Who The Hell Is Joey Essex From ‘I’m A Celebrity’?
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! kicked off this week and while it’s fairly standard to not recognise every random local celebrity cast each season, generally the international stars are people most of us know. But this wasn’t the case this year with Joey Essex.
For a show that has hosted the likes of Hollywood types like Perez Hilton, Carson Kressley, and Tom Arnold, Joey’s inclusion in the new season has left some Aussie fans baffled. While he might be famous in the UK, not many people know him in Australia. Unlike former UK reality stars who have appeared on the Aussie series like Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby and Vicky Pattison, Joey hasn’t appeared on any shows that have gained much momentum over here.
This has left most viewers simply asking: who the hell is this handsome British man with perfect hair and blinding white teeth??
— chris (@chris65441880) January 4, 2022
"i'm joey essex" #ImACelebrityAU pic.twitter.com/plny6lI4Ee
— taryn ʕง•ᴥ•ʔง (@thereafter) January 4, 2022
As far as first impressions go, Joey’s debut on last night’s episode didn’t win him a new friend in Olympic medallist Emily Seebohm who had to help free him in a task. She didn’t vibe with how little he aided her as they had to tunnel through a maze of spiders and snakes. After they broke free, she even labelled him a “bit of a dick”.
lol. #ImACelebrityAU pic.twitter.com/nQYZTt8v6t
— #ImACelebrityAU (@ImACelebrityAU) January 4, 2022
Savage! While Australia and Joey’s campmates might not understand him, it will probably help to find out a little more about where he came from. Because tbh, he’s actually a huge deal in the insular world of UK reality TV.
Who is Joey Essex?
Joey first rose to prominence on The Only Way Is Essex (available to stream in Australia on Hayu), which is a low-key British institution that has run for over a decade with 28 seasons and counting. Affectionately known as TOWIE, the rather trashy and over-the-top series has made household names out of the likes of Gemma Collins and Mark Wright.
Joey debuted way back on Season 2 and quickly won fans over for his wholesome yet naive approach to life. He even coined his own new word “reem”, which he later turned into a rather baffling dance song featuring groundbreaking lyrics like “You wanna look reem, smell reem, be reem. Reem.”
After leaving TOWIE, Joey’s unique personality would translate to a load of different spin-offs and popular reality shows. In the past decade, he’s become a fixture on British screens appearing on Celebs Go Dating, Celebrity SAS, Celebrity MasterChef, and Celebrity Ex On The Beach. Joey also starred in a BBC documentary Grief and Me, which saw the TOWIE star exploring his past in an effort to come to terms with the death of his mum who tragically took her own life when Joey was 10 years old.
He appeared on the UK version of I’m A Celebrity, placing fourth and gaining popularity for saying things like, “So the rainforest, it obviously rains on purpose, dunnit?” and “I’m not a confrontational person. I’ll only ever confrontate someone if it’s for a purpose.”
If you haven’t noticed by now, Joey is a total himbo — or at least, that’s the character he plays on TV.
The reality star even had a show called Educating Joey Essex, which was about teaching Joey about the world as he toured South Africa. At one point during the season, he thought one of the country’s cities Soweto was pronounced “So Waitrose”, which is a popular supermarket chain in the UK. A review of the series wrote that Joey’s “stupidity is so pure that it could signal the next stage of human evolution”.
Along with his wholesome himbo persona, Joey is known for how quickly he falls in love with women on reality TV. He dated and even became engaged to TOWIE star Sam Faiers during his stint on the show in the early 2010s. After meeting Lorena Medina on Celebrity Ex On The Beach in 2019, the pair dated until early 2020. He was also rumoured to have been romantically linked to I’m A Celebrity co-star Amy Willerton, who was previously Miss Universe Great Britain.
And watch out Australia, as Joey has said that “If I find someone single in the camp and fall in love, I’ll be the happiest man on earth.” It just so happens that the only single camper on this year’s season so far is former Miss Universe Australia contestant Maria Thattil. Imagine that!
I wonder what are the chances of these two crazy kids getting together?!
Stay tuned!