Kenya Fraser

**Kenya Fraser** is the host of *Star Quality*.

## Biography

Kenya Fraser was born in Del Sol Valley on January 5, 1970. Her father, Leroy, worked in the Film industry as a director. Her mother, Fatoumata, was a Fashion stylist. Kenya is the oldest of three daughters, her sisters Jacqueline and Amina both work in the Film industry as successful actresses. Kenya never initially intended on joining her family's path by seeking fame, but after graduating from Britechester, she worked as a part-time commercial actress. This led to her foray into television hosting and presenting and she soon changed her mind about her career aspirations as an artist.

## Television career

Kenya's big break came when she was selected to be the host of six weekly comedy shows for the Power Aspiration Network. She was nominated for a primetime television award for this, and was later asked to be the host of the 1997 Primetime Accolades award ceremony and the 1998 Starlight Accolades award ceremony. At the 1998 Starlight Accolades, she presented the award for Album of the Year to Zuleyma Cordero for her album, "The Unconventional Marriage". Kenya received attention for her shocked reaction upon revealing the winner, which was called "the moment of the year", due to Cordero's surprising win with an album that had been considered a sleeper hit prior to the ceremony.

Afterwards, Kenya continued to host various television gigs and had a brief role as a co-host for "The Opinion", filling in for Haroldine Fischer during her maternity leave. Kenya returned to Power Aspiration Network as the executive producer for a music-review series, hosted by Tennille "Nils" Jones.

## Hosting Star Quality

Kenya was approached to apply for the role of *Simvivor* host by Power Aspiration executives. Although she was a frontrunner for the position, it ultimately went to film actor Reese Montanez instead, with Kenya being asked to host another, new, show by the network: *Star Quality*.

Kenya was locked into a five-year, five-season contract with the network. Because of *Star Quality* only filming and releasing one season per year, Kenya was allowed to take on other projects during the remainder of the year, but due to a non-complete clause in her contract, she remained with Power Aspiration only, retaining her role as executive producer for "New Hits Live".

During the first season of *Star Quality*, Kenya had received criticism for her "awkward" presence on stage during episodes that fans said did not warrant her appearance. As a result, some of Kenya's on-stage appearances were cut later in the season in favor of voice-overs that summarized events within the house. This was met with more positive reception and it was adjusted further for all upcoming seasons of the show.

Kenya also found herself in hot water after being accused of leaking that a male houseguest had won *Star Quality 1*. Since the show is filmed and aired separately, Kenya was profiled in an interview and expressed her disappointment that *Star Quality* was similar to *Simvivor* in that it doesn't have a strong female representative for the first season. This led to debate on whether Kenya's contracts prohibited her from speaking on the matter, but Kenya clarified her response from the interview on social media.

"I was asked whether I believed that [*Star Quality*] would succeed in the way that *Simvivor* did, and I responded that I wished the first season had more female representation. I believe that competition shows tend to favor male contestants, this is something that I've discussed with Reese [Montanez] in the past, especially about *Simvivor* ... leaking results is completely against my contract, I would never break those strict policies ... I apologize that my words were not better articulated."

## Personal Life

Kenya is currently married to her husband, businessman Richard Gutierrez. Kenya stated that she and her husband both decided to not change their last names upon their marriage in 1995 because they believe "it is an archaic symbol that perpetuates patriarchy."

Kenya has no children, having discussed her fertility issues on "The Opinion". She and her husband have expressed interest in adoption, but due to their time-consuming careers, have also spoken separately about waiting until a better time period in their lives to do so.