Tanaya Henry

Early life and Biography

Tanaya Henry was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 31, 1988. She is of Native-American (Sioux and Potawatami tribes), African-American, Swedish and Russian descent. She is the daughter of Tawnya Lynn Nelson and Derick Anthony Henry. Her father was a former bodyguard and now owns a restaurant in Miami. She has two younger siblings, Katya Elise Henry and Gabrielle Henry. She grew up in various parts of Minnesota. She danced and was a competitive cheerleader for five years. Beginning modeling at the age of nine, she worked with many companies based in Minnesota, including Target. As she got older, Henry worked with local Minneapolis photographers. She graduated from Prior Lake Senior High in 2006 and attended a local community college to study computer programming. Within the same year, at the age of nineteen, she dropped out of college and moved to New York City to work as a professional model.

Career

Shortly after moving to New York, Henry signed with Wilhelmina Models and modeled in national campaigns for companies including Sephora, Make Up For Ever, Xbox, Apple, Target, Disney, and Clairol.

Henry gained attention when she became a human billboard for her year-long She Wears Your Tee campaign in 2010. Henry and some childhood friends from Minnesota came up with the idea to sell the days on her calendar to companies in exchange for promotion. This marketing technique attracted media coverage. The site featured a calendar where reservations could be made by the day for Henry's marketing services, with the price increasing by $1 per day. Companies participating included Adidas, Vimeo, Groupon, and hip-hop group Atmosphere. She later moved into a warehouse in Hoboken, New Jersey called the Pudding Factory, owned by photographer River Clark, with whom she collaborated. Being immersed in the Andy Warhol-like creative factory, she was drawn in by the creative process. She started to direct creative photoshoots with Clark. Henry quickly learned about photography and how to use Photoshop to edit her photos and her computer skills allowed her to design her own websites.

In late 2009, Henry developed an earring necklace by hand, known as the "earlace" after not being able to find them in stores. Henry worked as a go-go dancer at multiple New York City nightclubs from 2008-2010 to fund her budding jewelry business. Her co-workers started buying the earrings from her, one of them being a bartender at the M2 Lounge on 28th Street. One evening, her earlace caught the attention of Alicia Keys' stylist. Weeks later, the earrings were on the cover of the last issue of Giant Magazine worn by Keys. She then created different variations of the earlace, catching the eye of stylists like Mariel Haenn (Rihanna) and Niki Schwan (Nicki Minaj) through one of Henry's best friends, stylist Maeve Reilly. One of the variations of Henry's earlace appeared in Nicki Minaj's "Your Love" music video.] After this, she decided to start her company Lace by Tanaya.

Through her personal relationships with celebrities and their stylists, Henry's jewelry line Lace by Tanaya has since been spotted on the likes of Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Russell Brand, and Swizz Beatz among others. Lace by Tanaya has been featured in publications like the Russian and British editions of Vogue, Harper's Bazzar, Lucky Magazine, Complex Magazine, The Huffington Post and more.

Henry moved from New York City to Los Angeles, CA in late 2011 to pursue commercial modeling and acting. She signed with and is still represented by NTA Models & Talent, modeling for companies like Ciroc, Fiat, True Religion, L'oreal and Nike.

In 2014, Henry appeared as the love interest in Trey Songz music video for "Slow Motion".