Debbie Rochon - Biography

Biography

Rochon's early life was fraught with tragedy and misfortune. After her parents were deemed unfit to raise her, she was remanded to foster care at the age of 10. Shuttled from one foster home to the next, Rochon ran away to live on the streets in and around Vancouver. When she was aged 14 and still homeless and living in the streets or in homeless shelters, she was attacked and robbed by another homeless man who assaulted her with a knife and slashed her on her upper right arm, leaving Rochon with a large vertical scar that is still visible to this day.

In 1981, alerted to an open casting call by a fellow homeless youth, Rochon attended and was cast as a rock concert extra in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains starring Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Ray Winstone. At that point, she realized that acting was going to be her life. By age 17, she had saved up enough money to move to New York City. Early on, Rochon worked with numerous off-off Broadway theater companies, performing in over 25 stage productions. She garnered her first printed review in Back Stage which read: "Debbie Rochon acquitted her self well as the cocaloony bird in Tennessee Williams' The Gnadiges Fraulein."

Feeling that she was ready to move full time to her first love, film, Rochon focused on the cinema and has worked on over two hundred independent features. The Hubcap Awards founder Joe Bob Briggs crowned Rochon runner-up Best Actress of the year in 1994 for her work on the Canadian-lensed Abducted II: The Reunion. In 1995 she was recognized for her work as the conniving television producer in Broadcast Bombshells, winning the prestigious Barbarella Award.

She was a featured guest player on Fox’s New York Undercover. In 2002 Rochon was crowned Scream Queen of the Decade (1990–1999) by the horror genre publication, Draculina magazine, based on reader voting. She also received Best Psychette Award 2002 (Best Female Psycho in a Movie) for her work in American Nightmare. Since that time she has won over a dozen more awards for her film work.

She is perhaps best known for her work with Troma Entertainment. First appearing as "Edna Purlmutter" for the satirical The Troma System, she went on to appear in Tromeo and Juliet, Terror Firmer, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV and multiple episodes of Troma's Edge TV. In November 2006, Troma released a "Buy and Burn" DVD at EZtakes.com called Debbie Rochon Confidential, featuring never before seen footage from Debbie's years working with Troma. In 2011, when this digital DVD became a physical DVD, this title became a constant best seller at Troma's web site.

In 2003, while working on an unreleased film in Tennessee, Rochon suffered an accident with a prop machete which resulted in the near-severing of the four fingers of her right hand. After extensive surgery and physical therapy, she has regained limited use of the hand and continues to sport visible scarring.

In 2004, Rochon won MicroCinemaFest's "Best Comedy Actress" award for her work in Dr. Horror's Erotic House of Idiots.

She also co-hosted the 2005 Village Halloween Parade with Dee Snider. The following year, she and Snider began broadcasting Fangoria Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio, a weekly talkshow detailing the latest in horror movie news and reviews. The show lasted for 4 year from 2006 till 2010 when Fangoria was forced to streamline their company due to budgetary restraints of print publishing. She appears regularly at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors conventions, s well as many others, promoting her films.

2008 saw the world premiere of new horror ventures, including the Michigan-made film DOG, Savaged, The Colour from the Dark, Psychosomatika and Beg. She can also be seen in the After Dark-released film Mulberry Street, directed by Jim Mickle, which had a theatrical run as part of the Horrorfest series in 2007.

Rochon resides in New York City and works for the horror magazines Fangoria "((Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope magazine))" and ((Tenebre Magazine)).

One of the most critically acclaimed titles of Rochon's is the Italian-made H.P. Lovecraft-based film Colour From The Dark in which she plays the possessed wife of a farmer during the war-ravaged period 1943.

She appeared in a 2009 documentary Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror.

In 2009, Rochon starred as "Alice" in Slime City Massacre, a follow-up to the cult film Slime City, both directed by Gregory Lamberson. She presented the movie on the Premiere at 2010 Beloit International Film Festival on 18 February 2010.

Rochon appeared as herself in the 2008 novel Bad Moon Rising by Jonathan Maberry. She is one of several real-world horror celebrities who are in the fictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack. Other celebrities include Tom Savini, Jim O'Rear, Brinke Stevens, Ken Foree, Stephen Susco, Joe Bob Briggs, James Gunn and blues man Mem Shannon. Rochon portrayed Madam Won Ton in the horror comedy film Won Ton Baby!, she stars in the James Morgart film alongside Gunnar Hansen which is set for release in 2011.

On the Wednesday, December 9, 2009 Howard Stern Show, listeners learned that Debbie appears in a new feature film by Sean Pomper Productions, "Killer Hoo Ha." Howard confirmed that Sal the Stockbroker and Richard Christy both have roles in the film. On Friday, December 11, 2009 Brimstone and producer Sean Pomper were guests on Rochon's Fangoria Radio show and discussed the film. The cast of the film includes Brimstone, Gina Lynn, Lloyd Kaufman, Leilene Ondrade, and Erik Chopin. Sean Pomper announced that Killer Hoo Ha will be a horror trilogy.