Luisa Christina Zissman (born Louisa Christina Kalozois; 4 June 1987) is an English retail entrepreneur and reality television personality. She was the runner-up on the ninth series of ''The Apprentice'' and finished fourth on ''

Celebrity Big Brother 13 ''Celebrity Big Brother 13'' was the thirteenth series of the British reality television series ''Celebrity Big Brother''. The series launched on 3 January 2014 on Channel 5 and was originally meant to end after 22 days on 24 January 2014. Howe ...

''. She later became a presenter and regular panellist on ''

Big Brother's Bit on the Side This is a complete list of shows about and relating to ''Big Brother UK'' and ''Celebrity Big Brother''. The civilian edition ran from 2000 to 2018 and the celebrity edition ran from 2001 to 2018. ''Big Brother'' ''Big Brother'' was a daily sho ...

''. Zissman is also one half of podcast LuAnna: The Podcast with

Anna Williamson Anna Williamson (born 23 July 1981) is an English television presenter and dating agent. She is known as the former co-presenter of children's programmes '' Rescue Robots'' ''Toonattik'' and ''Action Stations!'' on CITV. In 2019, Williamson beg ...

Early life and education

Zissman was born in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

to Mr and Mrs Zo Kalozois, now of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

; her father is Greek. She attended the Grove Independent school in

Loughton, Milton Keynes Loughton () is an ancient village and modern district in the civil parish of Loughton and Great Holm in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The village spreads between Watling Street and the modern A5 road, to the west of, and about 1 mile ...

and Northampton High School for Girls.Sunday Times Money Section p10, 27 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013

Career

Zissman took her first job at an estate agent on Saturdays at 16 to pay the upkeep costs for a horse her parents bought for her. One of her first post-school jobs was at

Electronic Data Systems Electronic all cash BSN acc: 1311729000110205 Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a subs ...

, but she later stated that she decided to go into business because she disliked being told what to do. She is based in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, and she had her own baking website and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

electronics business. Her cupcake shop – Dixie's Cupcakery, named after her daughter, is now closed. Although she claimed on several occasions that these three businesses have a net worth of £1.5 million, ''The Independent'' valued the three businesses, all

trading name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

s of Boutique Trading Ltd of which Zissman is listed as director and company secretary, at £194. They also noted that the eBay electronics store she owned was a "one-stop shop for several sellers, including electronics, baking and beauty products". Zissman came to public attention when she appeared on the ninth series of ''

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a Reality competition, reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with variou ...

'' in 2013, where she was runner-up. On 23 July 2013, Zissman appeared on BBC Radio 1's Innuendo Bingo. In November 2013 she launched her business, named Bakers Toolkit, at the Cake International Show. Earlier, there had been some debate about whether the name should include an apostrophe. She joined the thirteenth series of ''Celebrity Big Brother'' on 3 January 2014. She finished fourth overall behind

Jim Davidson James Cameron Davidson (born 13 December 1953) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, singer and TV presenter. He hosted the television shows ''Big Break'' and ''The Generation Game''. He also developed two adult pantomime shows such as ''Bo ...

Dappy Costadinos Contostavlos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Κοντόσταυλος; born 11 June 1987), better known by his stage name Dappy, is a British rapper and singer. He is the lead singer of the Camden-based hip hop and grime trio N- ...

and

Ollie Locke Oliver Locke is a British television personality and actor from Southampton, England, known for appearing in E4's constructed reality series ''Made in Chelsea''. His mother is former BBC Radio Solent DJ Sarah Locke. Career Whilst on ''Made i ...

. Zissman revealed she received a six-figure sum for her stint on the show. She also regularly appears on '' This Morning'' and '' Good Morning Britain'' as a guest to debate current new stories. She has since appeared on ''

Reality Bites ''Reality Bites'' is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Helen Childress and directed by Ben Stiller, in his directorial debut. It stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Stiller, with supporting roles by Janeane Garofalo and Steve ...

'', ''

News Thing ''Sam Delaney's News Thing'' is television programme produced by RT UK and presented by British journalist and broadcaster Sam Delaney, that aired every Saturday night from November 2015 until June 2018. Notable guest appearances included Ken ...

, Loose Women'' and ''Sam & Billie: The Mummy Diaries'' on ITVBe.

Personal life

Zissman married her first husband, entrepreneur Oliver Zissman, in 2009. Zissman gave birth to her first daughter, Dixie in 2010. Zissman and her husband divorced in 2014. While taking part in ''Celebrity Big Brother'' in 2014, she came out as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and had sought treatment for

sex addiction According to proponents of the concept, sexual addiction, also known as sex addiction, is a state characterized by compulsive participation or engagement in sexual activity, particularly sexual intercourse, despite negative consequences. The con ...

. Zissman married her second husband, Irish businessman Andrew Collins, in 2015.

Controversy

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Zissman posted on her

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

page that she blamed the Chinese government for the spread of the disease, which some took offence to and considered to be

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, something she denied in follow-up posts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zissman, Luisa 1987 births Living people English businesspeople The Apprentice (British TV series) candidates English people of Greek descent Bisexual women English bisexual people English LGBT businesspeople Bisexual businesspeople People from St Albans Television personalities from Hertfordshire British women in business Big Brother (British TV series) contestants