Aja Leith (IDW)

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## Characteristics

### Born

♉ May 18th, 1992
Age 23

### Instruments

* Lead guitar
* Backup vocals

## Family

* Emmett Benton (father) †
* Jacqui Benton (mother) †
* Jerrica Benton (sister)
* Kimber Benton (sister)
* Shana Elmsford (sister)

## Personal Status

### Affiliation

* The Holograms
* 5x5 Records

## Portrayals

### Cartoon

* Cathianne Blore (speaking)
* Various (singing)

### Live Action

Hayley Kiyoko

***Aja Leith*** is one of the main characters of IDW Publishing's *Jem and The Holograms*. She plays the lead guitar and is one of the backup vocalists for her band Jem and The Holograms. At the end of the series, she is the girlfriend of Craig Phillips.

## History

Aja and her sisters were first introduced when they where they were attempting to film a music video as a band, The Holograms, until Jerrica got severe stage fright and ran off stage. This caused an argument between Aja and Kimber, which Jerrica overheard, and she fled back to their home. Aja, Kimber and Shana set off home in the rain to try and find her. They found her in their home studio, and met Synergy, who introduced herself as an A.I. designed by their father, Emmett Benton. While demonstrating her abilities to the girls, Synergy temporarily turned Shana and Aja into holographic copies of Kimber. They then witness Jerrica transform into Jem for the first time (*Showtime, Part One*).

Now renamed Jem and The Holograms, the sisters recorded their music video with Jem as their lead singer, which they submitted to the *Misfits VS!* competition, where their song *MoreMoreMore* very quickly became one of the most popular entries. The girls visited the Starlight Community Center to watch The Starlights practice, and Ms Bailey asked them them to perform a benefit concert for The Starlight Foundation (*Showtime, Part Two*). Kimber told Aja and Shana about how much she liked Stormer, without revealing her name to them, and they gave her advice (*Showtime, Part Three*). The Holograms performed the benefit concert, but it was sabotaged by Clash, who has deliberately tampered with a large overhead lighting rig. The rig was aimed at Jem, but Aja pushed her out of the way and took the hit. She spent the night in hospital and was discharged with an injured wrist (*Showtime, Part Four*).

Some days later, with her wrist healed, The Holograms practiced Kimber's song *Bad Bitten* in their home studio. They then headed for the *Misfits VS!* concert, where they roamed around the festival grounds. Aja won a large stuffed Sunset Shimmer plush toy at a shark-themed shooting gallery. She then accidentally collided with Craig Phillips. The two flirted, and he offered to buy her a funnel cake. After meeting back up with the band, Aja and her sisters were involved in a huge food fight with The Misfits, because Kimber recognized Clash and the band assumed The Misfits were involved in Aja's accident (*Showtime, Part Five*). This caused The Holograms to be disqualified from the competition for poor behavior, so instead, they performed their own concert outside the *Misfits VS!* concert grounds, which drew The Misfits' crowd away (*Showtime, Part Six*).

Aja went on a dirt-biking date with Craig, and the two kissed (*Viral!, Part One*). The Holograms signed a record contract to become a part of 5x5 Records, and threw a costume party to celebrate their first music video release (*Viral!, Part Two*) Aja and Craig both attended the party dressed as Furiosa from *Mad Max: Fury Road*. The Holograms were later invited to be the opening act for The Misfits on their West Coast Tour (*Rio Pacheco, Boy Reporter*) On a hot January day, The Holograms had a pool party at their home, and Aja found out that Craig is Stormer's brother. Meanwhile, Jerrica is infected by Silica, who is acting through Synergy. Jerrica then ushered her sisters away from the party and infected them, too (*Dark Jem, Part One*)

Now fully under Silica's control, The Holograms went on to infect The Starlight Girls at the Starlight Community Center. Then leave for the West Coast Tour, and infect the whole audience of the tour's debut concert performance (*Dark Jem, Part Two*). Backstage, Aja ignored Craig, which both hurt and confused him. Jerrica breaks free from Silica's control and teams up with Rio and Craig to try and catch her sisters so that they can't hurt anyone else. Aja bit Craig when he tried to grab her. The infection wore off after being incapacitated for 6 hours (*Dark Jem, Part Three*). The Holograms agreed that they needed to disconnect Synergy]]. Aja snuck out from their hotel room that night to visit Craig at his hotel and apologies to him. She threw rocks at hotel windows until she found his room, and he jumped from his balcony into her arms. Later, realizing that Kimber was missing, the girls went after her only to find that Silica had broken free from Synergy and created her own form, with the help of The Sickness. Synergy incapacitated The Holograms before Silica could fully reinfect them again (*Dark Jem, Part Four*)

It became clear that now Silica had made The Sickness build her own, separate system, de-activating Synergy would not be enough to stop Silica. Pizzazz returned to The Misfits with a plan, and the two bands joined forces and played together as one supergroup, to disrupt Silica's performance. The performance was a success; the shock of the unexpected performance was enough to break Silica's hold on the audience. Jerrica was able to active a signal jammer from backstage, which deactivated Silica for good, and broke the hold on The Sickness and all other remaining victims (*Dark Jem, Part Six*).

## Cartoon Continuity

Aja was voiced by Cathianne Blore, and first appeared in the 1985 *JEM* episode *The Beginning*. In the cartoon, Aja Leith was the lead guitarist and back up vocalist for Jem and the Holograms. She was the girlfriend of Craig, who she first met in the episode *The Talent Search, Part One*. They met while she had been dropping off flyers at a music store seeking a new drummer, after Shana left to further her career in the fashion industry. In the episode *Out Of The Past*, it was shown that Aja was the first to be fostered into the Benton family when she was 11 years old, the same age as Jerrica. Aja was seen to have a knack for machinery, computers and cars and tended to be the primary driver for most things concerning Jem and The Holograms or The Starlight Girls. She was also shown to be quite athletic, teaching sports and exercise workouts for the group and girls when she could. She was very loyal to her adoptive family and was known to show a stubborn and unreasonable side when she feels her family may be at risk.

## Appeared in

* *Showtime, Part One*

* *Showtime, Part Two*

* *Showtime, Part Three*

* *Showtime, Part Four*

* *Showtime, Part Five*

* *Showtime, Part Six*

* *Outrageous Annual (2015)*

* *Holiday Special*

* *Valentine Special*

* *Viral!, Part One*

* *Viral!, Part Two*

* *Viral!, Part Three*

* *Rio Pacheco, Boy Reporter*

* *Dark Jem, Part One*

* *Dark Jem, Part Two*

* *Dark Jem, Part Three*

* *Dark Jem, Part Four*

* *Dark Jem, Part Five*

* *Dark Jem, Part Six*

* *Ch-Ch-Changes, Part One*

* *Ch-Ch-Changes, Part Two*
* *Enter The Stingers, Part One*

* *Enter The Stingers, Part Two*

* *Enter The Stingers, Part Three*

* *Enter The Stingers, Part Four*

* *Enter The Stingers, Part Five*

* *Outrageous Annual (2017)*

* *Truly Outrageous, Part One*

* *Truly Outrageous, Part Two*

* *Truly Outrageous, Part Three*

* *Infinite, Part One*

* *Infinite, Part Two*

* *Infinite, Part Three*

* *Infinite, Part Four*

* *Infinite, Part Five*

* *Infinite, Part Six*

* *Jem: Dimensions #1*

* *Jem: Dimensions #2*

* *Jem: Dimensions #3*

* *Jem: Dimensions #4*

## References

1. ↑ **Tumblr:** IDW Jem Character Birthdays

## Navigation

 Main Series
Jem: Dimensions: 01 • 02 • 03 • 04