Rochelle Rao was born in Chennai in 1988.. She holds a BSc. Electronic Media Degree from M.O.P Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai.

Rochelle Rao competed in the fifth Pantaloons Femina Miss India South pageant in January 2012 where she was first runner up. She lost the title to Shamata Anchan. She later participated at Femina Miss India and emerged as the Femina Miss India International 2012 winner. She has also won three subtitles. "Miss Glamorous Diva", "Miss Ramp Walk", "Miss Body Beautiful". She represented India at Miss International 2012 pageant held in October 2012 (Okinawa, Japan) where she ranked ninth out of 68 countries.

She won the Femina Miss India International 2012 crown. Prior to this she was a model and anchor in Chennai. Rochelle was crowned by the outgoing titleholder Ankita Shorey.

She later turned host for season six of the Indian Premier League. Currently living in Mumbai, she has anchored various events and TV shows. She has also featured in many men's magazines.^[10]

She was featured in the February 2014 page of the Kingfisher calendar.^[11]

In August 2013, Rochelle was seen in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa season 6 which aired on Colors as a wild card entrant. She did not get chosen for the show as she did her performance.

She was also seen in season 5 of the show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi in 2014. She was the second contestant to be eliminated from the show that was hosted by Rohit Shetty. In late 2014 she was seen on an adventurous travel show on Fox Life called Life Mein Ek Baar along with Evelyn Sharma, Pia Trivedi and Mehak Chahal.^[12]

In 2015, Rao became a contestant on the popular Indian reality TV series, Bigg Boss 9 along with boyfriend Keith Sequeira.^[13][14] She was paired with Prince Narula but later changed with Rimi Sen. She was one of the strong contestants and became a finalist.^[15]

Rao is currently playing vairious roles in the popular comedy show The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony TV which started on April 2016.^[16]