Sayaka Aoki (comedian)

Sayaka Aoki (青木 さやか or 青木 沙耶加, Aoki Sayaka, born March 27, 1973) is a Japanese TV star, comedian, and actress from Owariasahi, Aichi Prefecture (born in Seto in the same prefecture). Both of her parents are primary school teachers. After graduating from Nagoya Gakuin University, she began her comedian career. One of her co-workers is Hidekazu Nagai.

Career

Aoki is a daughter of two elementary school teachers. After attending Aichi Prefecture Seto High School, she went on to the Foreign Language Faculty at Nagoya Gakuin University with a concentration in Chinese. After she graduated from college, she attended the Television Talent Center in Nagoya.

She started her career by working as a free announcer at a local TV station and as an attendant to a TV star. When she landed an introductory spot in a late-night TV show, she introduced herself as wanting to become a "funny TV star" which was taken as an aspiration to become a comedian. Since then, she has turned her career to a comedy star. At one time, Aoki was part of a five person comedy group called Onsen Konnyaku Acrobat Show. After leaving this group, she went back to working solo. She was scouted by Watanabe Entertainment's President, Miki Watanabe, when she guest starred in a Watanabe Entertainment Comedy Live Show. She relocated her life and career to Tokyo.

Aoki's popularity grew around the fall of 2003 as she started appearing in Fuji TV Network's Warau Inu No Taiyo (The Sun of the Laughing Dog), NepLeague and TV Asahi's Out of Order, thanks to the strong promotion by her agency. She also grew popular by performing comedy sketches on Enta no Kamisama (The God of Entertainment) which is a gateway TV show for comedians. Aoki furthered her career by taking on acting and narrating roles in addition to her comedian career. Aoki was the first person ever to host the FNS ALL STARS: 25 HRS TELEVISION as an official Fuji TV Announcer (which was designated just for this occasion) and read the last notes.

On August 10, 2004, Aoki appeared as a gravure idol on the "Weekly Post" Magazine. She showed herself in a bikini which caused both popular and unpopular responses. On October 12, 2004, Aoki introduced her boyfriend at the time on London Hearts Three Hour Special, contributing to the highest TV rating ever (Avg 22.1%, 30.4% for the moment of her boyfriend's appearance) for the show. On April 13, 2005, she published her photobook"Où Voyez-vous?" (meaning "what are you looking at?" in French) which sold out all 20,000 copies of the first print in three days. Behind-the-scene footage in making this photobook was aired in London Hearts the day before it was published. This seemed to have contributed greatly in the high sales. The photobook was reprinted and sold a total of 75,000 copies. Aoki has been dieting as part of a diet project on London Hearts to make photo shots and attend Fashion Shows. She has repeatedly succeeded then rebounded her weight. As of August 2007, her weight is 54.6 kg and waist 70 cm.

On October 25, 2007, Aoki published an "I Novel" (auto-biography) titled Because I'm 34, I'm feeling happy (ISBN 978-4334975272).

Personal life

Aoki has been playing the piano since early childhood and took piano lessons until she was in high school. Recently, she has started practicing again.

On October 24, 2007, Aoki married a dancer who is three years younger than herself after dating for half a year.

Television

Aoki occasionally presents her piano skills on TV, especially on her own late-night TV show Utsukushiki Aoki De Now.

She is currently one of the hosts for the music variety show, Music Fighter.

Regulars and Semi-Regulars

• Waratte Iitomo! Thursdays
• Waratte Iitomo! Zokango (Sunday Extra Edition)
• Uchi Kuru!?
• Quiz Presentation Variety Q-SAMA
• Utsukushiki Aoki De Now
• London Hearts
• Music Fighter

External links

• Her Agent
• Official Blog