Taylor Monét Parks, known as Tayla Parx (born September 16, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and actor. A Grammy nominee in the Album of the Year category, songs she has written and co-written have exceeded 16 billion streams on Spotify and appeared on the pop, hip hop, R & B, K-pop, country, and Latin charts. She has released four albums, an EP, and a mixtape as a solo artist. Born in Dallas, Texas, Parx took singing, dance, and classical piano lessons growing up and wrote her first songs as a child. At 9, she was enrolled at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, where, at Allen's urging, she began to act. Her family moved to Los Angeles in 2005, and in 2006 she was cast in her first television show. In 2007, she appeared as Little Inez Stubbs in the film Hairspray.