Cleo Rocos

Header image for Kenny Everett Television Show-interview on the Daily Express website

### Born

24 July 1962
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

### Portrays

Deborah Kedding

**Cleo Rocos** is a UK-based comedy actress, producer, presenter and businesswoman who starred alongside Kenny Everett on *The Kenny Everett Television Show*.

## Early life

Rocos was born in Brazil. Her father was Greek and worked in shipping, and her mother was English. She came to England as a child to attend school. She took acting classes whilst at school, and a chance meeting with BBC director Alan Bell and Head of Light Entertainment Jim Moir led to an audition for a new television show.

## Television career

### Early career and Kenny Everett

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Rocos appeared regularly on television, from a minor role in the TV adaptation of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* to being a roving reporter for the consumer affairs show *That's Life!*. She was most frequently seen in Kenny Everett's BBC series *The Kenny Everett Television Show*, in which her glamorous and curvaceous figure was often used to comic effect – a role echoed by her similar appearances in the 1985 TV sketch series *Assaulted Nuts*. As she was 15 upon meeting Everett, she lied about her age in order to get onto The Kenny Everett Video Show on itv.(1978) Rocos went on to remark in 2013 that the show would not be made in modern times on account of "professional campaigning women with thick ankles and shrill ovaries who have nothing better to do than to police people’s opinions". She also appeared, playing a white-coated lab assistant, alongside Everett in BBC1 science quiz series *Brainstorm*, which ran for one series in 1988. Marcus Berkmann described the pair as "two reticent, rather formal people who loved to play and perform but valued their privacy above all else."

### Later work

From the late 1980s to early 1990s, Rocos starred in a Welsh comedy show on S4C called *Pobol y Chyff*. Rhys Ifans and Meirion Davies played the main characters.

An occasional sidekick to 'shock jock' DJ James Whale on late-night ITV in the early 1990s, she fulfilled a similar role with TV critic Garry Bushell on ITV nocturnal TV-review series *Bushell on the Box*. She also made a few appearances in the Ugly Bloke slot, as an incongruously glamorous escort to physically unattractive males, on Chris Evans' Channel 4 series TFI Friday in about 1996.

Other TV credits include an acting role in US drama series *Highlander*, presenting and co-producing a short Channel 5 series on the dresses of Princess Diana (whom she knew personally), participating in BBC game shows such as *Wipeout*, *Blankety Blank* and *Ready, Steady, Cook*, and partaking in Channel 5's karaoke show *Night Fever*. She also starred in Leigh Francis' TV series *Whatever I Want* as herself, as did Big Brother host Davina McCall. Rocos later appeared again with Francis, on Bo'! in the USA, the US version of *Bo' Selecta!*.

Although her television work became less frequent after Everett's 1995 death, during the late 1990s she presented quirky reports from exotic locations for the long-running ITV travel show *Wish You Were Here...?*.

### 2000s and 2010s

In 2002-3 she presented and produced a travel show for Five called *Cleo Worldwide*, and she spent much of summer 2006 recording a new travel show for television about the wonders of the world.

In 2007, Rocos entered the *Celebrity Big Brother* house and remained in the house until the final week. She was voted off the show on 26 January 2007 as part of a surprise joint eviction along with singer Jo O'Meara, a former member of pop group S Club 7.

On 30 December 2007, Rocos was interviewed on Sky News as a "friend of Benazir Bhutto", the recently assassinated Pakistan politician.

On 2 January 2010, she appeared on the BBC celebrity special of *Total Wipeout* and on 2 May 2010, she appeared on the Watch game show, *Scream If You Know the Answer*. In October 2011, she was a participant in Channel 4 show *Come Dine With Me* and was joint winner with the pop singer Pete Burns.

In 2013 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity with Robert Llewellyn and Kevin Warwick.

In 2014 (a few weeks before the World Cup association football tournament in Rio de Janeiro in June), she narrated the three-part observational series, 'Welcome to Rio', which aimed to reveal the truth about the city's famous shanty-towns, the favelas, through the lives of people who live there. Rocos narrated the programmes saying 'we', indicating her connection with Rio.

In 2017 she appeared in a Channel 5 reality show, Celebrity 5 Go Motorhoming.

## Radio, music, producer and film

Rocos is an occasional presenter for BBC Radio London. She has collaborated on some pop music singles, such as *Love Dilemma* in the 1980s – a traditionally-crooned number with the Enrico Valdez Orchestra – and 1993 dance track *Back to Love* with the band Vertigo (which disbanded when they learnt that their music was the last thing a woman murdered in Manchester had listened to). She is not named on the latter's sleeve, beyond a small co-writing credit.

She co-produced a revival of *The Seven-Year Itch* for the London stage, starring Daryl Hannah, in 2000. In 2005, Rocos produced *...Sex Actually*, a special episode of *The Comic Strip Presents* in which a murder occurs amongst a group of swingers.

Her film credits include Mel Brooks's 1981 comedy *History of the World, Part I*, the 1983 comedy horror spoof *Bloodbath at the House of Death* (with Kenny Everett), Lindsay Shonteff's *Number One Gun* (1990), and *Baby Juice Express* (2004).

## Writer

Rocos' autobiographical book *Bananas Forever: Kenny Everett and Me* (co-authored by Richard Topping), detailing her relationship with Everett, was published in 1998 but later reissued under the title *Kenny and Me*. She has contributed travel articles to publications such as *The Daily Telegraph*.

Rocos's book *The Power of Positive Drinking*, published by Random House, covers how to drink well and avoid the pitfalls.

## Business career

In 2012 Rocos launched a premium brand of tequila called AquaRiva, made from 100% 'Weber Azul' agave.