Tayla Parx facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tayla Parx
Parks in 2019
Background information
Birth name	Taylor Monét Parks
Born	(1993-09-16) September 16, 1993 (age 31) Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Genres	R&B pop hip hop country urban contemporary soul Latin alternative K-pop
Occupation(s)	Songwriter singer actress entreprenuer
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Atlantic Def Jam TaylaMade

Taylor Monét Parks, known as Tayla Parx, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is also a successful business owner. Tayla has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice for Album of the Year. Songs she has written have been streamed over 16 billion times on Spotify. Her music has appeared on many different charts, including pop, hip hop, R&B, K-pop, country, and Latin charts.

Tayla Parx has released four albums, an EP (Extended Play), and a mixtape as a solo artist. She was born in Dallas, Texas. Growing up, she took singing, dance, and classical piano lessons. She started writing her own songs when she was a child. At age 9, she joined the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. There, she was encouraged to start acting. Her family moved to Los Angeles in 2005. In 2006, she got her first TV role. In 2007, she played Little Inez Stubbs in the movie Hairspray.

When she was 19, Tayla signed with Warner Chappell Music. Her first big hit as a songwriter was "BO$$" by Fifth Harmony. In 2018, three songs she helped write were on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. These were "Love Lies" by Khalid and Normani, "Thank U, Next" by Ariana Grande, and "High Hopes" by Panic! at the Disco. In 2021, she made history. With "Glad You Exist" by Dan + Shay, she became only the fourth Black woman to write a #1 country song.

Tayla Parx started releasing her own music in 2017 with the mixtape TaylaMade. After that, she released the albums We Need to Talk (2019), Coping Mechanisms (2020), and Many Moons, Many Suns (2024). She also put out A Blue State in 2020, which was a collection of three cover songs.

Tayla is also the founder of TaylaMade, Inc. This company includes her own music publishing, artist management, a lifestyle brand, a creative studio, and an independent record label.

Early Life and Music Beginnings

Tayla Parx was born Taylor Monét Parks in Texas. She grew up in Dallas before moving to Los Angeles when she was 13. Her mother worked in technology, and her father worked in finance. Tayla could sing even before she could talk. Her grandmother, who played piano, would sing lullabies to teach her how to sing in harmony.

Music was a very important part of Tayla's childhood. She sang in church and took lessons for dance, singing, and classical piano. She started writing songs when she was in elementary school. She loved the artist Missy Elliott. Missy Elliott later showed Tayla that songwriting could be a career through her work with Aaliyah.

Tayla planned to focus on dance. She started attending Debbie Allen's Dance Academy in 2002. Debbie Allen was very impressed with Tayla's talent. She encouraged Tayla to act in addition to dancing.

Tayla's Career Journey

Early Acting Roles

With her parents' permission, Debbie Allen took Tayla to Washington, D.C. From age nine to eleven, Tayla performed at Lincoln Center. She was the narrator in a stage version of Allen's book, Dancing in the Wings.

At Debbie Allen's suggestion, the Parks family moved to Los Angeles in 2006. In her first year in LA, Tayla was cast in TV shows like Gilmore Girls and Everybody Hates Chris. Her most famous early role was Little Inez Stubbs in the 2007 movie Hairspray. After that, she appeared on Nickelodeon shows like True Jackson, VP and Victorious. She met Ariana Grande, who starred in Victorious, while working at Nickelodeon.

Becoming a Songwriter

By 2013, Tayla felt she was only getting acting roles. She decided to take a break from film and TV. She wanted to focus on music. She learned how to engineer music and studied entertainment law. When she was 17, she met Babyface, who became a mentor to her. At 19, Jon Platt signed her to a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. In 2021, she said that her acting background helped her write songs. She explained that songwriting is about listening and connecting with others.

In 2013, she got her first album credit as a co-writer and co-producer. This was for the song "Call Me Crazy" on Sevyn Streeter's first album. She reconnected with Ariana Grande. Together with Tommy Brown and Victoria Monét, they wrote "My Everything." This was the title track of Grande's second album. Tayla got her first big hit as a co-writer and vocal producer on "Boss." This was the first single from Fifth Harmony's first album. The song was certified platinum in the US and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 15 weeks.

Tayla also voiced Sim in the video game The Sims 4 in 2014. A year later, she voiced Victor Stone in the film Justice League: Gods and Monsters.

In 2015, other artists recorded her songs. These included The Internet, Pentatonix, Red Velvet, Jason Derulo, and Keyshia Cole. She was also featured on "Anyway", a song she co-wrote with Chris Brown. She released her first single as a solo artist, "Don't Answer the Phone." In April 2016, she had her first #1 hit on the Latin Pop charts with "Solo Yo" by Sofía Reyes and Prince Royce.

Big Hits and Solo Albums

In 2017, Atlantic Records released Tayla Parx's mixtape, TaylaMade. It had 20 songs and short spoken parts. She said she felt free working on the mixtape, knowing she could just be herself. Khalid, Chiiild, and Syd were featured on TaylaMade.

Tayla co-wrote the BTS song "Mic Drop", released in 2017. It was #1 on the Japanese K-pop charts for six weeks. The next year, she co-wrote "Like I Do" with Christina Aguilera. This song won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance. Tayla also co-wrote the title track for Chloe x Halle's album The Kids Are Alright. This album was nominated for a Grammy. She co-wrote four songs for Janelle Monáe's album Dirty Computer. Tayla helped Monáe tell her story deeply through music. Tayla received her first Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for her work on Dirty Computer.

In October 2018, Tayla worked with Ariana Grande, Victoria Monét, and Tommy Brown again. They wrote nine songs in one week for Grande's album Thank U, Next. This included the very popular title track, "Thank U, Next." Tayla encouraged Grande to use the names of her ex-boyfriends in the song. When it came out in November 2018, the song reached #1 in 23 countries. It became a huge cultural moment worldwide. Tayla also co-wrote "7 Rings", which hit #1 in 28 countries. It became one of the best-selling digital songs ever. Like "Thank U, Next," "7 Rings" also debuted at #1 on the Hot 100.

In 2018, Tayla also voiced AJ for The Walking Dead video game series. At the same time, she had three songs on the Billboard Hot 100: "Thank U, Next," "High Hopes" by Panic! at the Disco, and "Love Lies" by Khalid featuring Normani. "High Hopes" became Panic! at the Disco's biggest hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Love Lies" was a Top 10 hit in seven countries.

Tayla released her first album, We Need to Talk, in April 2019. On this album, she explored different music styles and themes. A review in Vice praised her songwriting. It said she was very good at making every moment of the album's 15 songs count. The review highlighted her ability to show and make listeners feel emotions. Entertainment Weekly described the album as having "equal parts swagger and vulnerability."

Recent Music and Success

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Tayla built a home studio. There, she finished her second album, Coping Mechanisms. During the 2020 presidential election, she recorded A Blue State. This was a 3-song EP of cover songs that "captured the truths" of that time. It showed how society was feeling. She covered "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, "Everything Is Everything" by Lauryn Hill, and "I Smile" by Kirk Franklin. A Blue State was released in October 2020.

Coping Mechanisms was released in November 2020. An article in Nylon said that with this album, Tayla turned her emotional struggles into "vibrant soundscapes of breezy disco, glitchy techno, and percussive pop."

During the pandemic, Tayla produced vocals and co-wrote six songs for Ariana Grande's album Positions. These songs included "34+35" and "POV". She worked while following strict social distancing rules. She and Grande were rarely in the same room. Tayla was nominated for a Grammy in the Best R&B Album category for "I'm Ready," a song she co-wrote on John Legend's album Bigger Love. She received her third Album of the Year Grammy Nomination as a co-writer of "FUBT" on Haim's Women in Music Pt. III.

In 2021, she made history again. She became the fourth Black woman to write a #1 country hit with "Glad You Exist", a song with Dan + Shay. She received her fourth Album of the Year Grammy nomination as a songwriter on Justin Bieber's album Justice that same year. In 2022, she earned Grammy nominations for Best Contemporary Jazz album for her work on Not Tight by Domi and JD Beck, and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Diana Ross's Thank You.

Tayla started working on her third album, Many Moons, Many Suns, right after Coping Mechanisms came out. She wrote whenever she felt inspired. In July 2024, she released "Era," a "catchy, empowering, high-energy track" featuring Tkay Maidza. The album was released independently on her own label, TaylaMade. In Rolling Stone magazine, Tayla said: "I'm in my era of owning everything that I am. If you listen to my lyrics, I’m telling you everything that you need to know about me and what my values are as a human. I’m saying that when you go through those dark times, you will finally bounce back and realize that you’re OK.”

TaylaMade, Inc.

Tayla Parx officially launched TaylaMade, Inc. in 2021. This company acts as a main organization for all her different businesses. It includes Parx Studios, a creative group that has worked with artists like Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, and Noah Cyrus. It also includes Trailer Parx, which is a lifestyle brand. TaylaMade Inc. also has Parx Publishing, which is a partnership with Warner Chappell. There's also 3020 Management, and TaylaMade Records. Parx Publishing and 3020 Management have signed talented writers and producers, including Grammy nominees Oliver Frid, Kameron Glasper, and Em Walcott.

Personal Life and Advocacy

Tayla Parx lives in Nashville. She is open about her identity. In a short film called Who Is Tayla Parx?, she described herself as "a dog mom, a sister, a daughter, an executive, a writer and an artist."

She is a member of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. She is also a founding member of The Pact. This is a group of songwriters who want to stop performers from getting credit and rights for songs they didn't write. In September 2020, she was appointed to the leadership committee of the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective.

Discography

Albums

Mixtapes

Extended Plays

Singles

As Lead Artist

As Featured Artist

Soundtrack Appearances

Songwriting Credits

Filmography

Film Roles

Television Roles

Video Game Roles

See also

In Spanish: Tayla Parx para niños