Zaila Avant-garde

Zaila Avant-garde is an American speller, basketball player, and juggler. She won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is the first African-American contestant to win the bee and is the second Black winner, after Jamaica's Jody-Anne Maxwell.

Life Avant-garde was born in Harvey, Louisiana, the daughter of Alma Heard and Jawara Spacetime. Her father chose her last name to honor John Coltrane. Her basketball heroes include Stephen Curry, James Harden, Diana Taurasi, Kevin Durant, and Maya Moore. In 2025, she began studying cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland. Her younger brother, Zwe Spacetime, was a finalist in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Spelling bee Avant-garde reached the national level in the 2019 Bee. Her coach was former Scripps finalist Cole Shafer-Ray, who also coached the runner-up, Chaitra Thummala. She is the first African-American contestant to win the Scripps National Spelling bee, competition. Before her, MacNolia Cox became the first African-American contestant to reach the final stage in the 1936 Bee, and Marie Bolden had won the first-ever national spelling bee in the United States in 1908.

Basketball Basketball, I'm not just playing it... I'm really trying to go somewhere with it. Basketball is what I do. Spelling is really a side thing I do. It's like a little hors d'oeuvre. But basketball's like the main dish. Avant-garde is the holder of three basketball Guinness World Records and co-holder of another. Her parents gave her a copy of the Guinness book for her eighth birthday, which triggered her ambition.

On November 14, 2019, she broke her first record, for most bounce juggles in one minute (three basketballs) at 231.

Juggling Avant-garde was the silver medalist at the International Jugglers' Association 2020 championship in the Juniors Division (18U). She is an elite unicyclist and can juggle and cycle simultaneously.