14 Facts About Kim-Joy

Kim-Joy became one of two runners-up in the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off and won Bake Off New Year 2022 special.

Kim-Joy has written three cookbooks and is known for creating decorative baked goods often featuring whimsical themes and cute renderings of animals.

Kim-Joy Hewlett was born c 1991 in Ottignies, Belgium to an English father and a Malaysian Chinese mother; she has extended family in Malaysia.

Kim-Joy's mother was studying in London when she was deported for overworking her student visa and ended up in Belgium, where she found work as an au pair for an Englishman and his wife; that marriage ended and Kim-Joy's mother married her father.

Kim-Joy has described her extreme social anxiety as a teen, including selective mutism.

Kim-Joy received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Bristol and a master's degree in psychology from Leeds Beckett University.

Kim-Joy worked in a care home and then as a psychological wellbeing practitioner for the National Health Service.

Friends had encouraged Kim-Joy to apply to be a contestant on The Great British Bake Off, but until 2018 she "didn't feel confident enough".

Kim-Joy joined the cast of the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off, which aired in 2018.

Kim-Joy told only her partner and "a couple of friends" that she was competing, excusing her social absence to others with what she called "the most bizarre excuses".

Kim-Joy appeared in The Great New Year Bake Off January 2022 special, competing against fellow series-nine participant Jon Jenkins and two series-eleven contestants, Hermine and Rowan Williams.

Kim-Joy has written three cookbooks and as of 2021 was a baking columnist for The Guardian.

In 2022 Kim-Joy married long-time partner Nabil Homsi, whom she had met nine years earlier through their mutual interest in board games; Homsi owns four board games shops in Leeds.

Kim-Joy has discussed her ongoing mental health issues surrounding anxiety and depression.