Raquel Roxanne "Rocsi" Diaz also known as just Rocsi, is an Honduran-born television and radio personality and model. She is best known as the co-host on the

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

program ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rate ...

'' from 2006–2012. She was a correspondent on '' Entertainment Tonight'' during 2012–2014, where she was billed as "Rocsi Diaz".

Early life

Diaz was born in

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

, Honduras but moved with her family to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. She is of Honduran and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an descent. Rocsi announced on

on July 30, 2009, that she suffered from

anorexia Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...

during her years in middle school and high school due to her love for cheerleading. She graduated from West Jefferson High School in

Harvey, Louisiana Harvey is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. Harvey is on the south side (referred to as the "West Bank") of the Mississippi River, within the New Orleans– Metairie–Kenner metropolitan sta ...

.MacCash, Doug.
Back in town: Rocsi Diaz comes home to tape her hit BET show '106 & Park'
, ''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of ...

'', 2007-07-06, p. 12. She graduated from Nicholls State University.

Career

After growing up in New Orleans, she launched her career in Dallas, Texas, as a host on the city's premier urban radio station, 97.9 The Beat. Here, Rocsi cultivated a unique, street-smart style that caught the attention of Boston's Hot 97.7, where she later became a DJ. In 2004, she moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where she was hired as midday-hour DJ at radio station Power 92 WPWX-FM, and was known as "The Midday Mami".

Television

Diaz appeared on ''

MTV's Fear ''Fear'' (promoted as ''MTV's Fear'') is an American paranormal TV, paranormal reality TV#Supernatural and paranormal, reality television series that originally aired from 2000 to 2002 on MTV and spawned the genre. The program follows a group of ...

'' as a contestant in 2000.

personalities

AJ Calloway A. J. Calloway is an American entertainment journalism, entertainment reporter. He is known as the original host on ''106 & Park'', which originally aired on BET. After co-hosting the show for five years with Free Marie, Free (Marie Wright), Cal ...

and Free left the network on July 28, 2005. They were replaced by

Big Tigger Darian "Big Tigger" Morgan (born December 22, 1972), also known as Big Tigg, is an American television/radio personality and rapper best known as the host of BET's '' Rap City'' and ''106 & Park''. Biography Morgan was born to a Jamaican immigra ...

and Julissa Bermudez. They left and Rocsi on July 6, 2006 won the role of co-host of BET's ''

'' along with

Terrence J Terrence Jenkins (born April 21, 1982) is an American actor, television presenter, model and entertainment reporter best known as the host of BET's popular music video countdown show ''106 & Park'' from 2006 until 2012.MacCash, Doug. "Back in ...

. The show can be seen in over 85 million homes in

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, United Kingdom,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Africa, Caribbean, and Japan.Coleman, Chrisena. "The Hottest 'Nerd' on TV: Star from Queens Seen by Millions Around the World", '' New York Daily News'', 2008-04-15. For the debut in Japan, she and co-host Terrence J taped footage there, and appeared on

MTV Video Music Awards Japan The MTV Video Music Awards Japan (MTV VMAJ for short) are the Japanese version of the MTV Video Music Awards. Like the MTV Video Music Awards in the United States, in this event artists are awarded for their songs and videos through online votin ...

. In 2007, Rocsi starred as a BET News correspondent in '' Def Jam: Icon'', but only appears in cutscenes on TV and not in fighting mode. On 19 November 2012, Diaz joined '' Entertainment Tonight'' as a daily correspondent and weekend co-host. In June 2014, Diaz was awarded a

Daytime Emmy The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (N ...

award as part of the cast for ''Outstanding Entertainment News Program''. On 17 September 2014, Diaz was let go from the show as CNN's

Nischelle Turner Nischelle Renee Turner is the co-host of ''Entertainment Tonight'' (2014–present) and '' Secret Celebrity Renovation'' (2021–present). Previously she was former entertainment correspondent for HLN's ''Showbiz Tonight'' and CNN and an enterta ...

was hired. In August 2013, she was recognised by the National Council of La Raza: Nuestro Pueblo. She received the Ruben Salazar Award for Communications. On 23 January 2015, Diaz announced she had been hired by

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

's HLN. She is the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

contributor to their show ''The Daily Share'' that airs from 12-5 PM EST. In August 2015, she marked the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by returning home with cameras. She showed how her childhood street was bare of homes. Diaz serves as the host to the third season of ''

Dating Naked Dating is a stage of Romance (love), romantic relationships in which two individuals engage in an activity together, most often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls i ...

'' on VH1 replacing the original two-seasoned host Amy Paffrath. Diaz provided color commentary for

Cannonball A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

alongside Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, who called the play-by-play. In 2021, she became the host of the new Fox reality singing competition '' Alter Ego''.

Personal life

She has been a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

since college and appeared in a PETA ad campaign promoting the diet.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Rocsi Living people People from Tegucigalpa Honduran emigrants to the United States West Jefferson High School (Louisiana) alumni Nicholls State University alumni American television hosts American women television presenters 1981 births American people of Chilean descent American people of Honduran descent People from New Orleans