A. J. Benza Biography
A. J. Benza is a television broadcaster and gossip columnist from the United States. Since 2004, he has co-hosted High Stakes Poker with fellow poker pundit Gabe Kaplan.
How old is A. J. Benza? – Age
He is 61 years old as of 2 June 2022. He was born in 1962 in Bensonhurst, New York, United States. His real name is Alfred Joseph Benza.
A. J. Benza Family – Education
Shortly after his birth, Benza and his family relocated to West Islip, New York on Long Island. Rosalie and Lorraine are his sisters. Benza attended C.W. Post College on Long Island after graduating from West Islip High School in 1980.
Is A. J. Benza married? – Wife
He is now married and lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and two children, Roxy and Rocco.
What is the net worth of A. J. Benza? – Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $500 Thousand.
A. J. Benza Relationship with E!
Soon after leaving the paper, Benza was given a job anchoring Mysteries and Scandals, a show about genuine murders and celebrity scandals, which required her to relocate to Los Angeles. Benza popularized the slogan “Fame, ain’t it a bitch,” which eventually became the title of his memoirs. Between 1998 and 2000, the show aired for three seasons.In 2001, Benza had a late-night E! discussion show called A. J. After Hours, which was discontinued due to low viewership and critical contempt.
Benza punched Stern staffer “Stuttering John” Melendez in the face during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show the same year, alleging Melendez was screening out favorable listener calls about him. Melendez then made a prank call mocking After Hours’ failure, further aggravating Benza. The altercation resulted in Benza receiving a temporary ban from Stern’s show from WXRK general manager Tom Chiusano. He reappeared in October 2004. In 2002, he appeared in P.S. Your Cat Is Dead!, a comedy film directed and starring Steve Guttenberg.
A. J. Benza Career
Benza started writing for Newsday while she was in college. Soon after, she got a full-time job as a gossip columnist for that paper and, eventually, for the New York Daily News. He first appeared on E! as a gossip columnist. The Gossip Show on Entertainment Television in the middle of the 1990s. This resulted in appearances on numerous television talk shows, including Geraldo, Hard Copy, The Montel Williams Show, and The Maury Povich Show. Pete Hamill, the editor of the New York Daily News, later let him go. On ION Television in 2006, Benza was the host of the reality show Cold Turkey II.
Together with Gabe Kaplan, he hosted the first five seasons of High Stakes Poker on GSN as a co-host. For the show’s sixth season, Kara Scott, a poker pro, took his place. In a blog post titled “Flop, A Turn, and a River of Shit,” he wrote an open letter in which he voiced his dissatisfaction with GSN network executives.
For the first time since Season 5, Kaplan and Benza were paired in the commentary booth on PokerGO’s relaunch of High Stakes Poker in 2020.
Additionally, Benza appeared in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa as L.C. Luco. On the sixth season of Celebrity Fit Club, which aired on VH1, Benza shed 12 pounds.
Benza made an appearance on Fox Reality’s Gimme My Reality Show in 2008, a reality competition show that followed a group of D-list celebrities with previous experience competing for the opportunity to host their own show. But he left production in the middle of the show. He said that he didn’t want his young children to be watched by cameras in their home.
Simon & Schuster released Benza’s second book, 74 and Sunny, in 2015. It is a memoir about his childhood on Long Island. The film is expected to be directed by George Gallo, with Benza credited as the screenwriter.
The following year, Benza shifted his focus to film and was an executive producer on the film So B. It, which was based on the award-winning young adult novel by Sarah Weeks. In the summer, the movie had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. He agreed to host Demons in the City of Angels and Case Closed with A.J. Benza on ReelzChannel in the same year.
Benza appeared in the Amazon Prime series “Gravesend” as a guest star in 2020. RadarOnline and Star Magazine publish Benza’s columns. On PodcastOne, he broadcasts his daily podcast, Fame Is A Bitch, which is a mix of personal stories and Hollywood gossip.