Maya Jama has revealed she was turned down for a part in the teen drama Skins when she was still at school.
During a new interview with The Guardian, the Love Island host revealed that when she was 14 or 15 and growing up in Bristol, she came close to landing a part in Skins.
However, she lost out after feeling uncomfortable kissing a prospective co-star in her audition.
“If I’m really honest with you I didn’t get it because I was too frigid to snog the boy properly,” she revealed.
“He was going to be my boyfriend in the show, and I was shy. I was just awkward, kissing someone on camera at that age. I was so awkward.”
In 2020, Maya told Metro: “At school, I always wanted to act, that was my first dream to be an actress and I did loads of auditions. I was around 14 or 15 and I had a few close calls to be in things like Skins nearly, and I did a couple of adverts and little things.
“Skins came to my school to audition but then that didn’t really happen. So then when I moved to London, I was kind of open to whatever, and then realised that presenting is more suited to me because the characters that I was playing at a young age were basically just me.”
After making a name for herself in the presenting world, Maya made her screen acting debut in 2020, when she landed a part in Katherine Ryan’s short-lived Netflix sitcom The Duchess.
She’ll next be seen in action as the host of the second All Stars edition of Love Island, which returns to our screens on Monday night.
During its six-season run between 2007 and 2012, Skins provided a launchpad for a number of burgeoning young British actors who have gone on to achieve big things.
These include Nicholas Hoult, Kaya Scodelario, Dev Patel, Jack O’Connell, Joe Dempsie, Luke Pasqualino, Olly Alexander and Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya.