Yaris Sanchez

Yarisenia Sanchez was born on February 11, 1991, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Her family was originally from San Francisco de Macoris. She moved to America with her mother at the age of three. Unable to support all her children in a new country, her mother initially left her siblings behind, and brought them into America a few years later after she was already settled in the neighborhood of Dyckman Street in New York City. The neighborhood had a predominant Dominican population, which made the transition easy for her. However, she had to learn English quickly to effectively communicate with the other kids. She moved to The Bronx after getting enrolled into The High School of Fashion Industries. After graduation, she started working as a bartender and also attended a radiology course to become an X-ray technician.

She became pregnant at an early age and gave birth to her daughter when she was only 15 years old. However, she doesn't see it as a negative experience and is thankful to both her and her then boyfriend's family for their support.

Yaris Sanchez, who was interested in an acting career since she was a child, attended The High School of Fashion Industries, but her mother was not able to fully support her studies. Furthermore, Yaris became a teen mother at the age of just 15 years, which made things worse for her as she had to balance her school and motherhood, all while looking for career opportunities to support both. She initially worked part time at The Children's Place. At the age of 17, she became interested in video modeling, looking at it as a form of acting. Incidentally, after her school won the Seventeen Magazine prom contest, the prom event became a high profile affair with special guests like Kid Cudi performing for the event. Eager to earn some extra money to provide for her ticket to the event, dress and other accessories, she took suggestions from her friends on the sets of music videos. A friend, who worked as a stripper, told her that it was an excellent opportunity to earn quick money for young mothers who are unable to do a day job. She became a stripper at the age of 18, but continued to look for opportunities in music videos through Craigslist.

Her life took a pleasant turn after she responded to a Craigslist ad for the music video of the official remix version of The Dream's song “Rockin’ That Thang”. The video, in which she appeared as a dancer, also featured a-listers like Fabolous, Rick Ross, Ludacris and Juelz Santana. Within a short period of time, she became a regular face in rap music videos.

According to Yaris Sanchez, the fact that she started her career as a video vixen and stripper has subjected her to a number of harrowing experiences. However, every time she has faced some kind of exploitation, she has learned to take out the positive things from the experience. While people often tend to be prejudiced and stereotype her based on her past professions, she is hell bent on breaking all stereotypes to emerge as a multifaceted artist who is continuously evolving. In 2015, she challenged societal biases through her debut exhibition “Never The Girl Next Door”, based on the women's liberation movement and influenced by 50s pin-up model Bettie Page.

She has been linked to rapper Lloyd Banks during 2009-10 and reportedly dated rapper Joe Budden in 2011. However, at various interviews, she has often insisted on being single. She started dating rapper Ab-Soul in 2013 and also appeared at various events alongside him. In mid 2014, it was rumored that she is pregnant with his child, but he later mentioned that he acts as a father figure to her daughter from an earlier relationship.