Sayaka Aoki (comedian)

Sayaka Aoki (青木 さやか or 青木 沙耶加^?, Aoki Sayaka, born March 27, 1973) is a Japanese TV star, comedian, and actress from Owariasahi, Aichi Prefecture (born in Seto in the same prefecture). Both of her parents are primary school teachers. After graduating from Nagoya Gakuin University, she began her comedian career. One of her co-workers is Hidekazu Nagai.

Aoki is a daughter of two elementary school teachers. After attending Aichi Prefecture Seto High School, she went on to the Foreign Language Faculty at Nagoya Gakuin University with a concentration in Chinese. After she graduated from college, she attended the Television Talent Center in Nagoya.

She started her career by working as a free announcer at a local TV station and as an attendant to a TV star. When she landed an introductory spot in a late-night TV show, she introduced herself as wanting to become a "funny TV star" which was taken as an aspiration to become a comedian. Since then, she has turned her career to a comedy star. At one time, Aoki was part of a five-person comedy group called Onsen Konnyaku Acrobat Show. After leaving this group, she went back to working solo. She was scouted by Watanabe Entertainment's President, Miki Watanabe, when she guest starred in a Watanabe Entertainment Comedy Live Show. She relocated her life and career to Tokyo.

Aoki's popularity grew around the fall of 2003 as she started appearing in Fuji TV Network's Warau Inu No Taiyo (The Sun of the Laughing Dog), NepLeague and TV Asahi's Out of Order, thanks to the strong promotion by her agency. She also grew popular by performing comedy sketches on Enta no Kamisama (The God of Entertainment) which is a gateway TV show for comedians. Aoki furthered her career by taking on acting and narrating roles in addition to her comedian career. Aoki was the first person ever to host the FNS ALL STARS: 25 HRS TELEVISION as an official Fuji TV Announcer (which was designated just for this occasion) and read the last notes.

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