Sheffield comedian Munya Chawawa 'can't believe' how he ended up on Celebrity MasterChef 2021

Munya Chawawa graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2014 with a first class degree in psychology and has gone on to become a hugely successful comedian, with nearly 700,000 followers on Instagram, where his satirical sketches racked up more than 30 million views last year alone.

One of his fictional creations, the news reporter Barty Crease, landed him a series with Netflix, while another, the drill rapper Unknown P, last year signed a deal with Atlantic Records.

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But it is a third, Johnny Oliver, the celebrity chef claiming to be a cousin of the more famous Jamie, who he credits with landing him the gig on the latest series of the hit BBC cookery show, set to air this summer.

After Jamie Oliver found himself accused of cultural appropriation in 2018 for a new product called ‘punchy jerk rice’, which critics said bore little resemblance to the popular Jamaican dish, Munya filmed a spoof video showing himself as Johnny cooking up his own ‘Caribbean Carnival Cookout’.

The sketch, which has been viewed nearly 90,000 times on YouTube, features Johnny chopping up bananas and sticking them in the microwave for four days to ‘bring out that really jerky fruity jerky banana flavour’, before tipping some baked beans into a bag of Uncle Ben’s Mexican Style Rice.

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Announcing that he would be appearing on Celebrity MasterChef, Munya wrote: “Can’t believe saying ‘lovely, jerky flavour’ for two years straight has led to me cooking on national television.

"Barty Crease has a Netflix deal, Unknown P has signed to Atlantic and now Jonny Oliver is on MasterChef (kind of) - the trilogy is complete.

"P.S. Tell me what to cook?!‍”

Munya is one of 20 stars due to compete in series 16 of Celebrity MasterChef, presented John Torode and Gregg Wallace.

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The others include pop star Duncan James, from Blue; ex-England, Manchester United and Aston Villa striker Dion Dublin, former EastEnders actor Michelle Collins; and the double-gold winning Paralympian Kadeena Cox.

Sarah Clay, commissioning editor for the BBC, said this year’s celebrities would take part in brand new tasks and the standard of cooking is ‘like nothing we have seen before’.