Joy Bryant beauty smarts

Actress and model Joy Bryant in Versace stretch silk-georgette colorblock tank and miniskirt. "I like wearing miniskirts that are as short as a belt," Bryant told InStyle. "I figure, you might as well wear them while you can, right?"

That was back in 2003; 5'9" tall Joy Bryant today is 33 and still maintains her figure of 34-23-34 with Yoga. "I love all the big designers, especially Versace and Dior. I like to mix high fashion with Old Navy, Club Monaco with Manolos, and Urban Outfitters with Dior," Bryant told WWD.



Left, Joy Bryant looking beautiful at the LA premiere of her movie Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, back in 2008. Right, Joy at the West Hollywood premiere screening of Parenthood, her new NBC show last month.

Joy Bryant's early life in the Bronx was all about acquiring smarts. "I was such a nerd," she says. "I read encyclopedias all day and watched TV. My grandmother, who raised me, (emphasized) the importance of education. For me it was about being self-sufficient and using my brain." Joy got scholarships to attend boarding school and join the Ivy League Yale. But there Bryant's beauty was discovered by a scout from the New York-based Next Models Management. Joy Bryant gave herself a year to try and make a career in modeling: "So just like that, I went from brains to beauty. The timing could not have been better: Seventeen magazine was booking their back to school issue and selected me. They seemed to dig my Ivy League credentials."



Zoe Saldana and Joy Bryant at the La Perla Presents Spring 2009 event on September 4, 2008. The two starred together in the 2004 movie Haven. Joy made her acting debut in MTV's 2001 special Carmen: A Hip-Hopera and has studied dance since she was 3. "When I was younger I was one of the few girls in the neighborhood who could break dance," she says. "That's kind of my local, ghetto-celebrity claim to fame. But I definitely didn't have any aspirations to be a rapper or anything. I wanted to be a deejay more than anything, but none of the guys would let me on the turntable, so that was short-lived."

In 2003, she co-starred with Jessica Alba in Bille Woodruff's romantic drama Honey. 2005 was another great year for Bryant, as she appeared in films including The Skeleton Key, London, and Fifty Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

Joy values her education, telling Complex magazine: "It always came in handy because, as a model, everybody assumes you're a complete idiot. It saved me when I went over to Paris and there were all these playboys lurking about. I was smart enough, old enough, with enough experience to avoid them. Thanks to Yale, I didn't wake up butt naked in a chateau wearing handcuffs, thinking, 'Why am I here?' - with a headache."



Joy Bryant wearing a Rachel Roy skirt, Proenza shirt and Stella McCartney shoes at the third annual "Essence Black Women in Film" luncheon in Beverly Hills, early this month. Joy Bryant is vegetarian, drives a hybrid, enjoys snowboarding, and is married to stuntman David Pope.