Rochelle Okoye

Rochelle was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and began her gymnastics career at the very early age of 2. When Rochelle was 7 yrs old, both her parents decided to uproot the family and move to Leeds, England, where her father finished his PhD at Cambridge and Oxford University.Rochelle continued her gymnastics career and at the age of 9, became a member of and competed internationally for the Great Britain Gymnastics Team. In 1996, Rochelle became the Great Britain National Gymnastics Champion and retained the title for 3 consecutive years.Rochelle was also nominated and awarded 'The Top Sports Person in England under the age of 13 category,' for 2 consecutive years. At the age of 14, BBC produced and aired a one hour documentary called 'Going for Gold,' focusing primarily on her goals of competing in the 2000 Olympics. Unfortunately, her dreams fell short when the International Gymnastics Federation (FGI) announced that a competitor must now be 16 years of age to compete in the Olympics. Rochelle was turning 15, and sadly, was one year shy of being eligible to qualify.With the Olympics another 4 years out of her reach, her family decided the best thing to do was pack it in and return to Canada, in the hopes that Rochelle would continue her career on the Canadian team. She, however had other plans. She resigned from gymnastics, focused on her studies and graduated from Terry Fox High School a year early at the age of 16.In 2006 and only 20 yrs old, she graduated with a B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Northern British Columbia. She worked in her field for 2 years, counseling and working one-on-one with children with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses and behavioral problems. Although a very rewarding job, she did not feel completely fulfilled. She decided it was time to return to the world of sports.Rochelle started training and competing in Amateur and Professional Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. She had her first amateur boxing fight after 6 months of training and made the decision with her coach, Tony Pep to go pro after only 1 year. She made her pro debut in 2008 at the Red Robinson Show Theatre in Coquitlam, BC, where she won by unanimous decision and went down in history along side opponent, Priscilla Trampowsky as the first professional female boxers to have fought in BC.On the pursuit of helping others achieve their fitness goals, Rochelle also attained her personal training degree and started coaching, personal training and running fitness boot camps.After embarking on all of her athletic endeavours and education, Rochelle made a guided decision to jump full force into the film industry. Using all of her talents and skills acquired along the way, she now has a successful career as a Stunt Woman and Actress working along side some of Hollywood's biggest names. Show less «