Rochelle is a Professional Hollywood Stunt Woman, Actress, Best Selling Author, Motivational Speaker and Co-Owner of Tristar Vancouver Martial Arts. She 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 became a member of and competed internationally for the Great Britain Gymnastics Team at the age of 9. In 1996, she 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 she would continue her career on the Canadian National team. Rochelle, however had other plans. She resigned from gymnastics, attained a B.Sc. degree in Psychology from the University of Northern British Columbia in 2006. She graduated among her peers a year early, both at high school and University. After completion of her degree and graduation, Rochelle worked with and counselled children and youth with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses and behavioral issues in and outside the school system for several years.
In an effort to keep challenging herself physically and mentally, Rochelle journeyed into the world of martial arts; training and competing in the disciplines of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and fulfilling an amateur and professional Boxing career and went down in history as having the first, female professional boxing bout in British Columbia. She also attained a Personal Training Diploma and began helping others achieve their fitness goals. Rochelle is now the co-owner of a successful and very well known MMA gym located in Vancouver, BC, Canada known as, Tristar Vancouver Martial Arts. It is home to some of Canada’s greatest MMA talent and home to UFC athletes and National Champions. Tristar Vancouver Martial Arts is also the National Training Center for the Canadian National MMA team.
After embarking on all of her athletic endeavours, education and over coming a life filled with adversity, Rochelle, also now graces the stage and teaches others through her motivational talks and books that there is beauty in pain and that light can only be understood with the wisdom of darkness. Through self-love and introspection, we are all capable of becoming the best versions of ourselves. She delivered an empowering and successful Tedx Talk in 2018 that resulted in a standing ovation and can be viewed on YouTube.
