Lauren Toyota is a Canadian content producer and author. She originally gained prominence as a television personality. She is currently the host of the Hot for Food blog and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. Toyota was born in

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. She earned a diploma in Music Business Administration from

Durham College Durham College of Applied Arts and Technology is located in the Durham Region The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto a ...

. In 2005, she moved from Toronto to Vancouver to work as a television personality on the lifestyle magazine show

969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...

on Razer.

Career

Toyota worked as an intern for "SONY BMG" towards a Diploma in Entertainment Administration before landing her opportunity at Razer. She was also the host of

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...

Vancouver's modern global music video show ''Ethnosonic''. She was a MuchMusic VJ based in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, where she co-hosted and produced the show ''Going Coastal''. ''Going Coastal'' had been on

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

since 1986 but was canceled in November 2008. While working in Vancouver under the

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

umbrella, Toyota also acted as the West Coast Correspondent for ''Fashion Television'' in addition to producing for other CTVglobemedia specialty channels including

SPACE Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

, and etalk. She moved back to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 2009 where she worked as a freelance host/interviewer for a number of media outlets including MSN.ca, heavy.com, and

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets ...

. In 2010, Toyota started at

as a host and producer. She was a part of the stations new flagship show, ''

New.Music.Live. ''New.Music.Live.'' (often called ''NML'') was the hour-long flagship show of MuchMusic and the successor of '' MuchOnDemand'' which premiered on December 13, 2010 and ended on August 1, 2013. It was broadcast live from MuchMusic's studio at 299 ...

'' In 2012, Lauren started hosting her own show on MuchMusic called ''Today's Top 10'' which aired weeknights at 10pm ET. The show was cancelled in July 2014 as part of the

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

layoffs. In 2012, Toyota hosted the

Demi Lovato Demetria Devonne Lovato ( ; born August 20, 1992), known as Demi Lovato, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), Lovato rose to prominence for pl ...

documentary, ''Unbroken''. She made a guest appearance playing herself on ''

Degrassi ''Degrassi'' is a Canadian television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler in 1979. It is centred on a multigenerational teen drama about an ensemble cast of teenagers attending the namesake Toronto school as they navigate their ad ...

'' during the season twelve episode "Tonight, Tonight (Part Two)", which aired on November 23, 2012. Lauren was the co-host of ''After Degrassi'' on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

alongside Phoebe Dykstra which was also cancelled in July 2014. Since late 2014, Toyota has been working as a full-time YouTuber. She owns Hot for Food blog providing vegan recipes and cooking ideas. She also films personal vlogs on her eponymous channel. Toyota is part of Kin Community, a digital media company that promotes female content creators.

Vegan cookbooks

Ten Speed Press Ten Speed Press is a publishing house founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by Phil Wood. Ten Speed Press was bought by Random House in February 2009 and is now part of their Crown Publishing Group division. History Wood worked with Barnes & N ...

, an imprint of

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

have published two books by Toyota, ''Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes To Feed Your Face'' and ''Hot for Food All Day: Easy Recipes to Level up Your Vegan Meals''.

Awards and Accolades

In 2007, Toyota was nominated for a

Leo Award The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...

in the "Best Performance or Host in a Youth or Children's Program or Series" category. She was named Canada's Most Influential Vegan by IMPACT magazine, in 2017. She also appeared on the cover of the magazine in 2018.

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Vice Media. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Refinery29 i ...

included Toyota in their 2018 list of "Canadian Women Killing It". OptiMYz named her in their list of Top 100 Health and Fitness Influencers of 2019.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toyota, Lauren Living people Activists from Ontario Canadian television hosts Canadian women television hosts Canadian people of Japanese descent Canadian animal rights activists Canadian veganism activists People from Mississauga Vegan cookbook writers Year of birth missing (living people)