The Great Kenyan Bake-Off
Season 2 BBC Lifestyle (*174) 20:00 Reality
As the co-host in baking reality contest The Great Kenyan Bake Off, June Gachui walks around the white tent and ensures that the contestants remain calm during the challenges. If she doesn’t break into song and dance when there’s tension
– or after a contestant’s cake collapses – she cheers them up with a joke. “It’s always fun discovering the contestants’ hidden talents,” says June. “I just have to remember that my role is to engage with the contestants and help the audience at home get to know them better,” adds the 41-year-old.
June was born in Mombasa, a coastal city in south-east Kenya. When she was four, her family relocated to Paris, France. “At the time, my father was the only one who spoke French, but within a few months, my siblings and I learnt the language – we didn’t have much of a choice,” points out June.
The show host is an advocate of the Kenyan High Court and she specialises in intellectual property.
June reveals that her first love is music. Growing up, she’d perform cover versions of her favourite songs at nightclubs, corporate functions and private events – wherever they would allow her to sing. It was only after she overcame her insecurities that she released her album called Twenty Years in 2016. “I wrote the songs from my heart, so the process was emotional. All of this is why it took so long to put an album together,” she adds.
The multi-talented artist has made a name for herself in theatre too. In 2016, she won Best Actress award at the SANAA Theatre Awards for her performance in a three-woman play The Threefold Cord.