Love Island bosses have begun unveiling the cast for this year’s upcoming winter series.
It’s all change at the Bafta-winning reality show in the lead-up to its ninth season, with a new January slot in the schedule, a new villa in South Africa and a new host in Maya Jama, who’s been a favourite to front Love Island among fans of the show for a number of years.
With a week to go until the new villa opens its doors, ITV has begun revealing the Islanders looking for lasting love (or, at the very least, a Boohoo deal) this time around.
Get to know the new cast a little better below, and keep checking back as more will be announced over the course of the day…
Tanya Manhenga
Job: Biomedical science student and influencer
She says: “I’m looking for a boyfriend and I think being in a villa with lots of different people will help me work out who it is I may want.”
Tell us something people might not know? “I have Vitiligo, which is a skin pigmentation, you may not even notice it. It’s on my lip and I have a stripe on my hair.
“Not many people know that but I think it’s quite cute. I don’t care about covering it up all the time, I think it’s a vibe.”
Kai Fagan
Job: Science and PE teacher
He says: “I’m looking for the right girl. I feel like I have quite high expectations. I don’t feel I should commit to someone unless I’m absolutely buzzing over them, because it’s not fair on them.”
Tell us something people might not know? “I’m a Jamaican citizen. Because of that I played rugby 7s for Jamaica. I play semi-professional rugby now for Burnage RFC.
“I’ve technically got three different degrees and went to three different unis.”
Lana Jenkins
She says: “I fall in love quickly. I tend to know quite soon if I could fall in love with that person and then, as long as everything is going well, I’ll probably tell them I love them in about a week.”
Tell us something people might not know? “When I was six-years-old I used to live in Spain and I was in an episode of Benidorm as an extra.”
Love Island returns on Monday 16 January at 9pm on ITV2.
