The Great British Baking Show makes its grand return for 2023’s Season 14 on the BBC and Netflix with over a dozen new contestants and a few hosts as well.
Known in North America as The Great British Bake Off (due to the Pillsbury company owning the copyright to “Bake Off”), this show brings together amateur bakers from all across Britain to show off their skills in competition.
Inspired by its American counterparts, the series started in 2009 and helped interest in baking skyrocket in the U.K., bringing drama and intrigue to this mastery of food on the BBC network.
Featuring a new theme for each of the show’s 10 weeks, bakers have to show off their technical skills and talents for a set of judges as they seek countrywide and worldwide acclaim for their craft.
The Great British Baking Show’s New Cast
The Great British Baking Show shared its new cast of amateur contestants and show hosts ahead of 2023’s Season 14 debut, which started with a “Cake Week” theme on September 18.
The hosts can be seen below:
Noel Fielding
After a long career as a comedian and actor both in the U.K. and across the world, Noel Fielding joined The Great British Bake Off’s panel of judges starting in Season 8.
Fielding even dipped into American pop culture as well, utilizing his voice-over talents for a small role as Balthazar in 2019’s The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
Alison Hammond
Making her name across the reality TV world in shows like Big Brother and RuPaul’s Drag Race, Alison Hammond joins the world of televised baking in her first season as a judge on The Great British Baking Show Season 14.
Hammond replaced former host and Bridesmaids star Matt Lucas after Lucas left the show, with Hammond adding her own brand of humor and a lighter feel to the series.
Paul Hollywood
The Great British Bake Off’s series' celebrity chef/baker comes in Paul Hollywood, who has served as a judge on the U.K. program since it first debuted on the BBC in 2010.
Often compared to Dancing With the Stars’ late Len Goodman and America’s Got Talent’s Simon Cowell, Hollywood is known for his straightforward and no-nonsense style of judging the contestants.
Prue Leith
After a long and successful career as a chef and an educator, Prue Leith became a regular judge on The Great British Baking Show starting in 2017.
She was also a judge for 11 years on The Great British Menu and spent one year working on My Kitchen Rules before joining the Baking Show scene.
Next up are the 12 contestants who will be competing in Season 14 of The Great British Baking Show.
1.) Abbi Lawson
Abbi Lawson is a 27-year-old delivery driver and veg grower from Cumbria who first found inspiration from Victorian-era baking, bringing a nod to nature to her baking with a magical feel to her food as well.
She enjoys the outdoors and finds her own seasonal ingredients to bring a unique style of baking to the series, taking what she learned from her family and pushing her skills to new heights.
2.) Amos Lilley
North London’s Amos Lilley (age 43) works with food daily as a deli and grocery manager, learning how to bake from his mother with a style that he describes as “traditional with a modern twist.”
Lilley is also a film/theatre enthusiast and a theme park fan, and he enjoys experimenting with flavor combinations that aren’t usually seen in other pastries, hoping to make his work stand out from the crowd.
Unfortunately, Lilley was the first contestant sent home in The Great British Baking Show Season 14, being voted off by the judges during “Cake Week.”
3.) Cristy Sharp
Cristy Sharp is a 33-year-old personal assistant and a mom of four kids, which keeps her quite busy at home on the baking front as she takes inspiration from her Israeli background and her husband’s Jamaican origins.
Coming from London, Sharp spends her time organizing parties or enjoying the outdoors and time with her friends, all while regularly baking and cooking for her big family.
4.) Dan Cazador
Coming from Cheshire, 42-year-old resource planner Dan Cazador was first inspired to cook after traveling to South America in 2007, gaining a particular passion for pies and puddings as he learned to bake.
Although he spends his free time staying active in the gym and with his sons, he’s something of a perfectionist, regularly looking for challenging foods to make in one of the 300 cookbooks that he owns.
That perfectionist nature served Cazador well in the first week, as he earned Week 1’s “Star Baker” award for his impressive work.
5.) Dana Conway
25-year-old Essex-based database administrator Dana Conway started cooking at age 16 to fill in a gap in her family’s Indian culinary repertoire, eventually finding her place as the go-to cake-maker for parties.
Playing it mostly safe on the flavor side, Conway tends to go for more minimalist designs that are visually pleasing, occasionally throwing in spices from her own culture to give her food a new flair.
6.) Josh Smalley
Josh Smalley (age 27) of Leicestershire is a chemist by trade as he looks to bring his scientific background to the kitchen, not being afraid to experiment with his techniques by using inspiration from old baking books.
He’s a longtime rugby player and often brings treats and seasonal fruits and vegetables to his teammates, and he has dreams of owning an artisan bakery as he hopes to enjoy a good showing on The Great British Baking Show.
7.) Keith Barron
The Great British Baking Show Season 14’s oldest contestant is 60-year-old Keith Barron, a chartered accountant from Hampshire who took his mother’s love of traditional dishes from Malta and built his own skills as a cook.
Barron is something of a Bake Off superfan, owning cookbooks written by a handful of former contestants on the show, and he enjoys the challenges that come with taking risks in his cooking.
8.) Matty Edgell
28-year-old Matty Edgell is a physical education teacher from Cambridgeshire who shows a true passion for baking, watching online videos as often as possible as he looks to match the results he saw from others in his youth.
His style is a mix of rustic and neat while using a pretty traditional flavor palate, and his next big challenge is making his own extravagant wedding cake as a special commission from his own fiancée, Lara.
9.) Nicky (last name unknown)
52-year-old Nicky is a retired cabin crew member who hopes her baking evokes fond memories, using what she learned from cooking with her grandmother as she enjoys the process and art of baking.
At home, she regularly makes bread and cakes for her niece and her grandchildren, and she also volunteers her time at a pet therapy charity and enjoys skiing.
10.) Rowan Claughton
West Yorkshire’s Rowan Claughton is Season 14’s youngest contestant at only 21 years of age, currently studying English literature as he regularly looks for ways to get more creative with his cooking and baking.
Claughton pushes for a clean look and interesting decorations in his baking, although he has a flair for the dramatic that he enjoys putting on display for his university friends as well.
11.) Saku Chandrasekara
Born in Sri Lanka before moving to the UK in 2003, Saku Chandrasekara works as an intelligence analyst and didn’t even learn how to cook until she was 18 years old, teaching herself the art.
Learning her trade as she made lunches and snacks for her kids, she enjoys using ingredients from her homegrown vegetable patch while taking inspiration from her Sri Lankan heritage for flavors in her baking.
12.) Tasha Stones
27-year-old Tasha Stones is a participation officer from Bristol who grew up cooking with her mother and grandmother, eventually making cakes for her friends while going through school.
She was encouraged to take up cooking as a hobby by a teacher and often looks to take on incredibly challenging food designs. She also loves going to the West End for theater and traveling the world in her free time.
The Great British Baking Show airs on Channel 4 in the U.K. at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on Tuesdays, and new episodes drop on Netflix on Fridays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.
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