Who is Gemma Owen? The Love Islander with a serious celebrity link

She’s looking to score in the villa—get it?

Gemma Owen for Love Island 2022 season 8
(Image credit: ITV Picture Desk)

Love Island season eight is here at last and what better way to celebrate its return than by exploring the lives of the new Love Island 2022 lineup? One Islander in particular actually has a celebrity link and you probably already have your guesses—so here’s everything you need to know about new singleton, Gemma Owen, from her dad to her career.

Doesn’t it feel like too long since we heard the iconic Love Island theme song and dulcet tones of narrator Ian Stirling? Finally, the wait is over and we can get acquainted with our new host of sexy singles! (If you need to figure out how to watch Love Island UK from outside the country, we got you.)

We’ve already done a deep dive on the show’s ‘Italian Stallion’ Davide Sanclimenti and Natasha Ghouri—who went viral for being Love Island’s first-ever deaf contestant—so it only seems right to explore the Islander who already has stardom in her genes…

Who is Gemma Owen’s dad? 

As many of you may have guessed, Gemma Owen is the daughter of England footballer and striker Michael Owen—who has played for the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid and of course, the England team.

He is reportedly not very happy that his daughter is taking part in the reality dating show but boy do we hope she makes it to the ‘meet the parents’ episode…

How old is Gemma Owen?

Gemma Owen was born in May 1, 2003, which makes her 19-years-old.

What is Gemma Owen’s job? 

Aside from her footballer dad, Gemma has quite an impressive sporting career of her own at just 19-years-old. 

She is an international dressage rider and has been competing since she was 11, all around Europe. If you’re unsure what dressage entails, Gemma describes it as dancing…on a horse.

She also has a lucrative swimwear business called OG Swimwear, so her villa attire is pretty much sorted! Not to mention the fact she already has 78 thousand followers on Insta, which will only grow from her TV debut. 

Gemma is a self-proclaimed ‘alpha female’ looking for an equally ‘alpha’ guy—just as long as he doesn’t wear socks with his trainers as apparently, that’s a deal-breaking ick for her…

In her Love Island VT, she describes herself as having quite a hard exterior, saying it takes a while for people to get to know her—so we predict some drama but if she meets a non-sock wearing hunk in the villa we have doubt she’ll give us some of the most memorable Love Island moments ever.

Naomi Jamieson
Lifestyle News Writer

Naomi is a Lifestyle News Writer with the Women's Lifestyle team, where she covers everything from entertainment to fashion and beauty, as well as TikTok trends for Woman&Home, after previously writing for My Imperfect Life and GoodTo. Interestingly though, Naomi actually has a background in design, having studied illustration at Plymouth University but lept into the media world in 2020, after always having a passion for writing and earned her Gold Standard diploma in Journalism with the NCTJ.


Before working for Future Publishing’s Lifestyle News team, she worked in the Ad production team. Here she wrote and designed adverts on all sorts of things, which then went into print magazines across all genres. Now, when she isn’t writing articles on celebs, fashion trends, or the newest shows on Netflix, you can find her drinking copious cups of coffee, drawing and probably online shopping.