Iyanna James-Stephenson, most widely known as Iyanna The Model, is an entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist.

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       She identifies as a Queer, Caribbean, Black woman, who grew up in sunny Miami, FL; spending her childhood visiting her maternal family in Philadelphia and her paternal family in Jamaica.

 

        After high school, she left Florida to pursue education in New England. There, she earned a Bachelor's of the Arts in Philosophy with a NEXUS minor in Law, Public Policy, and Human Rights, concentrated in race and women studies, from Mount Holyoke College.            

 

        Initially, Iyanna wanted to pursue a career in civil rights litigation, but after spending a year teaching English in South Korea, she pivoted and decided to pursue a career in the arts.

 

        As a child, Iyanna was cultivated by numerous arts and activities. From Theatre camps at 8 years old, to the NYSP Sports Program at Florida Memorial University from ages 9-11, to writing her own short stories and comics, to joining the Norland Middle School Magnet Program in Miami Gardens for Music and Theatre; she thrived in the physical and creative expression of herself. 

 

       After her year in South Korea, she decided to move back to her hometown, Miami, Florida and began to refined her artist mission to: truth and authenticity; highlighting freedom, expression, and the freedom of expression, especially through the body.

 

       Her philosophical studies have informed the intention around her art, her lifestyle, and her thought process in receiving and distributing information. And through her art, she loves to share information about introspection, confidence development, the evocation of complex emotion, spirituality, mental liberation, and raw vulnerability. 

 

        Iyanna is truly a renaissance woman, having been featured on various creative platforms. She's been a creative host and personality for brands like AFROPUNK, MOREVIBESPLEASE, and Everyday Ppl. As a model she has represented stylists, designers, and brands like Patricia Fields, SAKS, Alexis Bittar, Danessa Myricks, APPLE, Beats by DRE, and SONY Music. As a movement artist and an entertainer, she has done ambiance presentations, performances, and LIVE body painting for nightclubs, dinner party venues, art shows, exhibitions and art gallery activations. She has been featured in multiple music videos, alongside Will Smith, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Shaggy, and Stunna Girl, to name a few. She began performing Burlesque in 2020. And in 2022, she created AfroBurlesque™: her own style of dance, fusing Burlesque and West African Drumming, embodied by her alter ego, FELINE AGBARA.

 

         Her latest short film, Sacred Energy Exchange (©2021),  was nominated for Best Short Screen Play by the Urban Film Festival in 2021, in Miami, Florida and has won 4 awards since it's release, including Best Erotic Story, and Best Original Story at the Cannes Shorts™ Film Festival in France.

 

          Summer of 2021, Iyanna embarked on a new venture, and began DJing. She landed her first monthly residency, #DISCODANCEHALL, every first Wednesdays at Darling Rooftop in the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South. And although she has new skin in the game, she is quickly making a name for herself, having been booked to DJ at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, including Miss Lily's, The Bronze Owl, The Se7en, Lips Cafe, and The Bush Dyke Bar.

 

          Iyanna is a world traveler (at 19 countries and counting), she is a plant-based eater, she is completely sober (no smoking, drugs, or alcohol), and she is a lover of all things high energy and positive.

 

         Iyanna is currently represented by WeSpeak Models and is based in Brooklyn, New York City.