Maya Jama: 'My dream acting role is to play a monster or villain'

She might be one of the most recognisable faces on British TV as the host of Love Island and a panellist on The Masked Singer, but Maya Jama is ready to take the leap from presenter to leading lady.

The 31-year-old tells the BBC she has "a second wind of ambition" to make it as an actor, after failing to break into the industry before she became an established presenter.

"I dreamt of being an actor when I was younger and would try and do all these auditions and would get loads of no's," she adds.

'I don't want to be what people expect on camera'

She says she "wasn't as persistent as I should have been" when it came to trying out for different roles and easily "got disheartened", thinking "maybe this isn't for me".

Jama, who lives in Manchester with her partner, Manchester City footballer Ruben Dias, auditioned for cult Channel 4 series Skins when she was 15, getting to the final stage for a role in the show that launched the careers of Daniel Kaluuya and Dev Patel.

She then moved to London when she was 18 and says she started off "making teas and working at a production company, using their cameras on lunch breaks".

Her early jobs mostly involved presenting YouTube and social media videos, before moving into TV a few years later - co-hosting ITV game show Cannonball and the MOBO Awards in 2017, then reality show The Circle and ITV2 panel show Don't Hate the Playaz a year later.

"I always remember when I started being like 'how on Earth am I going to get on primetime TV as a girl from Bristol doing YouTube videos' - it seemed like a massive reach," she added.

Jama continued to book presenting roles, whilst also hosting radio shows on Rinse FM and BBC Radio 1 between 2017-2020.

Her biggest break came in 2022, when she became the host of Love Island, taking over from Laura Whitmore.

"I naturally fell into presenting when I was young because I got to be myself on camera and I'm interested in humans," she says but "now it just feels like the doors opened up again [to get into acting]".

Jama says she is "ready to do something else after presenting for so long" and says she doesn't want to play roles that are similar to how she's perceived in real life.

"My dream role is something completely opposite to me," she says.

"I've always said I don't want to be what people expect me to be on camera. I'd want to be the complete opposite to that so a monster or a mean, evil person. A villain maybe would be nice".

Jama, who will return to the Love Island villa as host in the summer, has a career path strikingly different to the contestants she meets on the dating show, who are often able to leverage their fame to get media opportunities.

She acknowledges that "some people go on TV shows and can start a [media] career that way" but also understands that for the majority of those hoping to break into the world of TV, it's not that easy.

"I feel like if you are from an underrepresented background or don't live in London it can seem really impossible to sometimes get in a room," Jama says.

Jama is currently running a six-month mentoring programme for young women from underserved backgrounds across the UK, which aims to provide connections in the TV production, broadcasting, marketing, fashion and talent management industries.

Speaking to her ahead of a networking event, she says it has been "such a great opportunity to get girls in from all over the UK".

"Hopefully there can be a spiral effect of welcoming more young people into these spaces and giving them opportunities to have a career in those fields".

"My dream would be to have thousands of young people [take part] one day," she adds.