Teyana Taylor photographed by Sharif Hamza on October 25th 2025 at Quixote Studios, West Hollywood. Issey Miyake knit dress. Photographed by Sharif Hamza; Artistic & Fashion Director Alison Edmond; Set Design: Bette Adams; Fashion Assistants: Elliott Pearson, Jose Santiago; Hair: Edith Donaldson-Wheeler; Makeup: Yeika Olivia; Nails: Sarah Chue Teyana Taylor appreciates a spectacle. She's made this clear since her public debut: a 2007 episode of My Super Sweet 16, MTV's formative millennial text about lavish high school parties. Hers was a Harlem rager that kicked off with the birthday girl, posing inside a Teyana-size Barbie box, being wheeled in by a quartet of shirtless men. She performed her own choreography in a custom Heatherette tutu. Pharrell Williams was there. And, yes, she got a car. (Taylor, one of the more polite children ever featured on the series, was much more psyched about a BMX bike from her mother.) It's a memory she cherishes, albeit one that sometimes inspires a frustrating narrative. Related Stories TV Sarah Paulson Reveals Why Teyana Taylor Calls Her 'All's Fair' Character the "Menace" of the Series TV 'All's Fair' Review: Kim Kardashian Is an Appropriately Wooden Lead for Ryan Murphy's Empty, Unforgivably Dull Hulu Drama Photographed by Sharif Hamza "I want to clear this up," says Taylor. "I've seen people saying I'm a ... what's it called? A nee-po baby? Nepo baby! I've seen all types of stuff, like I had this rich Chinese dad or a producer dad. I was living on 144th and Seventh Avenue, and my single mom was working her ass off in corporate America to provide for me. She wanted me to have a nice party!" Self-made status always mattered to Taylor, but it seems especially important to her today. We're speaking in a hotel suite above the Sunset Strip, where she's coming down from the global press tour for Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another before hitting the road again to push her new Hulu series. Taylor's résumé is getting thicker by the day, but it's her lauded performance as live-wire revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills in Anderson's latest feature that's signaled a shift in her career - and given her early frontrunner status in the Oscar supporting actress race. "You can see my patience being in this game since I was 15, doing a little bit of everything," says Taylor, who has released four studio albums, modeled, acted alongside Eddie Murphy, choreographed for Beyoncé, raised eyebrows and pulses at multiple Met Galas and even enjoyed a stint as a reality TV star. "This moment hits a lot harder than it would've if everything had gone my way when I wanted it to." Her friends have been waiting for everybody else to figure out what they've long known. "She's just that girl," says Taraji P. Henson. "They always tell you in this business that you've got to choose a lane, that nobody's good at everything. Well, guess who is?" It appears the business may have caught up to Taylor. One Battle After Another is a prelude to a blitz of work - projects she's developed on her own and features she's filmed with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Kevin Hart. "She's doing the filmmakers the favor," Anderson says, "not the other way round." If there's any drawback to leveling up, Taylor says, it's about maintaining the boundaries she's established for herself and the two daughters she shares with former husband and retired NBA player Iman Shumpert. She relishes most of this attention - "These compliments are a beautiful thing, and I'll take the constructive criticism, too!" - but she's been burned by clickbait about past issues with the recording industry, a very public divorce and her current relationship status. She knows that a broader spotlight makes that part of the job challenging to avoid. She also knows how to seize and savor one of those rare junctures in a career where everything seems to finally fall into place. "There's no such thing as complaining about answered prayers," she tells me. "Do you know how dope it is to be shown this much love from people who don't know you from a can of paint?" Norma Kamali dress, bra top, panties; Le Silla boots. Photographed by Sharif Hamza *** The night after we meet, Taylor attends the Los Angeles premiere for Kim Kardashian and Ryan Murphy's All's Fair. She stars in the legal soap alongside one of the most unlikely and impressive TV ensembles in recent memory: Glenn Close, Niecy Nash, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Kardashian herself. But at the Chateau Marmont afterparty, Taylor isn't with the other actors. She's in the lobby bar, holding court with a group of Golden Globes voters. This is not her first experience with abrupt upticks in attention, and it shows. There have been three key moments over the years, My Super Sweet 16 included, where it almost seemed like she materialized out of nowhere. Barely a teenager, the self-described fly girl was skateboarding around Harlem and dancing with a group of girlfriends. They shared an obsession with N