Jane Grace Isoken Omorogbe (born 20 September 1971) is a British model and actress, perhaps best known as Rio on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

s ''

Gladiators A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

''; she is a TV presenter and motorcycling

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Early life

Omorogbe was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

but her family moved to

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, when she was five. After leaving school (Claverham Community College, Battle) Omorogbe was an

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

driver and has a certificate in advanced first aid. Her parents are

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

immigrants.

Modelling

Omorogbe modelled bridal gowns for Geddes-Muir Designs, and was signed by Martin Enterprises - Studio 17 modelling agency in 1994. In 1995 Omorogbe entered the ''Miss Wessex'' beauty contest. She won the title of Miss Wessex and was entered into the

Miss United Kingdom Miss United Kingdom is a title held by the highest-ranked contestant from the UK in the Miss World pageant. The winner sometimes competes at Miss International the following year under the ''Britain'' or ''United Kingdom'' banner. From 1958 ...

final, although she didn't win the title. In 1996 she was in the top 6 of the "Babe of '96".

Television career

Omorogbe appeared in ''The Sun'' as a finalist in Miss United Kingdom, where she was spotted by ''Gladiators'' referee John Anderson, and was asked to audition. She was not considered fit/strong enough, so she quit her ambulance job and left Hastings to train with a

Taekwando ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

expert, in order to pass the rigorous fitness test required by

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

. After five months of training, Omorogbe passed the tests to become Gladiator Rio. After taking part in six series of ''Gladiators'' from 1996 until 2000, she turned her love of motorbikes into a career. She presented numerous shows in quick succession to gain experience, including ''Car Crazy Rio'', ''Top Bikes'', ''Two Wheels'', ''Revved Up'', ''Teen Trials'', ''Top Gear GTi'', ''Pit Stop Bikes'', ''Pulling Power'' and ''Fran's Angels''. Like

Suzi Perry Suzi Perry (born 3 May 1970) is a British television presenter, currently covering MotoGP for BT Sport. She is best known for covering MotoGP for the BBC for 13 years, ''The Gadget Show'' on Channel 5 for 8 years and the BBC's Formula One cove ...

and Fran Robinson before her, she was the pit-side reporter for Live Speedway on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. She is the Grid and Pitside Reporter for

’s

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

coverage, having covered

British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom, and was once widely acknowledged as the p ...

for them. She has also presented ''House Race'' for

with

Mike Brewer Mike Brewer (born 28 August 1964) is an English car trader turned presenter of Driving, motoring television programmes. He currently presents ''Wheeler Dealers'' on the Discovery Channel (UK and Ireland), Discovery Channel with Marc "Elvis" Pri ...

, and was an auctioneer on

Bid tv Shop at Bid was a British television shopping channel that ran daily auctions and later fixed price demonstrations. It was the world's first channel of its kind. It launched as ''Bid-Up.tv''. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping. History Bi ...

Writing

Omorogbe is the main motorbike reporter for '' The Sun'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' newspapers. She writes motorbike reviews for the

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency, and the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and re ...

. These reviews are published by a variety of publications, including the motorbike section of

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

Cars.

References

External links

*
Bio at her agents website
1971 births Living people Actresses from Newcastle upon Tyne English beauty pageant winners English television presenters English journalists Motorcycle journalists Black British fashion people English people of Nigerian descent {{England-bio-stub