Dominican-American media personality, businesswoman and humanitarian aid worker
Shalana Jones-Hunter (born October 12, 1969), known professionally as Tokyo Toni, is a Dominican-American media personality, entrepreneur and occasional reality television star. She is best known as the mother of model and television personality Blac Chyna and for her appearances on reality series including Rob & Chyna, The Real Blac Chyna and the Zeus Network dating show Tokyo Toni's Finding Love ASAP!, on which she also served as an executive producer.[1][2]
Outside of television, Toni has promoted herself as the chief executive officer of On My Grind Entertainment & Promotions LLC and has been linked to several other small business ventures in entertainment, beauty and media.[1][3] She is also known for outspoken commentary on social media, high-profile public disputes, and for public acts of charity that have attracted both praise and scrutiny.[4][5]
Early life
Jones-Hunter was born on October 12, 1969, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[1] A 2025 profile described her as Afro-Dominican and stated that she moved to the United States at the age of ten, growing up primarily in the Washington, D.C. area.[3] She has said that she later settled in the broader Washington metropolitan region and has frequently referred to D.C. as her hometown.[1]
Before gaining attention as a media personality, Jones-Hunter served in the U.S. Army and later held civilian jobs including work with Movie Extra A List Talent, a talent agency, and with EOTM Radio and Media, a small broadcast outlet.[1]
Name and persona
Jones-Hunter's stage name "Tokyo Toni" has attracted curiosity because of her daughter's former stage name "Blac Chyna". In a 2019 Instagram video reported by The Jasmine Brand, she recounted that the nickname originated after she confronted one of Blac Chyna's ex-boyfriends while armed, claiming he compared her impact to "a storm in Japan", after which she told him to call her "Tokyo".[6] In the same account she said that, before a later religious turn, she "carried glocks and everything" and described her younger self as "a wild" person.[6]
Media profiles have described Toni's public persona as loud, volatile and unfiltered, noting that she often streams long, improvisational monologues to social media in which she alternates between giving life advice, promoting her projects and criticizing public figures.[4][7]
Career
Early work and association with Blac Chyna
Jones-Hunter first gained wider notice in celebrity media through coverage of her daughter Blac Chyna's relationship with Rob Kardashian in the mid-2010s and the birth of her granddaughter Dream Kardashian in 2016.[1] During this period she gave interviews to outlets such as People and tabloid sites, expressing enthusiastic public support for Rob and Chyna's engagement and pregnancy.[1]
She subsequently made guest appearances on the 2016 E! reality series Rob & Chyna and other Kardashian-related media, where her volatile on-screen behavior and contentious relationship with her daughter drew notice from viewers and commentators.[4]
The Real Blac Chyna
In 2019, Jones-Hunter appeared frequently on The Real Blac Chyna, a reality series focused on Blac Chyna that premiered on the Zeus Network after initially being developed for traditional television.[4][7] Her segments on the show—including confrontations, arguments and attempts at reconciliation with her daughter—were widely circulated on social media and became a central part of online discourse about the series.[4]
Some commentators argued that the raw portrayals of their relationship highlighted cycles of intergenerational trauma and abuse, while others criticized the show for exploiting a dysfunctional mother-daughter dynamic for entertainment value.[4]
Tokyo Toni's Finding Love ASAP!
Following the attention from The Real Blac Chyna, Zeus Network commissioned a dating show built around Jones-Hunter, titled Tokyo Toni's Finding Love ASAP!.[2] The series, which premiered on November 10, 2019, featured Toni as the central lead searching for a romantic partner among a cast of suitors and ran for one seven-episode season.[2]
She was credited as an executive producer alongside Zeus founder Lemuel Plummer, Blac Chyna and others.[2] The show incorporated confessional segments and elimination ceremonies typical of dating competition series, while also leaning into Toni's unpredictable temperament and frequent verbal outbursts as a key part of its appeal.[4]
Other television and media appearances
In addition to Rob & Chyna, The Real Blac Chyna and Tokyo Toni's Finding Love ASAP!, Jones-Hunter has appeared, usually as herself, on various reality and talk formats, including:
guest segments and reunions connected to Zeus Network programming[4]
interviews and podcast appearances, such as the Aunt-Tea podcast episode with Karlissa Saffold and Tia Kemp that drew attention for her comments about rapper The Game and Blac Chyna[4]
numerous informal, self-produced livestreams and vlogs distributed via Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, where she discusses celebrity news, religion, politics and her personal life.[1][4]
Business ventures
Alongside her television work, Jones-Hunter has promoted herself as an entrepreneur with multiple business interests, primarily documented through social media and online profiles.
According to her Facebook page, cited in a 2020 People profile, she is the chief executive officer of On My Grind Entertainment and Promotions, LLC, described on its website as a company that aims to "work hard, entertain our friends, and just plain have fun".[1] Other biographical summaries state that she founded On My Grind Entertainment & Promotions in 2014 as a talent management and events company.[7][3]
A 2025 DS News profile, drawing largely from her public postings, lists several additional ventures associated with Jones-Hunter, including SHN Network, presented as a media or streaming platform tied to her initials; Vivacious Hair and Lashes, described as a beauty brand launched in 2019; and Prissy Tomboy Records, referenced as a small independent music imprint.[3]
Past reporting has also noted that she has hosted or been involved in a radio show and operated a talent agency in Washington, D.C., extending her earlier experience working for Movie Extra A List Talent and EOTM Radio and Media.[1][8]
On social media, Jones-Hunter has additionally used or been associated with the phrase "Tokyo Toni's Trucking", though this venture is primarily documented through Instagram content rather than independent coverage.[9] Because many of these businesses are small, privately held and promoted chiefly through her own platforms, detailed independent information about their scale, revenue or long-term activity is limited, and much of what is known comes from self-reported descriptions.[3]
Philanthropy and humanitarian aids
Jones-Hunter has frequently portrayed herself as engaged in charitable work, especially around food insecurity and homelessness.
In a 2016 interview with Radar Online, conducted amid her daughter's pregnancy with Dream Kardashian, she described using her growing public profile to raise awareness of homelessness in Washington, D.C., saying she distributed food, toiletries and other essentials to unhoused people and low-income families, sometimes funded out of her own pocket.[8]People likewise noted her calls on followers to donate to charitable causes and quoted posts in which she urged fans to "help out" and "keep grinding" while using her own story as an example.[1]
Later coverage by Atlanta Black Star highlighted her social-media videos serving cooked meals, including fried chicken and fish, to people living on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles during the Thanksgiving season, praising her consistency in doing food giveaways and noting that her granddaughter Dream had recently mentioned on Instagram Live that "she's feeding the homeless".[10]
In 2023, however, HotNewHipHop reported that an individual claiming to run a Ugandan children's ministry called The Blessed Kids Ministry accused Jones-Hunter of continuing to share old footage of children eating and of implying she was still financially supporting them after contact and donations had allegedly ceased.[5] The outlet noted that it could not independently verify the ministry's claims, but the dispute sparked online debate over the accuracy of some of Toni's charitable self-representations and the ethics of using images of children in fundraising videos.[5]
Personal life
Jones-Hunter has one daughter, Blac Chyna (born Angela White), from a prior relationship.[1] She has spoken publicly about periods of estrangement and reconciliation with Chyna, including stretches in which they did not communicate and subsequent reunions documented on reality television and social media.[4][7]
She has been married to Marcellus Hunter, with whom she has had an on-again, off-again relationship. In 2013 Hunter obtained a protective order against her in Prince George's County, Maryland, alleging threats and destruction of property; the order remained in effect until 2014.[1] Media reports and her own social-media posts indicate that the couple later reconciled and remarried.[4]
Religiously, Jones-Hunter has at various times described herself as having undergone a personal transformation, contrasting her present-day faith with her earlier self-described "wild" lifestyle in which she carried firearms and engaged in fights.[6] She has also posted online about reading the Bible and encouraging followers to pray, though her public persona continues to include profanity, sexual humor and harsh criticism of perceived enemies, which some observers see as part of her brand.[4][7]
Public image and controversies
Jones-Hunter is a polarizing figure in celebrity and social-media culture. Coverage in outlets such as South China Morning Post, BBN Times and tabloid sites has emphasized her history of publicly feuding with Blac Chyna, criticizing high-profile figures including members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, and making provocative comments about artists such as Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Rihanna.[4][7]
Her public clashes with the Kardashians have periodically drawn mainstream attention. In 2024, for example, Khloé Kardashian was criticized by some social-media users after appearing to shade Toni's decision to post videos of herself feeding the homeless; commentators defended Toni by pointing out that she had been doing similar outreach for years and argued that she was entitled to document her work.[10][11]
Her online presence frequently goes viral, with clips of her rants, alleged diss tracks and commentary on trending topics circulating widely on platforms such as X, Instagram and TikTok.[4][5] Supporters often cite her willingness to say what others will not and to engage in direct acts of community support, while critics characterize her behavior as erratic, abusive or attention-seeking.[4][7]
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