Tyra Banks, the creator and former host of America's Next Top Model, has launched legal action against Netflix and the filmmakers behind a documentary examining the long-running series. The lawsuit, filed Saturday in Los Angeles federal court, targets Netflix, directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy, and EverWonder Studio over claims of defamation and image misuse.
According to the legal filing, Banks contends that producers employed "selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage" to construct a false narrative. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the docuseries portrays Banks as knowing she was being questioned about a sexual assault and deliberately avoiding the topic, when in fact she was never informed of or asked about the allegation during her interview. Her legal team emphasized that material addressing her accountability was recorded but removed before the programme aired.
Banks seeks both financial compensation and an injunction preventing use of her likeness in connection with the docuseries' accompanying soundtrack album. The suit highlights her lack of editorial control, noting she did not view the final cut until one day before the February 16 release. She was not consulted for fact-checking following interviews and could not respond to allegations from other participants, some of whom her lawyers say harboured personal grievances against her.
The America's Next Top Model franchise, which debuted in 2003 and ran for 24 seasons, has faced mounting scrutiny for body shaming, contestant manipulation, and offensive content. While Banks has previously acknowledged "the insensitivity of past ANTM moments" and "some really off choices," she argues the Netflix documentary misrepresents her willingness to engage in genuine reflection about the show's problematic aspects.
After the docuseries' premiere, Banks experienced what the lawsuit describes as swift and harsh public backlash. Her ice cream establishment SMiZE & DREAM in Sydney, Australia, faced review bombing on Google following the release. The filing indicates Banks' representatives approached Netflix in March requesting access to her complete interview footage, a request the streaming platform and EverWonder denied. Banks' legal team states that had she known certain judges—particularly those with existing grievances—were shaping the documentary's direction as consultants, she would have declined participation.
