Nobody told Teyana Taylor she could do all of this. Honestly, they told her the opposite.

"Everybody told me it was dumb," Taylor has said about her pivot from music to acting. That pivot has now produced a Golden Globe win, an Oscar nomination, four BET Award nominations, and the 2026 Icon of the Year honor. Not bad for a bad idea. 

After retiring from music in 2020, Taylor founded The Aunties, an all-female production company, and returned to music on her own terms with “Escape Room” in 2025. This visual album earned a Best R&B Album nomination at the 2026 Grammys. The accompanying 38-minute short film — which she wrote, directed, produced, and gathered famous friends for (ranging from Regina King to Tyla), is now nominated for both Video of the Year and Video Director of the Year at the BET Awards. She is the only person in BET Awards history to win Video Director of the Year every time she's been nominated (2020 and 2023).

On the acting side, Taylor earned a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson's “One Battle After Another,” and has also appeared in Netflix's “The Rip” alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and Ryan Murphy's “All's Fair” on Hulu. She's also nominated for Best Actress at the BET Awards. She told Time magazine, "When you have a creative that does it all, let them spread their wings. Never cage a creative."  

The Fashion Vanguard nomination rounds out her four-category humble brag, and it’s a recognition of a style legacy that has run parallel to everything else she does.

And above all of that sits the Icon of the Year Award, which honors "the artist who is defining this moment… someone whose impact isn't measured in years but in the undeniable weight they carry in every room, every conversation, and every corner of the culture they touch." 

BET EVP Connie Orlando said it plainly: "She doesn't ask for a seat at the table; she builds the table, designs the rooms, and sets the tone for everyone who walks in." 

Taylor has been building that table for twenty years. June 28 is just when everyone gets to see it in all its glory.

Watch the BET Awards live June 28 at 8/7c on BET.