Tyra picks up a Montrealer

Lydia Patel’s reactions at a strange party won her a spot on Banks’s show

By KATHRYN GREENAWAY, The Gazette October 28, 2009

Not long after she showed up for the mixer, Montrealer Lydia Patel (a TV graduate of The Montreal Radio TV School ) knew something was wacky.

“The guy talking to me kept telling me how hot I was,” Patel said yesterday during an interview from New York City. “He must have said it six different ways in about five minutes. He said he was from Bowling Green, Ky.”

Yes, there is a Bowling Green, Ky., but the young man wasn’t really trying to pick her up. He was playing a role.

Patel was sent to the social mixer by her New York agent. She knew it was some sort of audition, but didn’t have all the details. Producers for the Tyra Show were videotaping the event, monitoring the guests’ reactions to cruising techniques.

Patel’s reaction to the man’s advances, plus her style and looks, won her a spot on the show. The episode featuring her segment airs on Citytv today at 10 a.m.

The Tyra Show targets young women with its mix of health, fashion, relationship and fitness segments and celebrity interviews. Host Tyra Banks is a former super-model, the creator and host of America’s Next Top Model and head of her own production company.

The 24-year-old, who grew up in N.D.G. and LaSalle and graduated from Royal West Academy and Marianopolis College, went on to study at The Montreal Radio TV School . She began to co-host In the Zone, a locally produced reggae and soca entertainment show, before she finished the one-year radio and TV program.

Patel - whose father was born in Trinidad and mother in Barbados - also worked with the Caribbean-themed channel MTV Tempo (now called Tempo TV).

She has no idea what impact her Tyra Show appearance might have on her hosting and producing career.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “I’ve never experienced working in front of a live television audience before. It was definitely intense. When it was over, I didn’t remember anything I said.”

She is currently working for SPR Productions, a media and public relations firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles that helps organize exclusive parties for stars including Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna, among other events.

“In this business, it’s not so much how you are certified or where you studied, but how hard you work and how persistent you are,” Patel said.

The Tyra Show, featuring Lydia Patel’s appearance, airs today at 10 a.m. on Citytv.
kgreenaway@thegazette.canwest.com

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