I was desperate to go on Love Island but I’m glad they ghosted me, says GK Barry

TIKTOK star GK Barry has been announced as one of the 12 celebrities for this year’s series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

The podcaster will join Colleen Rooney, Danny Jones, and Maura Higgins in taking on bushtucker trials in the jungle.

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GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, appeared on the Working Hard, Hardly Working podcast to talk about her career.

Speaking to host Grace Beverley, she discussed her skyrocketing rise to fame during the pandemic and why she’s glad she was rejected from Love Island.

GK also shared the double standards she has faced as a female comic online and why she thinks she’ll inevitably be cancelled.

The 25-year-old shot to fame making story-time videos during the Covid lockdown and started her own podcast Saving Grace in 2022.

Ahead of her stint in the jungle, she has already sold out her live podcast tour, set to take place in February 2025.

Before she gained traction online, GK worked as a barista in Costa for three years while studying for her bachelor’s degree.

However, she struggled to think of a “realistic” career she wanted to pursue, dreaming of being famous from a young age.

She joked about how she studied Miranda Hart in an effort to become funny in secondary school

Describing herself as “ugly” and “buck-teethed,” GK pointed out how her lack of popularity was “character-building.”

“Everyone that I’ve met that is so incredible looking has got the personality of a Ryvita, there’s nothing to do them,” she explained.

While she joked that it took her until sixth form to gain any kind of popularity, her online presence grew much quicker.

She recalled how she went from 200,000 TikTok followers in December 2020 to reaching one million in April 2021.

“As soon as I hit one million followers, I was matching [my Costa wage] and then earning more,” she said.

“I remember always thinking when I hit one million I can relax a bit because I think people take you more seriously.

“It was so anti-climatic, nothing changed really but career-wise that was when I thought ‘I can probably do this full-time.’”

Finding her stride with self-deprecating story-times, Grace was signed to a talent agency and revealed her biggest dream.

“Funnily enough, when  I first joined my management they asked me what I wanted to do and, the cheek of me, I said: ‘My end goal is Love Island,'” she recalled.

“I got a call for it, I was ready to give my life, I had the interview, told them I spoke about chlamydia online, they never got back to me.

“But it was a blessing because now I think ‘What was the goal there, Grace?’

“You’re always stained with the Love Island stain and I want to go on to do other stuff and sometimes you don’t have that opportunity because they say: ‘That’s just a Love Islander.’

“I just want to be taken seriously so I’m glad that I didn’t do that.”

GK has rubbed elbows with Love Island’s most successful veteran, Molly-Mae, who she revealed was the first person to leave her starstruck.

“She came up to me and said she watched my videos and I thought I can die now,” she said.

“I remember being shocked, that was the first person that made me go I am on the FYP.”

Grace reflected on her early days as a TikToker, an unheard of career in the UK at the time.

“Nobody had a career off TikTok apart from Addison Rae and I was [thinking] ‘Obviously this isn’t a thing unless you’re dancing and American,'” she said.

“So I was just doing this [thinking] at some point I’ll have to pull something out of my a** and get a proper job.”

I’m A Celebrity 2024

As the hit ITV show enters into its 24th series, a brand new batch of famous faces look set to enter the Aussie jungle once again to face terrifying Bushtucker Trials and living amongst the critters in camp in order to come out on top and be crowned King or Queen of the Jungle. The Sun’s Jake Penkethman takes a look at the stars heading Down Under this year…

Coleen Rooney – Arguably the most famous name heading into the camp, the leading WAG, known for her marriage to Wayne Rooney, will be making a grand return to TV as she looks to put the Wagatha Christie scandal behind her. The Sun revealed the mum-of-four had bagged an eye-watering deal worth over £1.5million to head into the camp this year making her the highest-paid contestant ever.

Tulisa – The popstar and former X Factor judge looks set to be making a triumphant TV comeback by signing up to this year’s I’m A Celeb after shunning TV shows for many years. Known for being a member of the trio, N-Dubz, Tulisa became a household name back in 2011 when she signed on to replace Cheryl on ITV show The X Factor in a multi-million pound deal.

Alan Halsall – The actor, known for playing the long-running role of Tyrone Dobbs on ITV soap opera Coronation Street, was originally signed up to head Down Under last year but an operation threw his scheduled appearance off-course. Now he will be hoping to become the latest Corrie star to win over both the viewers and his fellow celebrities when he gets into camp.

Melvin Odoom – The Radio DJ has become a regular face on TV screens after rising to fame with presenting roles on Kiss FM, BBC Radio 1 and 4Music. He has already been for a spin on the Strictly dancefloor and co-hosted The Xtra Factor with Rochelle Humes in 2015 but now he is facing up to his biggest challenge yet – the Aussie jungle.

GK Barry – The UK’s biggest social media personality, GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, has transformed her TikTok stardom into a lucrative career. Aside from her popular social media channels, she hosts the weekly podcast, Saving Grace, and regularly appears on ITV talk show, Loose Women. She has even gone on to endorse popular brand such as PrettyLittleThing, KFC and Ann Summers.

Dean McCullough – A rising star amongst this year’s bunch of celebs, Dean first achieved notability through his radio appearances on Gaydio and BBC Radio 1. He was chosen to join the BBC station permanently in 2021 and has featured prominently ever since. He has enjoyed a crossover to ITV over the past year thanks to his guest slots on Big Brother spin-off show, Late & Live.

Oti Mabuse – The pro dancer has signed up to her latest TV show after making her way through the biggest programmes on the box. She origianlly found fame on Strictly Come Dancing but has since branched out into the world of TV judging with appearances on former BBC show The Greatest Dancer as well as her current role on ITV’s Dancing On Ice.

Danny Jones – The McFly star was drafted into the programme last minute as a replacement for Tommy Fury. Danny is the second member of McFly to enter the jungle, after Dougie Poynter won the show in 2011. He is also considered a rising star on ITV as he’s now one of the mentors on their Saturday night talent show, The Voice, along with bandmate Tom. A jungle insider said: “As well as bringing some of the star appeal of the group with him, he’ll be supplying some serious guy candy for the campmates and viewers at home.”

Maura Higgins – The Irish TV beauty first found fame on Love Island where she found a brief connection with dancer Curtis Pritchard. Since then, she has competed on Dancing On Ice as well as hosting the Irish version of the beauty contest, Glow Up. Since last year, she has been working on building up her career in the US by being the social media correspondent and host of Aftersun to accompany Love Island USA. She even guest hosted an episode of the spin-off, Love Island Games, in place of Maya Jama last year.

Jane Moore – The Loose Women star and The Sun columnist will be braving the creepy crawlies this year. The star is ready for a new challenge – having recently split from her husband. It will be Jane’s first foray into reality TV with the telly favourite having always said no to reality shows in the past.

Barry McGuigan – Former pro boxer Barry will become the latest fighting champ to head Down Under following in the footsteps of Tony Bellew and Amir Khan. It comes after a tough few years for Irish star Barry, who lost his daughter Danika to breast cancer. He told The Late Late Show in 2021: “She was such an intrinsic part of the family that every day we ache.”

Rev. Richard Coles – Former BBC radio host the Rev Richard Coles is set for I’m A Celebrity — and is ready to let rip at his old employer. The former Communards and Strictly star, 62, said the BBC did not know its a**e from its elbow last year.An insider said: “Rev Coles will have a variety of tales to tell from his wild days as a pop star in the Eighties, through to performing on Strictly and his later life as a man of the cloth.”

However, she soon found her stride and even began making sponsored content, though she said the pay wasn’t much to begin with.

“I had to sell these leggings because they make you’re a** look big,” she said, recalling her first paid endorsement.

“I haven’t got an a** but I was said: ‘My a** is flat but it looks a tiny bit peachy in these,’ and sold them out.

“Then I just carried on doing s**tty ads, [I got paid] absolute p**s all because nobody worked with TikTokers.

“The money was so bad, I had just quit my job thinking I was going to do it full-time and I thought ‘Maybe I’ll go back.’”

She added that Instagram influencers were “fuming” over TikTokers “taking their brand deals.”

And GK is all to aware that TikTok will inevitably follow suit in dipping in popularity.

“You’ve got to be self-aware, I know that TikTok won’t always be the app that it is now,” she said.

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“In a year, it’s probably going to be irrelevant and you’ve just go to find another way to be relevant, you’ve got to be creative.”

She said she is also waiting for the day where she will become the latest celebrity to get cancelled.

“I live in fear day and night [of being cancelled] but obviously I know that everyone has pretty much been cancelled or is going to cancelled, it’s just a thing,” GK said.

“Even when you go through life, you can’t not upset someone at some point.

“Sometimes you’ll say something and not realise maybe what you’ve said and it’ll upset some people but maybe it’s just the way you deal with it.

“The thing is on social media, people do actually feel like they know you so I think they do feel more hurt when you’ve done something wrong.”

However, she explained how GK Barry is actually “a very over the top version” of her personality.

“When people come up to you, you feel like ‘OK, let me just switch that on’ even if I’m having the worst day ever, I’ve still got to prove to them that I am actually funny in person.

Presenting for me is the end goal, I’d definitely say TV is where I want to end up.

GK BarryTikToker and podcaster

“Otherwise, they’re going to go back to their friends and be like ‘she was so boring.’

“And then when I get cancelled it will all come out, people will say: ‘Yeah, well when I met her once she was a boring b***h.'”

She added that being funny as a female leads to constant back-handed compliments and double standards.

“Do you know what really p**ses me off? When people message me and say: ‘You’re the only funny female I’ve ever met.’

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“I’m just thinking: ‘What kind of girls are you hanging around with because all the girls I know are hilarious.’

“You haven’t gone up to a man and gone ‘You’re really funny for a bloke.’

“There’s different levels to humour and I don’t think it matters if you’re a boy or a girl.”

And while the content creator is currently focused on her jungle adventure, she admitted that TV appearances are the direction she’d like to continue going in.

“I’d love to go to presenting my own series type thing, doing presenting for me is the end goal, I’d definitely say TV is where I want to end up,” she said.

GK shared how she hopes her professionalism will outweigh her often crass humour when it comes to developing her career further.

“I would say I’m intimidated in professional settings because I’ve never been in situations like that before so I don’t really know how to act,” she explained.

“I know people don’t take me seriously but they will after they’re worked with me.”

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