Kat Graham

Kat Graham has been married to Bryant Wood since 2023. The couple welcomed a son in 2026. She was previously engaged to Cottrell Guidry, with whom she ended her relationship in 2014, and to producer and director Darren Genet, with whom she was in a relationship from 2017 to 2023.

Graham was raised in Los Angeles and grew up in her mother's Jewish religion. Her father, Joseph, is of Americo-Liberian descent, while her mother, Natasha, came from a Polish and Russian Jewish family. Graham has spoken English, French, and Spanish, as well as some Hebrew and Portuguese, and has been vegan since 2012.

Graham began acting in commercials as a child and made her film debut as Jackie in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Her television debut came in 2002, when she appeared on Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire. She later had guest roles in programs including Malcolm in the Middle, The O.C., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Hannah Montana, and Greek.

Her breakout role came in 2009, when she was cast as Bonnie Bennett, a young witch, on The Vampire Diaries. Graham remained in the main cast throughout the show's eight-season run from 2009 to 2017 and took over as the female lead in its seventh season. She won Teen Choice Awards for her performance in 2011 and 2017.

Her film credits include 17 Again, The Roommate, Honey 2, Addicted, All Eyez on Me, How It Ends, The Poison Rose, Cut Throat City, Emperor, Operation Christmas Drop, and Love in the Villa. She played Jada Pinkett in the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me and starred as April O'Neil in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, becoming the first African American performer to voice the character in that series. Graham also starred in and executive produced Heatwave, executive produced If I Run, and directed, starred in, and produced the short film The Move.

Graham developed a parallel career in music after appearing on will.i.am's album Songs About Girls in 2007. She toured internationally with the Black Eyed Peas on the Black Blue & You Tour and has appeared in music videos and performed with artists including Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams, Jamie Foxx, Usher, Nelly, and John Legend. She also holds a degree in recording engineering.

After signing with A&M/Octone Records, Graham released the EP Against the Wall in 2012. Its single "Put Your Graffiti On Me" reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Her studio albums include Roxbury Drive from 2015, Love Music Funk Magic from 2017, and Long Hot Summer from 2022. She worked with Babyface on her catalog and released music connected to Prince, including the single "If Eye Could Get UR Attention."

Graham adopted the musical identity Toro Gato for projects reflecting her West African heritage. She released Toro Gato in 2021 and Toro Gato: Part II in 2022, with the projects distributed exclusively through the YellowHeart NFT platform. Her later releases include The Broken Hearts Club, an EP issued in 2024, and K'Pelle: One World, One Song, released in 2026.

Graham has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, known as UNHCR, since 2013 and became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2020. Her advocacy has included visits to refugee communities in Jordan, Mexico, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Her family history in Liberia and the experiences of her refugee grandparents have influenced this work.

She also serves as a Global Ambassador for Rotary International, a council member for GLAAD, and a governor of the Recording Academy's Atlanta chapter. Her honors include a Westfield humanitarian award, a PETA humanitarian award, the Liberty Award, and recognition on the TIME100 Next list. A short film she made for Black Lives Matter earned an Emmy nomination for best public-service announcement.

Graham published The Blue Sky Chronicles, a collection of poems, in 2011. She later wrote Seasons of You, a guided wellness journal published in 2023. In 2019, she co-founded the wellness company Modern Nirvana with Frank Elaridi and Bryant Wood, and in 2022 she collaborated on The Modern Nirvana Oracle Deck.

She co-hosted The Consciousness Collective Podcast with Deepak Chopra from 2019 to 2020. Graham has also worked in fashion and advertising, serving as the face of campaigns for brands including L'Oréal, Fanta, Samsung, Armani Exchange, and Dior.