Tinashe is the stage name of Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe, an American singer, songwriter and dancer born February 6, 1993, in Lexington, Kentucky, and best known for "2 On" and the 2024 viral hit "Nasty." Her father, Michael Kachingwe, is a first-generation Zimbabwean immigrant of Shona descent, and her mother, Aimie, is of Danish, Norwegian and Irish descent.

The eldest child of two college professors, she spent her early years in DeKalb, Illinois, before the family moved to Los Angeles. She was working on camera long before she had a record deal. Her child-acting credits include the TV movie Cora Unashamed (2000), motion-capture work on The Polar Express (2004), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), a main voice role on Holly Hobbie and Friends, a main role on Out of Jimmy's Head (2007 to 2008) and a recurring part on Two and a Half Men (2008 to 2009). From 2007 to 2011 she was also a member of The Stunners, a girl group founded by Vitamin C.

Music took over after the group ended. She released the mixtapes In Case We Die and Reverie in 2012, signed with RCA Records that July and followed with Black Water in 2013. "2 On," featuring Schoolboy Q, reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014, and her debut album, Aquarius, peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200. Nightride (2016) and Joyride (2018) completed her major-label run, and in 2016 she won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song for "All My Friends." She parted ways with RCA in February 2019.

Independence has suited her. Tinashe self-released Songs for You (2019) and 333 (2021), then started a trilogy with BB/Ang3l in 2023 and continued it with Quantum Baby in August 2024. "Nasty," released that April, caught fire on TikTok, climbed to No. 61 on the Hot 100 and hit No. 1 on US rhythmic radio. She took the album on the road with the Match My Freak: World Tour through 2024 and 2025. In 2025, "No Broke Boys," her collaboration with Disco Lines, reached No. 39 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, then won Dance Song of the Year at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

The career arc is why her name keeps coming up. Tinashe went from child actor to RCA signee to independent artist, and her second run of hits arrived a decade after "2 On," without a major label behind the releases. For an industry still debating what a label is worth, she is a working answer.