The Lower Third

Taylor Monét Parks, known professionally as Tayla Parx, is an American singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and actress born on September 16, 1993, in Dallas, Texas. She took singing, dance, and classical piano lessons during her childhood and wrote her first songs at an early age. At age nine, she enrolled at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, where she began acting at Allen's encouragement. Her family relocated to Los Angeles in 2005, and the following year she appeared in her first television show. In 2007, she portrayed Little Inez Stubbs in the film Hairspray. Parx was signed to Warner Chappell Music at age 19. She has released four albums, an EP, and a mixtape as a solo artist. As a songwriter, she has contributed to songs that have accumulated over 16 billion streams on Spotify and have charted across pop, hip hop, R&B, K-pop, country, and Latin genres. Her songwriting credits include Fifth Harmony's debut single 'BO$$' and hits such as 'Love Lies' by Khalid and Normani, 'Thank U, Next' by Ariana Grande, and 'High Hopes' by Panic! at the Disco, with three of these songs appearing simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018. She is a two-time Grammy nominee in the Album of the Year category.