Big Zuu picked up two TV Baftas
(Picture: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)Rapper-turned-TV star Big Zuu paid tribute to his “humble” west London roots after scooping two TV Baftas.
The musician and broadcaster, who grew up on the Mozart Estate in Kensal Green, won in the entertainment performance and features categories for his show Big Zuu’s Big Eats where he cooks for celebrities before chatting with them over the food.
After accepting the awards at the Royal Festival Hall ceremony last night, the star said: “It means a lot. Where we came from this stuff is very rare.
“We grew up in a little estate together, no one would have thought we would have got to where we have got to and to win a Bafta. I don’t know — it’s just mad.”
The 26-year-old, who first made his name performing on the grime scene, paid tribute to his mother and the heritage of his school friends and fellow presenters Hyder and Tubsey.
He said: “She came to this country four months pregnant from Sierra Leone during the rebel war. Hyder’s family come from Kurdistan, which is not a recognised state. Tubsey’s family are from Iraq and Iran, they were in a war when he was born. Man comes from humble beginnings.”
The rapper, whose real name is Zuhair Hassan, initially trained at Goldsmiths to be a youth worker before getting his break in music and told the Bafta audience that “representation is so important”.
He said: “Growing up there wasn’t many chefs or people that look like me on telly. And nowadays, young people watching us doing our ting, thinking do you know what, if these men can win a Bafta surely we can.”
His win came as Killing Eve star Jodie Comer, currently performing on the West End stage in Prima Facie, won the leading actress award for her role in Channel 4’s Help.
Sean Bean won best leading actor prize for his role in gritty prison drama Time, which also won best mini series, while Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice won the must-see moment for their silent dance on BBC1 staple Strictly Come Dancing.
But there was disappointment for It’s a Sin after the critically acclaimed drama about a group of young people in Eighties London during the Aids crisis failed to pick up an award despite leading the nominations this year with a total of seven.
Channel 4’s Gogglebox won its second TV Bafta for best constructed factual show. Chief executive of production company Studio Lambert, Stephen Lambert, used his speech to voice opposition to the Government’s plans to privatise the broadcaster.
