NEED TO KNOW
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Teyana Taylor accepted the Innovator Award at the Apollo Spring Benefit 2025 on June 4
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The star thanked her inner circle, including someone she referred to as her “apple pie”
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The moniker may be for actor Aaron Pierre, whom the actress-singer is rumored to be dating
Is actor Aaron Pierre Teyana Taylor’s apple pie?
While accepting the inaugural Innovator Award at the Wednesday, June 4 Apollo Spring Benefit 2025 in Harlem, Taylor, 34, thanked her inner circle, referring to an unnamed person as her “apple pie.”
The actress-singer thanked God “for the village you have placed in my life — my mom, my dad, my babies and my apple pie.” Laughing, she added, “I love you all so much. Thank you for loving me the way you do. I would not be the woman that I am today without you. Thank you for being my whole world, my heartbeats, my reason, my examples.”
Pierre, 30, and Taylor have sparked romance rumors for months, especially after they posted a series of glamorous pics together at the 2025 Oscars. In April, the A Thousand and One star seemingly responded to a sexy snap from the Mufasa: The Lion King actor via her Instagram Stories, writing, “on di wey” with an exhaling emoji.
Dave Benett/VF25/WireImage for Vanity Fair
(Left-right:) Aaron Pierre, Teyana Taylor, Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar on March 2
In her speech onstage at the Apollo, the Harlem-born Taylor also shouted out and thanked her management teams, award presenters Sherri Shepherd and Dapper Dan, and the historic theater itself.
“It really takes the village, y’all,” she said. “This little innovative little Harlem girl you see being honored tonight has a tribe that helps me be the greatest that I can be. I’m filled with so much gratitude. Thank you for having my back, my front, both my sides.”
Taylor also recalled performing onstage at the Apollo at 8 years old with “this group called the Sunshine Girls,” when she asked the theater’s audience not to boo them.
“We didn’t get booed,” she added. “It’s so amazing to be here tonight and still feel nervous, still feel the jitters. This is such an iconic stage and I’m just so grateful. I never would have thought — 8-year-old me never would have thought I’d be back on the stage being honored.”
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Shahar Azran/Getty
Teyana Taylor at the 2025 Apollo Theater Spring Benefit on June 4
Also attending the event were Method Man, Busta Rhymes, Monica, Deborah Cox, Shoshana Bean, Adam Blackstone, D-Nice and more. Legendary record producer Clive Davis was this year’s Legacy Award recipient and Walk of Fame Inductee.
Taylor, who shares two daughters with ex-husband Imam Shumpert, has a busy 2025 as both actress and musician. She’ll appear in the upcoming films Straw (on Netflix June 6) and One Battle After Another (in theaters Sept. 26), plus Hulu series All’s Fair.
As revealed in a trailer for her upcoming album Escape Room (due in August), Pierre costars in its visual album as an onscreen love interest, further fueling the internet’s speculation that he and Taylor are a couple.
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