los Angeles