Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the late age of thirteen. At fifteen, she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. She studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre (ABT)’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. Copeland joined ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000, became a member of ABT’s corps de ballet in April 2001, and in August 2007 became the company’s second African American female soloist and the first in two decades. In June 2015, Copeland was promoted to principal dancer, making her the first African American woman to ever be promoted to the position in the company’s seventy-five-year history. Twenty-five years later, Misty retired from the American Ballet Theatre with her final performance on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
She is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Life in Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, The Wind at My Back, and the picturebooks Bunheads and Firebird. Copeland recently released Letters to Misty, which shares her advice to young dancers, inspired by the letters she has received over the years. In 2022, she launched the Misty Copeland Foundation with its first signature program, BE BOLD, which aims to bring greater diversity, equity, and inclusion to dance, especially ballet. Also in 2022, Copeland created her production company Life in Motion Productions and produced her short film Flower, telling a powerful story through dance and movement to highlight intergenerational equity in the community of Oakland, California. Flower premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023. In 2025, Copeland and Life in Motion Productions also produced Match in a Haystack, a short film about finding beauty during the war in Ukraine.
Copeland is an avid philanthropist and serves as an ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, of which she is also an alum. In 2021, she received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor, and in 2023, she was honored with the Trailblazer Icon Award at The Grio Awards, was named to The Root 100 list, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University. Prior honors include being named to the Time 100 Most Influential People list and Glamour’s Women of the Year, as well as receiving a Black Girls Rock! Award.