NADIYA Hussain shot to fame when she won Bake Off back in 2015.
Fast forward, and Nadiya is now a celebrity baker and influencer, who is never far away from our TV sets.
Who is Nadiya Hussein and how old is she?
Nadiya Jamir Hussain is a British-Bangladeshi TV chef, author and television presenter.
She was born on Christmas Day 1984 in Luton, Bedfordshire, in a family with five other children – three sisters and two brothers.
Her father was a chef who owned an Indian restaurant.
Her mother had no interest in food, however, and used the family oven for storage.
Nadiya nevertheless developed an interest in cooking during her school years.
She then taught herself how to cook by reading piles of recipe books and watching instructional videos on YouTube.
She has an obsession with fish fingers, claiming to have once eaten 18 in a row and this led to one of her most creative dishes – fish finger lasagne.
The star baker later married and moved to Leeds, where she began studying for an Open University degree.
But it was her stint in The Great British Bake Off that put Nadiya on the map and made her known and loved by the British public.
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and the culinary arts.
What TV shows has Nadiya been on?
In 2015 Nadiya was crowned the winner of The Great British Bake Off.
She was the sixth champion of the hit show.
During the final, she baked 16 iced buns, a raspberry-flavoured mille-feuille, and a multi-layered cake called “My Big Fat British Wedding Cake”.
During her acceptance speech, she said: “I’m never gonna put boundaries on myself ever again. I’m never gonna say I can’t do it.
“I’m never gonna say ‘maybe’. I’m never gonna say, ‘I don’t think I can.’ I can and I will.”
Nadiya regularly appears on The One Show on BBC One as well as Loose Women.
She had her own cookery show, The Chronicles Of Nadiya in 2016.
She then went on to front another series in 2017 called Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, in conjunction with a book of the same name.
The show followed her on a road trip around Britain to discover traditional and quirky British dishes before recreating them back in her kitchen.
The baker hosted the Big Family Cooking Showdown on the BBC with Zoe Ball in 2017.
From July 2018 she hosted Nadiya’s Family Favourites on BBC Two – a show with recipes for family and friends.
In 2019, she appeared in a six-part series on BBC2 called Time To Eat which explored delicious quick to make meals on a budget.
Nadiya also appeared on the Big Family Cooking Showdown.
She addressed her own mental health struggles in Nadiya: Anxiety And Me where she tried to find the source for her anxiety and treat it.
In 2020, Nadiya launched her own show Nadiya Bakes, in which she shows viewers how to create classic bakes but with modern twists.
She also hosts Nadiya’s American Adventure.
In 2021, Nadiya began hosting Nadiya’s Fast Flavours which looks at simple and quick recipes for the everyday person.
In February 2022, Nadiya sat down for an hour-long conversation with Kate Garraway on Life Stories, talking in-depth about her life, career and struggles with bullying and mental health.
In 2022 she was back on TV with her hit BBC Two show, Nadiya’s Everyday Baking.
As well as being a TV star, Nadiya is also an author.
She wrote a children’s book of stories and recipes, Bake Me A Story, as well as novels including The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters.
She is also Contributing Editor to BBC’s Good Food, as well as writing a monthly column for The Time Magazine.
Her recipes have also featured in BBC’S Good Food magazine as well as The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine, The Guardian and The Telegraph.
Is Nadiya married and does she have children?
Nadiya’s husband is Abdal Hussain, a technical manager at Computer Sciences based in Leeds.
They married in 2004 when she was 19, in a traditional ceremony in Bangladesh.
The couple had an arranged marriage – having only met once before the big day.
Referring to the arrangement, Nadiya said “It’s tough – you are pretty much marrying a complete stranger…we had to live through the good and the bad, and have come out the other side.”
In December 2018, the devoted husband and wife decided to marry each other again.
The couple have three children – two sons and a daughter – Musa, Dawyd. and Maryam.