The Great British Bake Off 2024: Who are the contestants?

On your marks, get set, BAKE! Meet the new GBBO contestants

Bake Off is back! The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) returns with the first episode of the 15th series on our screens tonight.

Judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are back to rate the contestants bakes, with presenters Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding also returning.

There will be 12 new contestants entering the tent this year to prove they are the best, but will they rise to the occasion, or will it end with a soggy bottom?

Let's take a look at the aspiring bakers...

Andy

Andy is a car mechanic from Essex who has loved baking since he was a child.

He likes playing football, going to the gym and loves a long walk with his partner Nickie, his daughter Maisie and their miniature schnauzer Arthur.

He hopes he can inspire his daughter to follow in his baking footsteps.

Christiaan

Christiaan was born in the Netherlands and studied fashion in Amsterdam before moving to the UK to pursue his career.

He likes visiting art galleries, working on his vegetable garden, and dancing in his kitchen.

He likes floral and citrus flavours and is big on baking bread, which reminds him of the birthday bakes his mum used to make him.

Dylan

Dylan is from Buckinghamshire and he loves skateboarding and travelling.

He is very proud of his roots as his mother is Indian and his father is Japanese–Belgian. He likes to experiment with sweet and spice in his bakes, inspired by his heritage.

He has also picked up his mum's love of art, and enjoys painting Japanese anime characters on his clothes.

Georgie

Georgie is a children's nurse who lives in a Welsh farmhouse in Carmarthenshire with her husband, three children, ten chickens, two ducks, two dogs and a cat!

She is a lover of the Italian baked sweet cannolis and says her love of food comes from baking with her Italian Nonna as a child.

Georgie enjoys foraging for ingredients in nature and loves to sing along to musicals in her kitchen.

Gill

Gill from Lancashire is convinced that her technical skills, precision and her creativity are a perfect match in her baking.

Her love of baking goes back to her childhood, and she enjoys baking pies, cakes and her dad’s signature lemon meringue pie, which she now bakes to help raise money for charity after he passed away.

A fun fact about Gill is that in 1993 she was the UK’s youngest ever driving instructor, aged 21.

Hazel

At 71 years old, Hazel, from Kent, is the oldest contestant on the show this year.

She loves to get her big family together for dinners and parties and enjoys playing bingo.

Hazel's secret skill is making detailed cakes. In the past, she has made ‘car’ cakes with remote-controlled wheels and working lights. Her granddaughter’s seventh birthday cake was a carousel with 500 edible diamonds that took Hazel two weeks to make!

Illiyin

Illiyin is a midwife and author from Norfolk who lives with her sister, nieces, her Spanish husband and her two children.

She grew up in London as one of eight siblings and soon became the go-to member of the family for baking birthday cakes.

She loves using Middle Eastern ingredients like dried fruits, nuts, honey, rose and mint in her cakes, and her savoury bakes are inspired by the flavours of the Caribbean.

Jeff

Former university teacher Jeff lives in Yorkshire with his wife.

Originally from New York in the US, Jeff arrived in the UK in 1979. He moved to be with his English girlfriend (who is now his wife), whom he met while she was travelling across America and he was a sports coach for a summer camp.

Jeff still loves sports and enjoys swimming, going to the gym and going for walks.

He uses his US heritage to his advantage and says he can bake a great New York cheesecake.

John

John lives in the West Midlands with his pet dog and works for the NHS.

He learnt to bake from his nan and now enjoys passing on this skill to his two young nephews.

John enjoys baking classic dishes with a twist and likes to use herbs and other flavourings to give his bakes something different.

Mike

Mike is a farmer from Wiltshire, working on his family farm alongside his parents and sister.

He is a champion for the LGBTQ+ community within farming, has grown all of the flowers for his upcoming wedding to his partner Matt, and is even baking his own wedding cake.

Mike likes to make hearty, filling bakes for parties and gatherings and enjoys using seasonal ingredients and edible flowers from his farm.

Nelly

Nelly is a care assistant from Dorset who lives with her husband Farhan and her two children.

She grew up with her dad in Slovakia, where she learnt how to bake bread, then moved to Austria to study nursing.

Nelly enjoys adding Slovakian flavours into her bakes, as well as spices from her husband’s Pakistani heritage – apple and cinnamon are her favourite ingredients.

Sumayah

At 19 years old, Sumayah is the youngest contestant on the show this year.

She lives in Lancashire with her parents and siblings and is training to be a dentist.

She enjoys sewing and making her own clothes and has recently taken up photography.

She baked an impressive macaron tower for her aunt’s wedding celebration that stood a metre tall and included 240 macarons in four different flavours!