Interview with Tyson Beckford
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Tyson Beckford
Model and actor from the Bronx, known for his Ralph Lauren Polo campaigns and for roles in Zoolander, Biker Boyz and Into the Blue.
Source: SWAY'S UNIVERSE on YouTube
These answers are taken from Tyson Beckford on Being First Male Super Model and Answers Homosexuality Question | Sway's Universe on SWAY'S UNIVERSE's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with modeling?
I grew up in the hood, and I started off with the music thing first, and then I got into the acting thing, and then I met the guys at The Source, and then that was it. They put me into the modeling. So I was doing the modeling and the acting at the beginning. But I started off as an actor first.
The music thing was, I was producing record tracks, doing a little rapping myself. We started a group, myself and Vin Diesel. Back then we only called him Diesel. Vin was a bouncer back in the day. He was a better rapper. He had that voice that was kind of like DMX before DMX came.
How did your career as a model unfold?
It was being smart and having the guidance of Bethann Hardison. There was no blueprint for what I was doing, so I just had to find my own way and make my own way. The white guys were doing their thing, but I was like, “That ain't cool for me. I need to do it this way.” I always say this to people: I would show up at castings and it'd be 50 white guys and me. The door would open, I'd come through, and they'd be like, “Ah man, it's Beckford, forget it.” And I would literally come in and take some of the jobs. And they would just be like, can't beat them, join them. So I started bringing some of the white boys to the club with me, and they started picking up a little flavor.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as a model?
A lot of things I do, I break records, but I don't get no credit. Like Ralph Lauren, the biggest sales. I was in the Wall Street Journal like three times for selling Polo. I was getting six figures, which was high for a man. I was in Forbes for highest-paid male model.
The quote-unquote male supermodel, that's what I did. First black as well. You think about anybody else, you really don't know anybody else's name, because at the same time I was doing TV shows and movies. That kind of helped me get there. I've been in 17 movies, and probably about 20 different TV shows.
Describe your style.
I just so happened to be in all the right spots at the right time, because I was on the upside of when hip hop was coming up. I would be in the hip hop hardcore spots, and then the next minute I'll be at a Ralph Lauren dinner in a tuxedo. So I was so flexible that I brought in different genres of people to be my fans. I was overseas before cats knew what overseas was.
I definitely made them feel comfortable, because even though I was a dude from the street, I didn't bring the street into the office.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
Toni Braxton's video was like the beginning of my career. My good friend Billy Woodruff called me up and he was like, “I've got this thing. I don't know if you want to do it. You want to be in this video with Toni Braxton?” I was like, “Hell yeah.” This is when Atlanta was popping, all about TLC, LaFace Records. That was a three-day video. Back then they weren't doing that.
One More Chance, that's funny how that happened. I had just come back from DC for Howard homecoming, and Biggie was shooting it in my friend's neighborhood up on 95th and Columbus. I'm standing outside my truck and I see Biggie come out of the trailer, and he said, “Yo, I'm shooting this video. I need you.” I said, “I just came back from DC on a road trip, but give me a couple hours.” I showered, came back and jumped in the video. I jumped in a lot of videos like that, Ice Cream with Method Man, because I was friends with all of them. We were New Yorkers, so we were always trying to help each other win.
Tyson Beckford's Full Biography
Tyson Beckford was born on 19 December 1970 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Into the Blue (2005), Biker Boyz (2003) and Zoolander (2001).