She’s the bombshell to end all bombshells, who wasted no time in launching herself at the guys after she strutted into the villa last week, leaving the girls seething in her fabulous wake.
And Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu is no stranger to stealing all the screentime, after honing her craft on Turkish soap operas. The 27-year-old Essex star – who boasted more than 350k followers on Instagram before she even joined the show – told the islanders she’d spent the past couple of years starring in soaps in Turkey, and even played a serial killer.
But heat can reveal her acting career began in a slightly less glamorous way, with a role on budget reality show Lancashore. Going under the name Susie Hayzel at the time, she took place in the film project while in her first year of a degree in performing arts at the University of Central Lancashire. The Geordie Shore-style show followed the lives of a group of students, and in one scene Ekin-Su can be seen playing classic drinking game Never Have I Ever – good practice for the villa, we guess.
Less bombshell and more party popper then. We love us a glow up.
A source said Ekin-Su always had bombshell potential, revealing, “She was popular with the guys and quite glam for a student. There was always drama surrounding her. She was a character and had high expectations. She liked to be wined and dined with the thought that the guy should always pay.”
The actress – who divides her times between Essex and Istanbul – still knows what she wants, and before going into the villa, she revealed, “I’m not just looking for looks, I’m looking for brains! I’m looking for someone with intelligence, someone who can have good chats. Nothing like cockiness! I’m looking for a serious man and a relationship.”
She also declared to the other islanders that she wasn’t there to make “seasonal girlfriends”, but to meet the “love of my life”. And she’s a woman of her word, making a beeline for Davide Sanclimenti, aka the villa’s official top hunk, despite his fledgling relationship with Gemma Owen. Recently, Ekin-Su – who is coupled up with Davide – has had her head turned by new boy bombshell, Jay. Let's get real, Ekin-Su was all of us when we first laid eyes on Jay and that's why we love her - that bombshell was ready to detonate.
As one of our fave ex-islander’s Shaughna Phillips so eloquently put it on Twitter, “Ekin-Su is not a bombshell, she’s a weapon of mass destruction at this point because all I see is carnage. I love her.”
Boom.