Hedgebrook Board Member
California
With a career spanning 35 years, Tatyana Ali is best known to millions, worldwide, for playing "Ashley Banks" in the iconic comedy series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. Born in Brooklyn, NY, she is a Broadway-trained actress, singer, producer, activist and Harvard University graduate.
Ali has appeared in numerous television, film and theatrical projects over her career, which began at four years old including Sesame Street, the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway production of Fences, The Young and the Restless and Disney’s Glory Road. She has released highly rated Holiday films on Lifetime Television for the past 6 years. The 5-time NAACP Image Award winner, Harvard Aspiring Minority Business Leader and Black Girls Rock! honoree, was named one of most beautiful women in the world by People Magazine en Español and People Magazine.
She holds a gold record for her 1998 debut album Kiss the Sky, which included the hit singles "Daydreamin'" and "Boy You Knock Me Out” and joined both the *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys world tours. In 1999, her recording of "Precious Wings" for The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland soundtrack won a Grammy Award for "Best Musical Album for Children." In 2013 Ali digitally released the independent EP “Hello”.
She co-founded HazraH Entertainment, a production company dedicated to creating quality content for underserved communities. The company was a production partner on the Martin Lawrence executive-produced sitcom "Love That Girl!", the first original scripted program on the TV One Network. HazraH Entertainment also produced the acclaimed web series "Buppies" for BET.com.
Ali has spent the majority of her career engaging in humanitarian and political efforts. During the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, she served as a surrogate for President Obama, speaking to communities and young people across the country about voting as an imperative. She did the same grass roots work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. She has hosted the United Negro College Fund's "Empower Me" Tour 3 years in a row, has been a spokesperson for the Millennium Momentum Foundation for 8 years and is actively involved in Black Girl’s Rock!, an organization dedicated to educating and mentoring young women. She is one of 5 mentors for Scholastic’s “Rising Voices Collection” a K–5 Classroom Library Collection to Empower Girls in STEAM. She published her first op-ed in Essence magazine in 2019 entitled “Birthright" and is currently working on a documentary on the same subject. As part of her efforts to raise awareness about the continuing black maternal mortality crisis, Tatyana serves as a Celebrity Council Advocate for the March of Dimes.
She resides in California with her husband and two sons.
