Aliya-Jasmine Sovani was born on November 18, 1981 in Ottawa, Ontario. Sovani is multilingual and speaks, to some extent, five languages.

While growing up in Ottawa, this unabashed hockey fan attended Confederation High School where her visual arts program allowed her to study abroad in New York, Los Angeles and Italy. She has also traveled to many places around the world from Cuba to Taiwan. After graduating from John McRae Secondary School, Sovani moved on to attend the University of Waterloo and then the University of Ottawa where she obtained her bachelor of arts, with a major in broadcast communications.

While in University, Sovani juggled studying with a full-time job as a writer for a national men’s magazine. Eager to dive into the world of television, Sovani moved to Toronto for an internship at Fashion Television while taking night classes at Ryerson University. Determined to learn more about the industry, Sovani took any part-time gig to pay her dues and learn the ropes, including cable-wrangling for Star! TV. Her hard work paid off and she soon became a field producer and host for BPM:TV. Sovani later returned to Chum Television as a producer for MuchMusic.

MTV Career

Since landing her latest job as one of eight hosts on MTV, Sovani has interviewed celebs including Kanye West, Brad Pitt, Dave Navarro and Perry Ferrell among others. In addition to her co-hosting responsibilities on “MTV Live,” Sovani is also a segment producer for the show. She has produced social segments featuring issues such as the war in Africa and body image; comedy segments including shopping for coffins; and a reoccurring home design segment called Budget:Cribs based on the hit MTV show “CRIBS.”

If she wasn’t working at MTV, this self-described feminist believes she would be working on philanthropic initiatives abroad. For the last few years she has volunteered her time teaching English and social skills to Afgan children who have recently arrived in Canada. She hopes to one day meet more young women living in Afghanistan because “they’ve seen so much at such an early age – they’re so complex and interesting.”

In addition to helping young immigrants adjust to their new lives in Canada, Sovani also hopes to devote more of her time to other causes that are important to her, such as women’s rights and issues, racial equality and animal rights. In the future, she hopes to produce documentaries that illustrate the struggles of women living in third world countries.

Sovani credits her mother, who is a director general for the Canadian government and a philanthropist, for inspiring her. “My mom paid her way through law school by modeling. She’s proof that being hot and smart are not mutually exclusive for women.” Sovani claims her strongest influences are her parents and rock ‘n roll. In fact, she owes her existence to rock ‘n roll – her parents fell in love at a KISS concert.

Grateful for this challenging learning opportunity, Sovani says, “Working at MTV has allowed me to do what I’ve always dreamed of doing. From sky diving to meeting the musicians who live in my iPod, I’ve learned so much about people, the world and myself. And above all I’ve learned that I’m still learning. You think you know, but you have no idea,” she says with a wink.

On Air

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Image:Aliya-jasmine sovani 001.jpg|First Episode of MTV Live on MTV Canada
Image:Aliya-jasmine sovani 002.jpg|First Episode of MTV Live on MTV Canada
Image:Aliya-jasmine sovani 003.jpg|First Episode of MTV Live on MTV Canada
Image:Aliya-jasmine sovani 004.jpg|Interviewing Kevin Zegers
</gallery>

Previous Career

Was a writer for UMM Magazine in Ottawa before embarking on her broadcasting career.

Intern for Fashion Television.

Production Assistant & Cable Wrangler for Star! TV's show Look-a-like.

Production Assistant for MuchNews, on MuchMusic.

Hot Field Producer for BPM:TV.

Producer at MuchMusic.

Host and field/segment producer for MuchMusic's VJ Search (many of her pieces never made it onto the reality-show because she left MuchMusic for her current job at MTV).

References

External Links

MTV.ca BIO

Aliya-Jasmines MySpace