Ajay Rochester

Ajay Rochester (born in 1969 in Sydney) is an Australian actress and author. She was the host of the Australian version of reality weight-loss television series The Biggest Loser, for which she hosted a total of four series between 2006 and 2009.

Family and personal life

Rochester was adopted as a child, and was emotionally and physically abused by her adoptive mother. She located her birth mother in 1992 after years of searching, although her mother committed suicide a year later.^[1]

Rochester has a son Kai, he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the age of five.^[1] She was engaged to British-born telecommunications manager Martin Gleave, but called off the wedding and ended the relationship in August 2007.^[2]

Weight loss work

Rochester suffered from obesity, which she attributed to the death of her birth mother and her estrangement from her adoptive mother. She resolved to lose weight following the birth of her child, and shed over 50 kilograms since giving birth.^[1]

She did so filming a documentary called Larger Than Life that aired on The Lifestyle channel. It followed Rochester for a year as she lost weight and took back her life.

Since then, she has been involved in several weight loss projects, most notably as host of four seasons (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) The Biggest Loser on Network Ten.

She founded a website, "The Healthy Body Club", and authored the books Confessions of a Reformed Dieter, Blubberguts and The Lazy Girl's Guide to Losing Weight and Getting Fit.^[3] Rochester also published a children's book called Blubberguts with Hodder Headline's Hotshots series.

Rochester has also published two more titles with new Holland including cookbook Food You Love and self-help inspirational book 5-Minute Diet Book.

Rochester joined a weight loss reality show as a celebrity contestant, Excess Baggage which was broadcast in January through March 2012. Rochester won the show and her charity the NOH8 Campaign received a $50,000 donation for her efforts. During Excess Baggage Rochester struggled with the physical/sport challenges but excelled when they implemented intellectual challenges, which Ajay attributed to being a super nerd at school, where she dodged doing sport by being the youngest and longest running editor of her school newspaper and yearbook.

After leaving Biggest Loser she gained some weight, and has admitted she used to starve herself to keep her presenting job.^[4]

She recently shot a few episodes of the Reality TV show Beverly Hills Pawn and has reappeared in their latest season (2014) which airs on The Reelz Channel, made an acting appearance on an episode of America's Court, and has filmed pilots for various shows including Beverly Hills Canine Country Club.

Rochester is currently filming a pilot for her own reality TV show and is working on a new book co-authoring with The USA Biggest Loser doctor, Dr Robert Huizenga.

She is currently Reality Wanted's Hollywood Host for all reality shows and covers all the biggest reality shows in Hollywood including Survivor and is currently the backstage reporter for So You Think You Can Dance on FOX.

Other television work

Rochester appeared on the reality television series Celebrity Dog School with her Pomeranian, "Bootsie".^[5]

Rochester was also the co-host of the SBS TV series Mum's The Word.^[6]

Rochester was contracted to come to the USA to shoot Celebrity Fit Club but producers replaced her at the last minute due to a visa delay.

Rochester won the 2012 reality TV show Excess Baggage on Channel 9 Australia.

Rochester has a recurring role in the upcoming Reelz Channel series Beverly Hills Pawn and recently appeared on America's Court in a lead role.

Rochester is currently in discussions regarding the production of her own reality show.

Rochester is featured regularly on shows TMZ and CBS Insider and is often asked to comment on social media issues

Rochester has found recent success in Germany and appears regularly on RED TV - Germany's version of E!

Charity work

Rochester is the ambassador for the Eating Disorders Foundation. She has worked with The Make A Wish Foundation and is an advocate for breast cancer research lending her time to multiple breast cancer charities including the Field of Women and BCNA. Rochester is also the face and ambassador for Triathlonpink.com and walked the Great Wall of China to raise funds to build the Olivia Newton-John Wellness Centre.^[7] Rochester is currently working on an anti bullying campaign which she plans to launch at the 2014 Stan Lee Comikaze Expo. She will be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in June 2014 with Dr Huizenga from The Biggest Loser USA to promote heart health.

Short film work

In the late 1990s, Rochester also co-wrote and produced several short films while she was working the comedy circuits in Australia. Her 1998 film BruiZer won the best short at the Scenefest Short Film Festival and was the runner up at the Brisbane Schlock-fest Film festival.^[8] She also had a weekly comedy segment on AM Adelaide on Channel 7.

Early acting work

Rochester is a trained actress having graduated from The Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Rochester started her career as an actress in the film To Make A Killing. Her next film was The Crossing, which starred Russell Crowe.^[9] She acted under the name Lea-Ann Towler. She also appeared in PJ Hogan's movie Vicious.

She also appeared in the Mini Series Shadow of The Cobra - a story on the life of serial killer Charles Sobraj. She played one of his murder victims.

Best-selling books

Rochester's first book Confessions of Reformed Dieter is now in its eighth print run.^[10]

She wrote a children's book: Blubberguts.^[11]

In 2005, Rochester's book Lazy Girl's Guide to Losing Weight and Getting Fit was published by Random House and made the Sydney Morning Herald top five best seller list.^[12]

Her first book Confessions of a Reformed Dieter was nominated for an Audie award for most inspirational talking book – bestowed annually in the USA for outstanding audiobooks but was beaten by Dr Phil's The Ultimate Weight Solution. Confessions was also published in Thailand, UK, Canada and is about to be released by Random House UK as an E book available on iTunes and Kindle.

Her most recent books were published by New Holland publishing and are The 5-Minute Diet Book' and a recipe book called Food You Love. Rochester is now living and working in the USA and working on her latest books to be published there and is currently represented by literary agent Jennifer Unter from The Unter Agency in New York. Her next book, which she says will be her final weight loss book is titled Been There Done Fat and the other work in progress is a book on her son's autism called Coming to the Rescue.

Court ruling

In June 2008, Rochester was due to appear in a Sydney court to face nine charges of receiving a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity and 14 charges of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage, namely claiming a single parent payment between December 2001 and December 2005, for which (it was alleged) that she was not entitled. On 8 July she pleaded not guilty,^[13] based on a technicality. The matter was stood down until 9 September 2008. She later pleaded guilty to a reduced 14 counts of being overpaid. Her lawyer told Downing Centre Local Court that she had paid back all of the overpayment well before the court case ever eventuated, which averaged out to be an accidental overpayment of $70 per week over 5 years of payments to which she was entitled. In her lengthy summing up the judge spoke of the media witch hunt that Rochester had been subjected to and spoke highly of her numerous charity works and good character. No conviction was recorded.^[14]

References

External links

• Ajay's personal blog
• Ajay Rochester at the Internet Movie Database