At the end of September, the BBC announced that Zara McDermott’s new documentary Stalked (w/t) would soon premiere. UK audiences know that Zara creates quality movies on the most pressing issues that always resonate with audiences.
The new movie will look at the impact of stalking on the lives of young people. This topic is extremely relevant these days, as the percentage of victims reporting this problem has increased by 47 percent, according to the National Stalking Helpline. Stalking occurs both in real life and in the digital space, taking the form of online hacking and tracking. Zara herself constantly faces stalking, as she is a public figure. For this reason, she wants to understand how to help victims and punish stalkers.
However, Zara McDermott is known for more than just creating documentaries. In our article, we will tell you about the path she took to have so many fans.
What preceded her success?
Zara Nicole McDermott is an English television personality, model, singer, reality television star, and documentary filmmaker, born on 14 December 1996 in Havering, London, England. She has a younger brother, Brad, who has appeared in several BBC television series with Zara and their parents, Alan and Karen McDermott. In Wanted Down Under (2009), the family considered moving to Australia, and in Wanted Down Under: Revisited (2013), they explained why they decided against moving and remained at home, in the United Kingdom. Wanted Down Under and Wanted Down Under: Revisited were Zara’s first television projects, which preceded her appearance on Love Island.
In one of her recent interviews, Zara admitted that she was constantly bullied by her classmates at school. The teachers knew and saw everything, but did nothing. She also admitted that she was bullied until she was 13 and had no friends at school. For this reason, she went to lunch with her mother, who was working at school. Additionally, when she was 14, McDermott was suspended from secondary school after it was discovered that she had sent her nude photos to a boy. These photos were then leaked when she participated Love Island. She discussed this experience in her BBC documentary Revenge Porn.
Before joining the fourth series of Love Island and becoming a famous TV personality, Zara McDermott was a civil servant and a policy adviser at the Department of Education. In an interview, Zara even gave an inside look of her job in the government before becoming famous. According to her, she started working in 2015 after completing a “fast track apprenticeship scheme.” She admitted that she liked the environment where she had to communicate with a lot of people and carry out different tasks. Zara also said that she had fun watching ministers debate in the House of Commons. McDermott was a project manager for a while, but she did not like it. When she moved to the Department of Education, it became her dream job. She has only good memories of the place.
Since May 2019, Zara has been in a relationship with television personality Sam Thompson, with whom she starred in Made in Chelsea.
From policy adviser at the Department of Education to famous reality television personality
In June 2018, Zara McDermott joined the fourth series of Love Island. She entered the villa on day 15 of the show and was dumped on day 25. Within 10 days, she matched with Adam Collard, a personal fitness trainer who was dumped a few days later. Even though she was a contestant on the show for so few days, it was Love Island that allowed people to get to know her, bringing her fame and fans from all over the world.
In 2018, McDermott appeared as a guest on the BBC’s Politics Live and the BBC’s Panorama news programme.
In October 2019, Zara, together with other Love Island stars Eyal Booker, Samira Mighty and Wes Nelson, as part of the group No Love Lost, became a member of The X Factor: Celebrity, ITV special edition. They were mentored by Irish music manager and television personality Louis Walsh. As a result, the group was able to come in eighth.
Alongside her appearance on The X Factor special edition, Zara McDermott appeared as a cast member on E4 reality show Made in Chelsea, where she met her boyfriend Sam Thompson. Filming lasted for a year, with Zara’s final episode airing in December 2020.
Filmography and awards
Having first appeared on TV when she was 13, Zara only gained fame and popularity after participating in Love Island at the age of 22. She is now a successful presenter and documentary maker. She is also active on her social networks, where she has a large number of fans (for example, 2 million followers on Instagram) who expect new updates and news from her.
Here is a list of shows and movies she has appeared in:
- Wanted Down Under (2009)
- Wanted Down Under: Revisited (2013)
- Love Island, series 4 (2018)
- Politics Live (2018)
- Panorama (2018)
- Made in Chelsea (2019-2020)
- The X Factor: Celebrity (2019)
- Revenge Porn Presenter (2021)
- Uncovering Rape Culture (2021)
- Love in the Flesh (2022)
- Disordered Eating (2022)
- Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge (2023)
- Strictly Come Dancing, series 21 (2023)
- Ibiza: Secrets of the Party Island (2024)
- The Idaho Murders: Trial by Tiktok (2024)
In 2022, Zara was nominated for the National Television Awards in the Authored Documentary category for her movie Zara McDermott: Uncovering Rape Culture. Although she could not win the award, she was happy that her documentary was noticed and appreciated. Zara’s fans believe that many more nominations and significant awards await her in the future.
Life and projects following Love Island (2021-2023)
After Love Island and Made in Chelsea, Zara McDermott realized that she did not want to star in short-term reality shows. So she decided to focus on making documentaries. The first such film was Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn, which was released in February 2021 on BBC. The documentary revealed details of the leak of naked photos that she sent to a guy she liked at school. The photos were shared online again when she became a contestant on Love Island. The film tells the story of Zara, as well as the cases of other girls who faced a similar problem. The photos, published without her consent, caused her to have suicidal thoughts, which occurred both at the age of 14 and at the age of 21. The documentary was well received by the public and praised by viewers and experts. Thanks to the film, many victims of revenge porn were able to share their stories, and also more easily survive their bitter experience.
The second documentary was also released in 2021 and addressed the issue of sexual assault. Zara McDermott: Uncovering Rape Culture inspired by the incident that happened to Zara. She recalled being stalked in a park by a guy when she was 21. He wanted to rape her, began to undress Zara, but was scared away by a group of people who were walking nearby. The boy was about 15 years old, she said, but police were never able to find him. So McDermott decided to visit schools herself to talk to teenagers about rape culture. The film premiered on BBC in November 2021. It was praised by critics, in particular for Zara’s attempts to reach the management of MindGeek, the company that owns Pornhub, as she tried to know why they allowed teenagers access to their site. In her opinion, pornography has a huge influence on the rape culture in the UK.
In March 2022, BBC Three premiered Love in the Flesh. The project told the story of couples who communicated online, dated in the digital space and later met in real life.
Zara McDermott: Disordered Eating was released in November 2022. The film addresses the issue of eating disorders among young people in the early 2020s. Zara once again based her film on her own story, as she received a lot of criticism about her body while filming Love Island. This motivated her to lose weight, start doing physical activity and eat healthy, which she constantly talks about on her social media. However, her healthy lifestyle has also come under fire, with accusations that she promotes unhealthy body standards. For this reason, her movie explores how celebrity public accounts impacts others’ mental health and their relationship with food. To explore this issue, Zara interviewed a huge number of young people who suffer from eating disorders. She also believes that celebrity comes with a heavy burden, as people often expect them to have a perfect image, which is really hard to live up to outside of media. It is difficult to build an ideal image, but it is even more difficult to constantly live up to it, since media personalities are also people.
Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge was the fourth BBC movie to air. It was made up of three episodes and aired in July 2023. Zara McDermott decided to move away from social issues and tell the story of the disappearance of British teenager Gaia Pope. The 19-year-old went missing in November 2017 and her body was found 11 days later. The title was taken from Dancing Ledge in Dorset, where Pope’s body was found. The film included interviews with Gaia’s family and friends, and investigated the reasons for her disappearance, covering the tragic story from beginning to end.
In addition to making documentaries, in 2023 Zara decided to return to the entertainment industry by taking part in 21 series of Strictly Come Dancing, which started on September 16. Her professional dance partner was Italian dancer and choreographer Graziano Di Prima. After finishing 10th in the show and delivering 6 unforgettable performances, they were eliminated on 29 October 2023 during the Halloween Week. In September 2024, the 22nd series of Strictly started, in which Graziano Di Prima was supposed to appear again. However, in July 2024, Zara accused her former partner Graziano of kicking her during rehearsals for the 21st series. The dancer himself stated that all the accusations were false and that they had ruined his life. In his first interview after the scandal, he said that he was under stress and constantly trying to remember what and when he had done wrong. Now he needs to restore his reputation to return to TV.
In turn, Zara McDermott says to BBC News that taking part in the show was a wonderful event for her, and she is grateful to the production team, producers, directors and many others, as well as to all contestants for their hard work. Commenting on the scandal with Di Prima, Zara admitted that she kept silent because she was afraid of public reaction and the shame of the victim. What is more, she didn’t want to feel vulnerable. But thanks to the support of her loved ones, she was able to cope with her fears and at least live through the situation.
Zara has a lot more in store for her fans
Ibiza: Secrets of the Party Island was Zara’s first international documentary project. It consisted of four parts and premiered in April 2024. In this film, Zara tried to understand why the island attracts so many young Britons every year, and also to find out what changes await this place in the future.
In 2024, Zara’s sixth film, The Idaho Murders: Trial by TikTok, was released, which told about the murder of students at the University of Idaho in November 2022. Of the 5 students, four were killed. The suspect, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, has been arrested and a jury trial is scheduled for August 11, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. McDermott decided to conduct her own investigation to find out which of the theories spread on the Internet are true and which are just speculation. To do this, she went to the small town of Moscow, Idaho.
In September 2024, it was announced that Zara McDermott’s Stalked (w/t) had been commissioned for BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. In the new two-part documentary, Zara will set how stalking affects the behavior of victims of stalkers and their daily lives. She will also witness the process of stalking, look at how victims report to the police and the justice system respond to such reports.
