Nicole Renee "Niki" Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on March 5, 1975 to Broward Sheriff's Deputy, Ken Taylor and photographer Barbara Taylor. Raised in Pembroke Pines, Florida, she engaged in the arts while in high school by studying dance and singing lessons. By the time she was 13 years old, she aspired to be a model and later signed with Irene Marie Models in South Florida, where she met her manager, Jean Renard. At 14 years of age, she began professional modeling and a couple of years later, she founded her own company, Niki Inc. She debuted on the cover of Seventeen magazine and later appeared on covers of Vogue, Allure, ELLE, Marie Claire, Self and Shape. She also named as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1991 and soon appeared in the 1997, 1998 and 1999 editions of Sports Unlimited's Swimsuit Issue. She also had done numerous advertisement projects with brands such as Liz Claiborne, Nokia, L'Oreal, Lee Jeans and Pantene.
In 2001, Taylor entered rehab to recover from her drug addiction. In the same year, she suffered from a devastating car accident in which the car she was riding hit a utility pole after the driver tried to answer his mobile phone. She suffered severe internal injuries and spent six weeks unconscious.
Taylor was married to Arena football player, Matt Martinez in 1994, but the two divorced two years later. In 2002, she began dating country singer Keith Urban, with whom her relationship ended after two years. In October of 2006, she was engaged to NASCAR driver Burney Lamar, and the two were married in December 2006. They reside with Taylor's two children with Martinez in Brentwood, Tennessee.
In 2007, Taylor returns to the television screen as co-host alongside Tyson Beckford in the Bravo reality series, Make Me a Supermodel.
(Photos courtesy of Bravo)
