Meet the New Bakers of 'The Great British Baking Show'

The Great British Baking Show airs Fridays at 9:00 and 10:00 pm. Episodes are available to stream the morning after they air.

The Great British Baking Show returns with a fourth season on PBS on Friday, June 16 at 9:00 pm. There’s a fresh batch of twelve bakers to be judged by Mary and Paul, and they run the gamut from a young aerospace engineer to an aerobic-loving veteran baker to a finance worker originally from Ghana. Meet them here!

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsAndrew hails from Northern Ireland but now works as an aerospace engineer for Rolls-Royce, designing jet engines. He also designs impressive bakes: he wants to try to make a baguette jet plane. He learned to bake from his mother and grandmother.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsBenjamina is the requisite millennial this season: she started baking as a teen just for fun and gains much of her inspiration from baking blogs and cake photos on the web. She’s a bit of a perfectionist, and having a twin sister as her biggest critic must lead to some tense baking sessions at home.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsCandice is a PE teacher, and her focus on physical health is evident in her bakes: her first cake is gluten-free. She learned to bake from her grandmother, and her favored outfits for the kitchen are pajamas or a new pair of heels.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsJane is a garden designer who was destined to become a baker: her grandfather owned a bakery that her father also worked in. She’s stylish in her home kitchen with a leopard-print apron, but hates baking macarons and ciabatta – let’s hope neither of those are a challenge this season!

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsKate is a nurse, Brownie troop leader, and mother. She bakes with fresh fruit from her parents’ farm in Norfolk, and makes sure her daughters help out by picking the produce – and maybe getting in a flour fight, too.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsLee has been a minister since the 1980s, when he ended a career in construction to go to theology school. His experience as a baker also dates from that decade: he began it as a hobby to fill time after injuring his back and having to take off work in 1984.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsThe only baker this season from Wales, Louise is a hair stylist who lives in Cardiff. She has a knack for impressive designs in her baking – her first cake is soaked in orange liqueur and looks like an orange.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsMichael is the youngest baker this season, at 19 years old. He’s studying politics and economics at Durham University in the northeast of England, and his earliest baking experience was making Greek pastries with his grandmother as a boy – his family is originally from the island of Cyprus.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsRav works at City University London but lives in Kent with his parents, brother-in-law, and sister, who inspired him to bake. He likes to incorporate influences from Far Eastern cuisines, and he enjoys vegan baking… if there’s any vegan challenge, he’ll certainly win!

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsSelasi was born in Ghana but has lived in the UK for fifteen years. He works in finance in London and is a devoted fundraiser for charities, making cupcakes for bake sales or raising money by running races.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsTom works for The Royal Society of Arts and sounds like quite the foodie: he and his wife Kate like to make elaborate dinners, he makes his own cheese and salami, and he enjoys sneaking unusual ingredients into dishes.

Photo: Mark Bourdillon © Love ProductionsVal has been baking for over 60 years. A retired teacher, she still works part-time as a substitute. While she bakes, she likes to do some aerobic exercises and listen to Ed Sheeran (maybe she’ll take a liking to Andrew, given that his bright red hair matches Sheeran’s!).