Who Is Serayah McNeill?

Serayah McNeill may be dominating headlines right now because of the end of her relationship with Joey Bada$$, but she was making noise in Hollywood long before the Brooklyn rapper entered the picture. The 31-year-old actress, singer and model was born in Encinitas, California, and attended Taft High School in Woodland Hills, where she even played varsity basketball. After getting her start singing in church, theater and advertisements, Serayah eventually found the role that would introduce her to millions of viewers: Tiana Brown on Fox’s hit series Empire.

Joining Empire in 2015, Serayah quickly became one of the show’s familiar faces as Tiana, an R&B singer navigating the drama surrounding the Lyon family and Empire Entertainment. What began as a recurring role became a series regular, and she remained with the show through its final season in 2020. Her time on Empire also gave her an opportunity to showcase her musical abilities, with Serayah contributing vocals to songs from the series. Around the same time, she appeared alongside a long list of celebrities in Taylor Swift’s star-studded “Bad Blood” music video.

Serayah kept working after Empire, steadily building a résumé that has included both television and film. She appeared as Lori Walker on Starz’s BMF, played Rebecca “Rbel” Belle in BET’s gospel drama Kingdom Business, and has credits in projects including Envy: A Seven Deadly Sins Story, The Sound of Christmas and Wu-Tang: An American Saga. More recently, she took the lead role of Ruth in Netflix’s 2025 film Ruth & Boaz, a modern retelling of the biblical love story produced by Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin.

While her career continued growing, Serayah’s relationship with Joey Bada$$, born Jo-Vaughn Virgine Scott, became a major part of her public life. According to People’s timeline of their relationship, the two first met at a mutual friend’s birthday party in 2021 and connected again about a year later. Romance rumors really began heating up when Serayah starred opposite Joey in his 2023 “Show Me” music video, and by June of that year, Joey publicly confirmed their relationship with a birthday post calling her “my love.”

Their relationship eventually turned into a family. In February 2025, Serayah revealed her pregnancy while walking in an Adore Me fashion show, and the couple welcomed their son that June. Their relationship also appeared to become even more serious around that period, with Serayah publicly referring to Joey as her fiancé. Just weeks after giving birth, she praised him publicly, saying her fiancé had “held it down” while she adjusted to motherhood. Joey had also previously spoken about how Serayah changed his outlook on relationships, explaining that although he once considered himself polyamorous, being with her led him toward monogamy.

That seemingly happy chapter came crashing down on August 24, 2026, when Serayah announced that she had ended both the relationship and engagement. In a lengthy Instagram statement, she alleged there had been “repeated infidelity” throughout their relationship, including during what she described as some of the most vulnerable and meaningful moments of her life. Serayah said she wasn’t speaking out for sympathy or revenge, but instead encouraged other women to trust their intuition and not sacrifice their values or sense of self just to preserve the future they imagined with someone.

The aftermath got even messier. Shortly after her breakup announcement, Serayah reportedly posted and then deleted footage connected to Joey and another woman. TMZ reported that Serayah overheard Joey speaking negatively about her during a phone call, while other reports circulated the deleted recording online. Still, Serayah made one boundary clear in her original statement: their son will remain her priority. She said she intends to protect his privacy and his relationship with both parents, while declining to publicly unpack every intimate detail of what happened between her and Joey. As of the initial reports, Joey had not publicly responded to the allegations.

For anyone discovering Serayah because of the breakup headline, there’s considerably more to her story than her former relationship. She has spent more than a decade moving between acting, music and modeling, going from a breakout role on one of television’s biggest Black dramas to leading her own films. Now, with the engagement over and a new chapter beginning as both a mother and entertainer, Serayah appears determined to keep moving forward — this time on her own terms.

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Get to know the newly single actress through her IG photos below.