Misty Copeland has enjoyed a distinguished professional ballet career spanning more than 27 years. She began her ballet training at the age of thirteen and by fifteen, won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. Copeland trained on full scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) Summer Intensive, where she was named ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. She joined ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000 and became a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001. In August 2007, she made history as the company’s second African American female Soloist and the first in two decades. In June 2015, Copeland achieved another milestone when she was promoted to principal dancer, the first African American woman to hold this title in ABT’s 75-year history. She gave her final performance at the company’s 85th anniversary celebration on October 2025.
Beyond her groundbreaking ballet career, Copeland founded Life InMotion Productions, a production company dedicated to amplifying representative stories of artists across generations and normalising the arts experience. Her first independent project, Flower, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. The silent film uses dance as a medium for arts activism, addressing issues of intergenerational equity.
A committed philanthropist, Copeland serves as an ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, where she is also an alumna. In 2022, she launched The Misty Copeland Foundation, whose flagship program, BE BOLD, seeks to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in dance, particularly in ballet. In 2023, she also debuted the women’s line of Greatness Wins, an athletic wear brand she co-founded with Derek Jeter and Chris Riccobono.
A New York Times best-selling author, Copeland has written Life In Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and Bunheads, along with the award-winning children’s book Firebird. Her book, The Wind at My Back, is a tribute to her late mentor and trailblazing ballerina Raven Wilkinson.
Among her many accolades, Copeland received the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 2021, the Trailblazer Icon Award at The Grio Awards in 2023, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from New York University the same year. She was also named to The Root 100 list in 2023.
