Tinashe

Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe was born February 6, 1993, in Lexington, Kentucky, to college professor parents of Zimbabwean and Scandinavian descent^[1]. Her family relocated to the Los Angeles area while she was young, and she began working in entertainment as a child, appearing in motion-capture work for The Polar Express (2004), a starring role on Cartoon Network's Out of Jimmy's Head (2007-2008), and a recurring part on Two and a Half Men (2008-2009)^[1].

Before her solo career, she spent 2007 to 2011 as a member of the girl group the Stunners, formed by Vitamin C, which signed to Columbia Records and toured as an opening act for Justin Bieber before disbanding^[1]. She signed with RCA as a solo artist in 2012 and released three independent mixtapes before her 2014 debut single "2 On," featuring ScHoolboy Q, became a Top 40 hit and led to her debut album Aquarius reaching number 17 on the Billboard 200. The albums Nightride (2016) and Joyride (2018) followed with more modest chart performance^[1].

Tinashe left RCA in February 2019 specifically to regain creative control over her music, and went on to self-release three acclaimed independent albums, Songs for You, 333, and BB/Ang3l^[1]. That independent run paid off in 2024 when "Nasty," the lead single from her album Quantum Baby, became a viral hit on TikTok and gave her, for the first time, a solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 61; a remix of her song "No Broke Boys" also charted internationally around the same period^[1].

That renewed momentum carried directly into her eighth studio album, Popstar, released September 25, 2026, a project that uses satire about fame and celebrity image as its organizing concept while she continues to work independently through her own imprint, Tinashe Music^[2].