Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.
Jason Burke, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', 25 May 2008 She is best known for her 2009 novel '' Wetlands''.

Early life

Roche, the daughter of an engineer and a politically and artistically active mother was born in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

near London and raised in Germany. In 1983, when Roche was five years old, her parents divorced, an event and experience that she later incorporated in her novels ''Feuchtgebiete'' ('' Wetlands'') and ''Schoßgebete'' (''Wrecked''). She grew up in the

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); al ...

region, in a family with liberal views. Her primary school was in

Niederkrüchten Niederkrüchten is a municipality in the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km east of Roermond and 15 km west of Mönchengladbach. Elmpt The formerly separate settlement of Elmp ...

. In 1989, she went to the secondary school, St. Wolfhelm Gymnasium, in the neighbouring town of Schwalmtal. When she was 14 years old, she moved to

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...

, where she was educated at the Hugo Junkers Gymnasium in

Rheydt Rheydt () is a borough of the German city Mönchengladbach, located in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 1918 and then again from 1933 (due to a split from Mönchengladbach arranged by Joseph Goebbels, who was born there) through 1975 it w ...

. She left school after the 11th grade, at the age of 17. She obtained initial stage experience in drama groups during her time at school.

Career

Roche left home in 1993, still aged 17, and formed the garage rock group The Dubinskis with three female friends. The band never released an album, nor recorded any material, nor notably performed anywhere. There followed a period where she undertook anything that would shock and offend people—

self-mutilation Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury and self-mutilatio ...

to paint with blood, drug experiments, or shaving her head. After successfully auditioning for the German music channel VIVA, she worked there for several years as a

video jockey A video jockey (abbreviated VJ or sometimes veejay) is an announcer or host who introduces music videos and live performances on commercial music television channels such as MTV, VH1, MuchMusic and Channel V. Origins The term "video jockey" come ...

and presenter, as well on the sister channel

Viva Zwei Viva Zwei was a German music channel aired and distributed throughout Europe. The channel was launched on 21 March 1995 under the name "Viva II" as a second channel to the main channel VIVA in Germany and lasted until 7 January 2002, when it go ...

, where she presented her show ''Fast Forward''. In 2006, Roche played the female lead in the German film '' Eden'', directed by . The film was widely distributed in Europe. Also in 2006, Roche was featured on the single "1. 2. 3. ..." with German musician

Bela B. Dirk Albert Felsenheimer (born 14 December 1962),''Die Ärzte. Ein überdimensionales Meerschwein frisst die Erde auf'', p. 80 better known under his stage name Bela B (formerly Bela B.), is a German musician, songwriter, actor and author, b ...

, from Bela's debut album ''

Bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

''. In an interview published in '' Der Spiegel'' in 2010, Roche proposed to have sex with German president

Christian Wulff Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the ...

in exchange for his veto on a new regulation extending the life of nuclear reactors, highlighting the controversial extension, and Wulff's role in passing it into law.

Writing

Roche's book ''Feuchtgebiete'' ('' Wetlands'') was the world's best-selling novel at

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

in March 2008. Partly autobiographical, it explores

cleanliness Cleanliness is both the state of being clean and free from germs, dirt, trash, or waste, and the habit of achieving and maintaining that state. Cleanliness is often achieved through cleaning. Culturally, cleanliness is usually a good quality, as ...

, sex and femininity, and had sold over 1,500,000 copies in Germany by early 2009.Caesar, Ed
"Charlotte Roche is an unlikely shock artist"
''

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'' (f ...

'', 1 February 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2009. For supporters it is an erotic literary novel; for critics it is cleverly marketed shock fiction bordering on pornography with a previously exhibited habit of the author of offense for the sake of offense. Justin E. H. Smith wrote of the novel in a review in '' n+1'': "If Roche has hit on something true and heretofore unsaid, it is the insight that to write about bodily fluids is not to describe something exceptional in the course of human life. It is, rather, to describe something that is always there and always felt to be there, through all those other things people do and experience at that level that used to be the subject of novels (falling in love, challenging others to duels, talking about the buying and selling of land, etc).""Sea Slugs"
by Justin E. H. Smith, '' n+1'' (16 March 2009) Her second novel, ''Schoßgebete'' (''Wrecked''), was published in 2011. The novel makes reference to the death of her three brothers in 2001.Pidd, Hele
"Charlotte Roche revisits mix of sex and controversy in new novel, Schossgebete"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 16 August 2011, accessed 19 August 2011.

Personal life

In 2001, Roche's three brothers were killed in a traffic accident on the way to her wedding. Roche has a daughter, Polly, born in 2002, whose father was the producer and writer of Roche's programme ''Fast Forward'' and ''Der Kindergeburtstag ist vorbei!'' ("The children's birthday party is over"). Since 2007, Roche has been married to Martin Keß, co-founder of Brainpool, a media company in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. Living in Germany and fearing difficulties after the

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

vote, Roche became a German citizen in 2017.

References

External links