How Bristol shaped Maya Jama before her TV fame

Maya Jama’s childhood in Bristol helped shape the television career that later made her one of the UK’s most prominent presenters. Her appearance in the final of The Celebrity Traitors has renewed attention on her early life, including the ambitions she pursued from a young age and the financial pressures her family faced.

Born in St Paul’s in 1994, Jama grew up around Stokes Croft and later Cotham and Redland, attending Cotham School. Her mother worked several jobs, and Jama has said free school meals were a major help; at 16, she moved to London to seek work in entertainment. She started in music and online broadcasting, joined MTV in 2014, became the youngest MOBO Awards host in 2017, presented on BBC Radio 1 from 2018 and took over Love Island in 2023.