Tyra Banks may be at the helm of America’s next top ice cream brand.
Studio 1A was blessed with the supermodel and mogul’s presence this week as she co-hosted TODAY with Jenna & Friends. Banks joined Jenna Bush Hager for interviews, games and revealing what life has been like for her now that she’s moved to Sydney, Australia — in part to launch her ice cream brand Smize & Dream.
“We just kept going back and back and back and back for me to do R and D and all that, and I was like, ‘Wait, I kind of like it here,’” Banks tells TODAY.com. “We just decided to make the leap.”
Banks, who has a unique-yet-relatable approach to everything she does, hinted on the show that her flagship location near Sydney Harbour was set to be an “immersive” experience — part of her plans to scoop up the ice cream scene Down Under.
“We want to have many shops in Australia,” she says, adding that she hopes it becomes “a household name” in the country. “Where we’re different is where it’s like a little bit of an immersive theater, the shop that I’m building.”
But … what does that mean?
Banks says everyone working at her shops will be either a working or aspiring actor playing characters — whether their dream role is the next witch defying gravity, superhero channeling their power or action star leaping out of a plane.
“They’ll be embodying their dream, because it’s Smize & Dream — all about dreams, inspired by my mom who inspired me to dream,” she says. “So, every actor will be playing the role of their dream.”
Banks says the immersive theater elements of her shops and the events that they’ll be doing in them was baked into the idea from the beginning.
“I’ve been obsessed with immersive theater for decades,” she says, adding that she was inspired after attending “Rose Rabbit Lie” and “Sleep No More,” an immersive show based on “Macbeth” that ran for 13 years.
“I hope to bring it to America in 2026,” she says. “One of my advisors is like, ‘We have to wait till 2027,’ and I’m like ‘Er, I would like it to be here in 2026!’”
Smize & Dream has already tested the concept stateside. In July 2024, the star treated fans to a summer popup in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where visitors included former Vice President Kamala Harris choosing from uniquely named scoops and flavors.
In Australia, testing has continued, with her team trying out flavors based on Australian treats like fairy bread and lamington, a type of spongecake coated in chocolate icing and coconut. Banks, never one to cower, even took on Australia’s most divisive condiment.
“There was one that was almost a challenge,” Banks says. “People are like, ‘Are you gonna do a Vegemite flavor, yeah?’ Almost like, ‘Are you? Are you really? Are you just some American over here?’”
Banks accepted the challenge.
“I created a Vegemite flavor called Good Day, Good Night, and it’s honey, salt and Vegemite and a brittle,” she says. “It’s really, really good.”
Her distinctive naming convention has continued, with current flavors including Matcha Mochi Doughchi and Mama Carolyn’s MasterPIECE of Cake, which is inspired by her mom, Carolyn London.
“She used to make this yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and the family is obsessed with it,” Banks says, adding that the matriarch would make it for weddings, funerals and every “family happening” in between. “And so for me, it tastes like my mama.”
