About Aliza Roche
Aliza Roché was born as Aliza Marie Roach on January 27, 1988 in Stratford, New Jersey. The only daughter of single mother Christina Louise Roach, and is the older half-sister of Jonathan Matthew Roach. She attended Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School in West Deptford, New Jersey from Kindergarten through 6th grade.She has French, Irish, English, Eastern European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern ancestry.Roché is an old maternal family name that was switched to Roach when the family came to America sometime in the 19th century.At a very young age, Aliza would seek out the arts in it's many forms: theater, film, singing, dancing, music, drawing, painting, etc. as a means to "escape" the pressures of growing up in a difficult home. Also, she was bullied in school for looking different, for having an alcoholic mother, not knowing who her biological father was, and for being poor; she claims that the arts, theater in particular, were her "Saving Grace" growing up. She expressed that, "Acting was the only ray of sunshine in my dreary, unhappy childhood." She was encouraged by her maternal grandparents, Robert "Bob" and Dorothy "Dottie" Roach, to attend plays, musicals, symphonies, operas, live performances and museums at an early age to expand her cultural and artistic understandings. Little did they know how much of an impact they would have on her.Her family moved to a small farming town, Siler City, North Carolina, in 2000 for a new beginning. While in middle school and throughout high school she was an honors student and very involved in extracurricular activities: volunteering, church, sports, theater classes, performed in various school productions, joined choirs, and participated on a dance team. The family could tell that the arts were calling her name. In fact, Aliza knew from the time she was 5 years old that she wanted to pursue an acting career. She later confessed, at 14, to her family and friends that she wanted to pursue a career on Broadway. However, it was understood that she would have to wait until she graduated from high school to pursue her ventures; and, in the meantime, her home-life and relationship with her mother improved, and she enjoyed the rest of her schooling years and lived a typical small-town life.Everything seemed promising for the aspiring young actress-in-training, but then, an unfortunate and tragic event occurred during her senior year while attending Jordan-Matthews High School. At 18, she was a victim of a serious car accident which totaled her vehicle and sent her to the hospital for nerve damage sustained on her lower back. She got through the rest of her senior year without hardly anyone at school knowing the immense daily pain she was in. The pain, physical therapy and prescription medications would unfortunately go on for many years. And because of her poor physical condition, Aliza did not pursue Broadway; instead she decided to attend college locally. She attended Meredith College, which is the largest all-women's liberal arts college in the Southeast. Though she tried to pursue a degree in theater while dealing with the issues of her lower back, it was apparent that her physical condition, and the mental and emotional toll it took on her, would not allow that degree to happen. Seriously discouraged, she gave up acting and the arts all together. She switched majors multiple times in a desperate attempt to find a new career. She eventually settled with a BA in Communication and graduated from...