Gemma Collins

In 2011, Julie Childs, mother of Collins' friend Amy, informed producers of the ITV2 reality series The Only Way Is Essex about Collins, who was a used car sales woman at the time.[5] They went to Collins' house and then filmed her and her friends for two weeks.[6] After going back to work selling cars for a week, she was cast in the programme and began appearing in The Only Way Is Essex from its second series in 2011; her first ever scene was selling a car to Kirk Norcross.[6] While appearing on the programme, Collins opened her own self-titled clothes boutique.[7] Her mother Joan joined in the fifth series in April 2012.[8]

In June 2013, Collins released her debut autobiography Basically: My Real Life as an Essex Girl, which became a bestseller in its first week of release.[9] In November 2014, she took part in the fourteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! on ITV.[10] After she refused to parachute into the jungle along with her cast mates, she withdrew after spending 72 hours in the jungle, allegedly due to health issues.[11]

On 5 January 2016, she entered the Celebrity Big Brother house to participate in the seventeenth series.[12] On 2 February 2016, she became the seventh housemate to be evicted, having received the fewest votes to be saved, spending a total of 29 days in the house.[5] In 2017, she returned to Big Brother, as a special guest for a shopping task, alongside fellow ex-contestants Marnie Simpson and Nicola McLean.[13]

In October 2017, Collins presented the BBC Radio 1 Teen Award for Best TV Show to Love Island, and after announcing the winner, she fell through the opening in the stage.[14] The clip later went viral on social media.[15][16] In an interview with Irish News, Collins said "the seriousness of it is, it could have been really fatal".[17] After the video's widespread attention, further videos of Collins were used as memes, including scenes from her appearances on The Only Way Is Essex and Celebrity Big Brother.[5]

In 2018, Collins appeared on Celebrity 100% Hotter,[18] as well as the fourth series of Celebs Go Dating.[19] Collins also appeared in Gemma Collins: Diva España, a one-off reality television special aired on 29 August 2018.[20] Collins also took part in Celebrity MasterChef, and guest starred in a promotional advert for Netflix's Orange Is the New Black.[21] In 2018, she released her second book, titled The GC: How to Be a Diva, in which she provides advice and self help for women to gain confidence.[22] In an interview on Loose Women, she admitted to using a ghostwriter.[23] Collins then collaborated with fashion website Boohoo.com on a collection of swimwear for plus-sized women in 2018.[24]

In 2019, Collins took part in the eleventh series of Dancing on Ice, alongside professional partner Matt Evers.[25] While competing in the series, Collins had an on-screen argument with judge Jason Gardiner, who made comments about her weight and lack of commitment to the series.[5] Collins was the fifth celebrity to be eliminated in Week 6, after a skate-off against Ryan Sidebottom.[26] In April 2019, Collins began filming for her own reality series, Gemma Collins: Diva Forever.[27] The series premiered on 7 August 2019 on ITVBe.[28] The pilot episode premiered to a total of 673,038 viewers, and was the most watched episode on ITVBe in that week.[29] Diva Forever was subsequently renewed by ITV for a second series,[30] but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was suspended.[31] As a result, Collins filmed a new reality series, Gemma Collins: Diva on Lockdown, from her home in Brentwood.[32] In August 2019, Collins began hosting a podcast on BBC Sounds, titled The Gemma Collins Podcast.[33][34] In September 2019, Collins released her debut perfume, Diva Pink.[35]