Maya Jama

Jama was born and raised in Bristol, where she attended Cotham School.[2][3] She is of Somali descent on her father's side and Swedish descent on her mother's side.[4] Her mother, Saide, was 18 when she gave birth to Jama, and she named her after the US author and poet Maya Angelou.[5] She also has a brother, Omar. Aged 12, Jama decided to stop visiting her father in prison and for a decade blocked him from her thoughts. As a young child, she says, she didn’t really notice it being a problem, “because it was normal for me. My dad’s side of my family was super-supportive and they did everything in their power to make me and my brother not feel like we were missing out on anything''.[6] While working on the 2017 documentary "When Dads Kill", which dealt with young people's similar experiences to her own childhood, she relented and examined her relationship with her own father, in an attempt to elicit answers directly from him, but they were not forthcoming at that point.[5]

She moved to London at 16 to pursue a media career, first as an actress, then as a TV presenter and as a fashion model.[7] Jama remains close to her mother and on occasion, the two appear on talk shows together and attend private celebrity events.[8]Acting had been Jama’s first ambition, but she realised, quickly and correctly, that becoming a presenter might suit her better. Her role models included Davina McCall, “finding out that she’s been through her own struggles [with drug addiction] and made it out the other end”. And June Sarpong, the broadcaster and the BBC’s director of creative diversity: “Seeing a black woman as a presenter on TV, feeling like: ‘Yeah, I can do that too.’”[9]

Jama began her career early, as a teenager. She presented the weekly music video countdown on JumpOff.TV in London. She then worked for Sky on TRACE Sports and was later a weekday DJ on Rinse FM. In August 2014, Jama joined MTV as a presenter for The Wrap Up.[1] Additionally, she hosted Copa90's Maya's FIFA World Cup Cities,[10] a travelogue covering the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Jama, likewise, co-hosted the channel's nine-part World Cup Taxi series dedicated to the event.[11][12]

In September 2017 and February 2018, Jama was a guest panellist on ITV's Loose Women.[13] In November 2017, she also became the youngest person to co-host the MOBO Awards on Channel 5 with fellow presenter Marvin Humes.[14] She has also worked closely with The BRITS, hosting their 2017 Pre-BRITS Party and hosting a live Facebook stream from the Red Carpet.

Jama co-presented the Saturday night game show Cannonball on ITV with Andrew Flintoff, Frankie Bridge, Radzi Chinyanganya and Ryan Hand also in 2017.[15]

In spring 2018, she joined BBC Radio 1, presenting Radio 1's Greatest Hits on Saturdays and co-presenting every Friday with Scott Mills and Chris Stark.[16] Later that year, she was accused of colourism after an offensive 2012 tweet mocking 'dark skinned' women resurfaced; Jama subsequently apologised for the tweet.[17][18]

She hosted her first ever TV show on MTV's True Love or True Lies with Dani Dyer, and The Circle on channel 4 with Alice Levine. She went on to co-present Stand Up to Cancer with long-standers Alan Carr and Adam Hills and, in October 2018, Maya became the team captain on ITV2 rap panel show Don't Hate the Playaz presented by Jordan Stephens. Since then, she has appeared on shows such as A League of Their Own Road Trip and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

She presented her BBC Radio 1 show on Fridays and Saturdays 10:00am–1:00pm GMT, which recently brought Maya to our screens with her first appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, alongside punk legend Iggy Pop and British comedian Jack Whitehall. Jama has also dabbled in acting and comedic roles.[19]

Aside from presenting, Jama has gone on to become an ambassador for lingerie brand Freya and hosting their podcast, When Life Gives You Melons. She also launched her own collection with fashion brand Pretty Little Thing in summer 2018, followed by a second collection in February 2019. She is an ambassador for Adidas, appearing in the European JD Sports Christmas campaign and also an ambassador for the Australian hair care brand, Aussie Hair. She also appeared in a global GAP campaign and in a Spring/Summer 2019 campaign for Kurt Geiger.

In 2018, Jama became an ambassador for Savera UK which operates across the United Kingdom to provide services to individuals from black ethnic minority communities who are at risk of domestic abuse. In 2019, she donated blood for an NHS campaign and was found to have the rare and in demand Ro blood subtype.[20]

In November 2019, she won the People's Choice Award for best dressed star.[21] Jama later opened and hosted the 2020 EE BAFTA red carpet in a 5G powered AR dress.

In May 2020, the BBC confirmed that Jama had left Radio 1 after two years. She said she had "a lot of exciting commitments" planned for her future, which meant she couldn't continue with her broadcasting segment at Radio 1 deciding to mutually end her Radio 1 contract.[22] In early June 2020, she began co-presenting the Saturday evening BBC One TV programme Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer. In December 2020, Jama confirmed that she had become a millionaire two years ago, at the age of 24, thanks to her television and radio presenting roles and a fashion line and range of skincare masks, clothing collections with JD Sports and PrettyLittleThing, and modelling for brands including Kurt Geiger, Gap, Maybelline and Adidas.[23]

On 14 January 2021, the BBC announced that Jama would be the new presenter of Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make Up Star. Jama will replace former presenter Stacey Dooley, who presented the first two series of the programme.[24]

Between 2015 and 2019, Jama was in a relationship with British rapper Stormzy; their break-up inspired his 2019 song "Lessons".[25] Jama currently lives in West London. She is a keen football fan and supports both Bristol Rovers and West Ham United.[26]

• Maya Jama at IMDb