Shakira

Shakira Khan was born on 16 December 2002 in Burnley, Lancashire. She came to national attention as a contestant on Series 12 of ITV2’s Love Island in 2025, finishing as runner-up alongside Harry Cooksley. Before the villa she worked in marketing and in children’s entertainment. In 2026 she became one of the co-hosts of the companion vodcast Love Island: The Debrief, alongside fellow Series 12 islanders Yasmin Pettet and Toni Laites, and joined Love Island: Aftersun as a panelist.

She is proud of her Pakistani heritage, and on air she described herself as having Pakistani and Afghan heritage and being half English [P for the Afghan and English detail]. In her BBC pre-series interview she called herself “a simple cook” and credited her father as the cook of the family: he tutored her ahead of the competition, and together they had built a home repertoire of cross-cultural dishes such as keema spaghetti bolognese and curried beans on toast. She entered

hoping to make her family proud and to show viewers the flavors she grew up with.