[THE MAIN EVENT]

The multi-talented artist is nominated for a Golden Globe for her supporting role in One Battle After Another. Here’s how her humble beginnings in Harlem have paved the way to her biggest career moment yet.

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September 2006: At just 15 years old, Teyana Taylor garners industry buzz after choreographing Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” music video.

February 2007: One month after signing a record deal with Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment, Teyana stars in an episode of MTV’s My Super Sweet 16. Unlike most of the entitled teens who appear on the show, the young Harlemite asks to be gifted a bicycle instead of a luxury vehicle, endearing her to viewers.

February 2008: Teyana releases her Jazze Pha-produced debut single, “Google Me,” a blog era gem.

August 2009: Teyana drops her first mixtape: a freebie titled From a Planet Called Harlem that pairs original songs alongside remixes by Nicki Minaj and Trey Songz.

August 2010: Teyana makes her acting debut in Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming, a straight-to-video, Will Packer-produced sequel starring Columbus Short and Tika Sumpter.

November 2010: Kanyé West drops his classic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. Teyana contributes background vocals to two songs on the album, also featuring on a Ye loosie called “Christmas in Harlem” the following month.

June 2012: After parting ways with Star Trak earlier in the year, Teyana signs with G.O.O.D. Music, solidifying her connection with Kanye’s all-star roster.

February 2013: Adidas enlists Teyana to design and drop a signature sneaker. The first release, the Harlem GLC (Good Luck Charm), gives her hometown style a high-fashion flair, becoming one of the quickest-selling shoes in the brand’s history.

November 2014: Teyana drops her maiden studio album VII, which features appearances by Chris Brown, Fabolous, Pusha-T and Yo Gotti. The album debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

July 2015: MTV’s reality dance competition series America's Best Dance Crew is revived for an eighth season, with Teyana joining T-Pain and Frankie Grande as a judge.

August 2016: Kanye premieres the music video for his single “Fade,” which features Teyana dripping sweat while performing a rigorous solo dance routine that draws comparisons to an iconic scene from Flashdance.

June 2018: Teyana releases K.T.S.E., her Ye-produced sophomore album that features “Gonna Love Me” and “Rose in Harlem.”

June 2020: Teyana’s sprawling 23-track third album, The Album, drops on Juneteenth, with guest spots by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, Rick Ross, and Future.

December 2020: Days after announcing her retirement from music amid clashes with her Def Jam record label, Teyana is named creative director of the UK-based retailer PrettyLittleThing.

March 2021: Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to Coming to America (1988) debuts via Prime Video, featuring Teyana in a supporting role.

June 2021: Maxim crowns Teyana the “Sexiest Woman Alive,” making her the first Black woman to top the annual list.

May 2022: Competing as “Firefly,” Teyana wins the seventh season of The Masked Singer.

January 2023: Teyana plays the lead role in A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One, depicting a complex, emotionally restrained mother navigating Harlem across decades. The film wins the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, with Taylor’s performance singled out for its depth.

May 2023: Teyana plays a starring role in the reboot of White Men Can’t Jump, alongside Jack Harlow, Sinqua Walls, and Lance Reddick.

June 2023: Air Jordan drops its first collaborative collection with the creative multi-hyphenate. The Teyana Taylor x Air Jordan 1 Zoom CMFT A Rose From Harlem sells out within minutes.

January 2024: Teyana depicts Mary Magdalene in the Jeymes Samuel biblical comedy-drama, The Book of Clarence.

February 2025: Victoria’s Secret launches Teyana Taylor Edit, a collection of lingerie and other pieces curated by the fashionista.

August 2025: Teyana releases her fourth album, Escape Room, pairing the project with a 38-minute short film co-starring LaKeith Stanfield and Aaron Pierre. She earns her first Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album.

September 2025: Teyana stars in One Battle After Another, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, and Chase Infiniti. Her performance as Perfidia, a freedom fighter struggling with postpartum depression, earns supporting actress nominations from Critics' Choice, the Gotham Independent Film Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards.
 
—John Kennedy
 
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You can root on Teyana Taylor at the Golden Globe Awards tomorrow, January 11. The ceremony will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.

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[REAL LIFE]

Still Standing

One year ago, Los Angeles wildfires burned entire communities to the ground, leaving residents to rebuild from scratch. But when the smoke cleared, those whose homes survived faced unique challenges of their own. West Altadena resident Sean Figueroa reflects on his traumatic road to recovery.

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On Wednesday, there was a vigil at Grocery Outlet in Altadena, over on Lake Avenue. The whole parking lot was packed, easily thousands of people. On the way there, I was telling my wife it’s hard to believe it's already been a year [since the Los Angeles wildfires]. While we were going through it, it seemed like it was never going to end.

We evacuated on Jan. 8, 2025 at 2 a.m. We had been watching the fire get closer and closer. It was so smoky; we couldn't stay. I told my wife, “We'll come home tomorrow, open the windows, air out the house, and get the smell out.” We drove back the next day and saw that of the 30 houses on our street, our house and the houses immediately to the left and the right were the only ones still standing.

My wife wanted to go inside but I told her it's too dangerous. She was scared the house wasn't going to make it through the next day, because the fires were still burning. We could see a lot of smoke coming from our backyard. We were hearing about other people's houses that had survived that initial night were burning down later because the fire hadn't been contained.

We came back again on Jan. 9, because she needed to get her passport. The house was still here. But the National Guard locked down Altadena for quite a while after the fire. We stayed with my wife’s sister for a couple of weeks, then went up to Canada, came back and moved to a hotel for three weeks, then went to an Airbnb for about six weeks. We stayed in Glendale from March until Sept. 24, when we finally moved back. 

I was coming back and forth for inspections and to document stuff for insurance. All the video documentation they asked me to take right after the fire when it was the most toxic—nobody at the insurance company has ever seen it. I kept asking, "Where do you want me to upload these videos?" The insurance company never gave me a place to put it.

It took me months to convince the insurance company that we needed to do testing in the house to find out what level of contamination was actually here. They kept saying their policy was they did not allow testing. It turned out that while we didn't have asbestos, we did have lead all over the house. So we had to dispose of everything we owned that was not a hard, flat surface. 

All of our clothes, furniture, appliances, electronics, soft goods, the dog's toys and beds. I had several collectibles that are not made anymore that had fabric pieces. They had to go. Our computers—everything had to be thrown away. 

After that, I started thinking if the house is toxic, what does that mean for our air conditioner, furnace, and water softener? Those things are outside of the house, so they probably were exposed to a lot more. Insurance didn't want to replace any of them. I argued with them about that for a long time. They agreed to replace all of the ducting and insulation in the house. I told them I'm not going back with the air conditioner, furnace, and water softener there. If the house is toxic, those things are still toxic.

We're at the point now where we've done all of the repairs to the house. We just finished the backyard. Now the insurance company is making us put together a list of everything we owned, where we bought it, and how much we paid so they can reimburse us a depreciated amount for each. There's like 5,000 items on there.

Dealing with this for the past year has been a second job. My cousin lived a few blocks away from us. His house burned down. He lost everything. He said, “Honestly, I think I have it easier than you, because there’s nothing for them to say. Everything’s gone, so they just have to pay me.” But for us, every single thing is a fight, a delay, or a denial.

I'm in a group called Structures Intact, for people whose houses survived the fire. Our challenges are different from those whose houses have burned down. I see posts every day of people saying their insurance company is forcing them to move back home and they're not going to pay for their additional living expenses anymore, even though their policy still has funds available. I try to help people as much as I can, giving advice on how to handle specific situations. Because it's not right what's happening here.

My wife and I have each been speaking with a therapist. The entire experience has been really traumatic. There was a lot of anxiety and losing tempers with each other very easily. My therapist said, “The night you evacuated, your fight-or-flight response kicked in. And from what I can tell, it hasn't stopped since. That's why you're angry all the time. That's why you constantly feel like something bad is going to happen.”

The road ahead now is focusing on mental health and trying to help the community as much as I can. We're fortunate that we're back home, and I'm fairly certain the house is clean and safe to live in. It's just my paranoia that won't let me be as comfortable as I could be.

I know some people are not going to rebuild; they’re going to sell their lots. My sincere hope for Altadena is that it continues to be the kind of cradle of diversity that it has been in the San Gabriel Valley. We got to get as many people back as we can.

—As told to John Kennedy

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[TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT]

"I’ve never been one to pontificate about comedy. When I hang around comedians and they’re all really into talking about comedy, I’m like, ‘Just go tell your jokes.’ I’m not a yapper."

With more than three decades of bringing the funny, this comedian doesn’t need to nerd out on setups and punchlines. See who it is, and tap into their latest career-spanning interview, here.

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[LET'S LINK]

• Beyoncé on Her Cowboy Carter Tour: “This Was Born From My Love & Respect for the Country Genre” [Pollstar]

• Zinzi Coogler Doesn’t Need the Credit. But She’s Earned It. [Marie Claire]

• Romeo Santos and Prince Royce Want Bachata to Share in Latin Music’s Boom [The New York Times]

• From ‘Narcos’ to Starting Her Own Production Company, Meet Andrea Londo [Remezcla]

• Nothing Encapsulates Betrayal—and The Wire—More Than the Wee-Bey GIF [The Ringer]

• Black Women NFL Agents Struggle Working At Agencies—So They Create Their Own [Andscape]

• TikTok Is Obsessed With Talking Parrots. It’s Fueling a Global Black Market. [Rolling Stone]

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[OUTRO]

Take This Audio Doggie Bag With You

“Good Things Will Come After the Pressure,” Sault

The first week of 2026 brought in big-name releases from Bruno Mars, Ari Lennox, and A$AP Rocky. But don’t sleep on this breezy new track from Sault, the mysterious London collective led by vocalist Cleo Sol. It’s a vibe.

Listen Now →