I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! is returning on Sunday (November 19) for its 23rd series.
The hit ITV programme will see a number of celebrities step into the Australian jungle, including ex-politician Nigel Farage, actress Jamie Lynn Spears, Hollyoaks icon Nick Pickard and First Dates star Fred Sirieix. Also making a comeback to the show is Kiosk Kev – an infamously grumpy employee of Kev’s Deal’s on Wheels.
This year, Kev’s shop has had a revamp and he will now run Kev’s Wallaby Whips van. Kev, real name Mark Herlaar, first joined the show in 2018, taking over from Kiosk Keith.
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Away from the gruelling reality show Mark has made a number of other TV appearances and runs a side business with his family. Here, Daily Star takes a look inside his life.
Australian Survivor
(Image: James Gourley/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
In 2017, Mark appeared on competitive reality series Australian Survivor, putting his skills to the test on the Samoan island of Upolu. On day one, Mark was given the nickname “Tarzan” by one of his co-stars a name he still uses six years later.
He only lasted 11 days on the show before being eliminated. Despite getting voted off before the merge of the two tribes, the star described his experience as “incredible.”
(Image: Ten/Survivor)
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ITV bosses reportedly saw Mark on Australian Survivor and gave him the call up to I’m A Celeb. Two days after returning home from the show, Mark was left bedridden for a week with dysentery – an infection in your intestines that causes bloody diarrhoea.
“It manifested two days after I got home and I was just crook as a dog, like I had dysentery and was nauseated and sick,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. Mark admitted he likely would’ve been pulled from the competition had he not been eliminated due to his health decline.
(Image: Ten/Survivor)
Two years later, Mark returned to Australian Survivor for its All Stars series. Coming in as the lowest placing all-star, he was not considered a threat throughout the game, even when he performed well in the early strength-based challenges.
At that point, Mark set the record for the greatest improvement in Australian Survivor, going up 16 places from his original season after being voted out on day 46. The show was filmed in 2019 but didn’t air until the following year.
Side job
(Image: www.manifestkombucha.com.au)
From a young age, Mark always wanted to be a farmer and live off the land. When he left school at 16, he took his first full-time job on a dairy farm in Ravensbourne.
He worked there for a period of time before leaving, but later moved back to the same farm and has now spent around 40 years there. The reality star successfully ran a business there for 20 years. Sometime later he decided to start planting lime trees.
(Image: Instagram)
An opportunity arose when Covid-19 hit. After losing around 150 tonnes of fruit due to club and pub shut downs, Mark realised the most valuable source on their farm was water. His family began looking into a water-selling idea and eventually decided to develop their own product.
Mark and his family have been making kombucha for more than 20 years and regularly sell out when they share their product at the Cobb & Co Farmers Market in Toowoomba.
Family life
(Image: Instagram)
Before Mark officially returned to the dairy farm in Ravensbourne, he met his wife Natalie. The couple share two children; son Joel and daughter Katelyn. Their family resides on two farms, including Joel and Katelyn’s partners and Mark’s seven grandchildren. Mark’s children have built on his land and are planning on their children also building there.
(Image: Ten/Survivor)
Mark is known for his bushy hair and huge grey beard, but he hasn’t always looked like that. Before rising to fame, he sported short hair and far less facial hair, making him completely unrecognisable to how fans know him now.
Show controversy
(Image: mirror.co.uk)
Long before Kiosk Kev arrived, Kiosk Keith was on the I’m A Celeb scene. Kiosk Keith, real name Raymond Grant, was was reportedly handpicked by show bosses for the role and gained a huge fan following.
He was the original employee of the Outback Shack and would accept Dingo Dollars in exchange for treats if celebrities answered a question correctly. Raymond originally worked on I’m A Celeb when it first began in 2002, working as an on-set builder for the camp.
(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
More than a decade later, bosses realised he could work well in front of the camera and he made his first appearance as Kiosk Keith in 2013. In 2018, ITV shared a statement confirming Raymond had been released from his contract on the show.
It was later revealed that he had been sacked after he was accused of making unwanted advances towards a young female colleague and turning up drunk to work. A source told The Sun Online: “It wasn’t unusual for Keith to turn up to work drunk as he’s done it before but this incident has shocked everyone.
(Image: James Gourley/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“He was drunk when he got on the bus in the morning. Then he behaved inappropriately towards a female member of the team who’s half his age. It happened in front of loads of people, the girl was so upset.
The insider continued: “As soon as she made a complaint Keith was sacked. It’s good riddance really. We nicknamed him Hollywood because of his overnight fame. Everyone thought he was alright at first but people quickly started to go off him. Now he’s gone for good.”
Kiosk Kev has starred on the show ever since, except when the series moved to Wales in 2020 and 2021.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
