- Misty Copeland, 43, made history in 2015 as the first Black woman ever named principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre
- She grew up in genuine poverty with a single mother, five siblings, and an absent father, and didn’t even start ballet until she was 13 years old
- Her husband, Olu Evans, and their son, Jackson, are the family she built quietly while changing the world loudly
- She retired from ABT in October 2025 after 25 years, and her farewell had Oprah Winfrey in tears
Some people become famous. Some people become icons. And then there’s Misty Copeland, who somehow managed to do both while defying virtually every rule that the ballet world had spent a century putting in place. If you’ve ever wanted to know the full story behind the name, the career, the family, the books, and the woman herself, this is it. And trust us, it is a story worth knowing.
Who Is Misty Copeland and What Is She Famous For?
Misty Danielle Copeland is an American ballet dancer and author who danced primarily for American Ballet Theatre, one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, she became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history.
That one sentence does not even begin to cover it.
Copeland was considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until age 13. In a world where most serious ballerinas begin training around the age of three or four, starting at 13 is practically unheard of. And yet within three months of her very first class, she was already dancing en pointe, which is a feat that typically takes years to accomplish. The ballet world did not know what to do with her. So she made it do something it had never done before.
She is an American ballet dancer who became the first Black female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre in 2015 and retired from the ABT in 2025. Her inspiring story helped make her a role model and pop icon. Beyond the stage, she became a public speaker, a bestselling author, a celebrity brand ambassador, and a foundation founder. Misty Copeland did not just dance. She rewrote the definition of what a ballerina could look like and who ballet was actually for.
Misty Copeland’s Parents, Family, and the Childhood Nobody Talks About Enough
The most remarkable thing about Misty Copeland’s story is not where she ended up. It’s where she started.
Misty Copeland was born in 1982 to Sylvia DelaCerna and Doug Copeland. By the time Copeland was two, her father was no longer in the picture, and her mother began a series of marriages and relationships that were often challenging. In DelaCerna’s fourth marriage, things became especially bad. Copeland’s stepfather was emotionally and physically abusive, and DelaCerna left the marriage to protect herself and her children, but that came with serious financial struggles. The family lived in a motel.
When discussing her youth, Copeland described going from day to day and night to night, not knowing where they were sleeping, not knowing if they were going to have food, and not knowing how she was going to get to school, or even if she was going to school. That is not the background of someone the ballet world expected to crown.
Copeland was the fourth of six siblings. She has three older siblings named Erica, Douglas, and Christopher, a younger half-sister named Lindsey, and a younger half-brother named Cameron. Her mother used to be a cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs and had also studied dance. So the talent was always in the bloodline. It just needed the right door to open.
That door was a middle school drill team coach who spotted something in Misty and pushed her toward a ballet class at the local Boys and Girls Club. She initially said no because she needed to help her mother care for her siblings. Her instructor, Cynthia Bradley, started picking her up from school, and that was when everything changed. As for her father, Copeland did not reunite with him until she was an adult, saying that connecting with her father helped her truly understand herself and become the person and artist she wanted to become.
Misty Copeland’s Husband, Son, and the Family She Built on Her Own Terms
For someone who spent so much of her youth without stability, the family Misty has built as an adult is everything.
Misty Copeland and her husband, Olu Evans, live in New York City. Olu is an attorney, and his cousin, actor Taye Diggs, introduced them around 2004. They announced their engagement in 2015 and got married in California on July 31, 2016. The couple had been together for over a decade before making it official, which says a lot about the foundation they built before stepping in front of a camera.
The couple had a son, Jackson Evans, in 2022. At Misty’s farewell performance at Lincoln Centre in October 2025, her three-year-old son came onstage to hug his mother during curtain calls, wearing a tiny tuxedo. If that image does not get you, nothing will.
Misty Copeland’s Accomplishments: A Career Full of History-Making Moments
In 2001, she became a member of the ABT corps de ballet, the only African American woman in a group of 80 dancers. She was regularly reminded that she was more muscular and full-figured than her peers, but she climbed the ranks by virtue of her exceptional skill. In 2007, she became the company’s first African American female soloist in two decades.
She made history as the first Black woman to play the role of Odette in Swan Lake during ABT’s inaugural tour in Australia. In 2015, she made her debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and that same year, she was included in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
She performed on Broadway in On the Town, toured as a featured dancer for Prince, and appeared in the reality television shows A Day in the Life and So You Think You Can Dance. She also starred in the 2018 Disney film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, bringing ballet to an entirely new generation of young fans.
Misty Copeland’s Books, Net Worth, and What Comes Next
Misty Copeland’s net worth is estimated to be approximately 3 to 5 million dollars as of 2025, built through her dance career, public speaking, brand partnerships, including Under Armour and Estée Lauder, her own dancewear line called M by Misty, and her writing career.
On the books front, her debut children’s title Bunheads quickly became a New York Times bestseller, and the sequel Bunheads Act 2: The Dance of Courage was released in September 2025, just weeks before her farewell performance. She also co-wrote the adult memoir Life in Motion, which detailed her extraordinary journey from that San Pedro motel room all the way to the most prestigious stages in the world.
At her farewell gala at Lincoln Centre in October 2025, Oprah Winfrey said that Misty did not just perform ballet, she changed it, and redefined who belongs, who gets to be seen, and who gets to lead.
And crucially, Copeland has made it clear she is not done dancing entirely. She told Harper’s Bazaar that this was the end of ABT for her, but that she wants to continue performing in some capacity.
Twenty-five years. A motel childhood. Five siblings. One history-making career. One husband, one son, and a legacy that will outlast every standing ovation she ever received. Misty Copeland’s biography is not a ballet story. It is a human story. And it is nowhere near finished.
