Photographed by Angela Kohler

Makeup by Rachel Rose Desimone

Hair by Nikki Providence

Styling by Sarah and Sunshine

Catching up with the Lovely Tatyana Ali

By Tatum Hawkins

Back in the day when we still recorded songs off the radio to cassette tapes and when gas was a mere buck per gallon, there was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, an iconic ’90s pop culture TV classic, waiting for us when we got home from school every afternoon. While we could count on Will Smith to make us laugh, it was Tatyana Ali as the cute and bubbly Bel-Air princess and kid sister Ashley Banks who won our hearts. So, what has this Brooklyn beauty, now 31, been up to since?

Would you have guessed Harvard? Unlike most celebrities who drop out of college or dismiss it altogether, Ali found empowerment in education over fame. She credits her parents who instilled a love for education which she says has kept her grounded all these years.

“Education enriches your mind and nobody can take that away from you,” says Ali. “In fact, while I was on the set of Fresh Prince, my parents were very strict about my schooling, it was understood that if I didn’t get good grades I couldn’t act.”

While a student at Harvard, Ali continued to work, this time on her singing, and debuted her first album Kiss the Sky which wowed audiences around the world with its hit R&B singles, “Daydreamin’” and “Boy You Knock Me Out.” The song “Boy You Knock Me Out” peaked at #3 in the UK and Ali jumped to pop status in the U.S. when she was asked to open for NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys during their world tours in 1999.

“I remember being woken up at four a.m. to a shaking tour bus,” Ali says laughing. “Girls were screaming and pounding the walls, I was so afraid to look outside. Turns out they thought my bus was the NSYNC bus!”

Although it may have seemed like she was taking a risk transitioning from actress to singer, Ali was just doing what she has always loved.

“I’ve been singing as long as I’ve been acting,” she says. “However, I’d say singing is much more personal, you’re not playing a character and you’re allowing your fans to get to know who you really are.”

Over the next few years, Ali continued to balance college life with work, appearing in several movies alongside notable actors such as Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. One of her favorite movie roles as a college student was in the 2001 romantic comedy, The Brothers, which not only co-starred the beautiful Gabrielle Union but also the devilishly handsome, Shemar Moore.

“I was, what, 19 at the time, and I just thought it was so fun to be around all these hot guys,” Ali gushed, suddenly showing her girly side.

A year later in 2002, Ali graduated with a degree in Political Science. One can imagine how tough it must have been to live all the way on the East coast away from the glitz and glamour, not to mention the gigs, in Hollywood. Why not just attend a university in southern California?

“It probably would have been easier to attend a college more local, but then it would have been easier to skip class to audition, too,” Ali points out. Ah, got it.

In the years that followed, Ali appeared in several movie titles (including Glory Road, a film produced by award-winning Jerry Bruckheimer) and furthered her cause and passion for education as a spokesperson for the Millennium Momentum Foundation, a California-based scholarship and mentor organization that helps prepare minority children in disadvantaged communities for leadership roles in the public sector.

In 2007, Ali decided to volunteer her time and voice to the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Ali had the unique opportunity to be a volunteer surrogate for now-President Obama where she toured historically black colleges encouraging students to register and vote. In addition, Ali lended her singing voice to the Emmy-winning Obama presidential campaign music video “Yes We Can,” which also featured the voices and talents of will.i.am, John Legend and Scarlett Johansson, among others.

Most recently, you may have seen Ali in a couple of films: Hotel California, a revenge thriller, and Mother and Child, a drama with an all-star female cast including Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, and Kerry Washington. Coming up, Ali will star in a new TV sitcom, Love That Girl! where she plays a young divorcee who is getting a fresh start in life. The show promises to be fun, smart, and sexy. We can’t wait!

When Ali is not acting, singing, or volunteering for worthy causes, she continues to amaze us as the founder and CEO of HazraH Entertainment, a production company she started with her younger sister, Anastasia.

Always on the go and driven by a passion to explore and discover new talents, Ali says her strength to work hard and embrace the road less traveled is a trait she inherits from her grandmother who is also her number one role model.

“My grandmother always said, ‘You have to make your own heaven,’ and I really believe that,” says Ali resolutely. “It doesn’t matter where you are in your life, make that your heaven, and you’ll eventually get where you want to be.”

Read the full issueof ELIZA Magazine here.