She’s an open book. Jameela Jamil is known for her refreshing honesty, but she managed to find a few things fans might not know to share exclusively told Us Weekly.
The Good Place star, 35, recently opened up about living with a disability. She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a disorder affecting the connective tissue in the body that can cause a wide range of symptoms from easily dislocated bones to blood vessel ruptures.
“I know what it’s like to feel like the world isn’t built for you,” she said via Instagram in September. “People project their own understanding of how people with a disability should look, act and live. This makes people with a disability (like me) feel as though their rights aren’t protected.”
That’s why she proudly encouraged people to listen to the “Equal Too” podcast. “Sophie [Morgan] and Sinead [Burke] are our amazing hosts who lead us through really important conversations with the absolute rock stars who are driving the movement for equality and inclusion for people with disability,” Jamil explained. “Let me just say, if I’d had access to conversations like these at age 13, things might have been different for me.”
When she isn’t advocating for those with invisible disabilities, she promotes realistic beauty standards and legislation supporting women’s rights. Still, the former English teacher finds time to light up the small screen, with her next role being opposite Tatiana Maslany in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk, a new Disney+ series.
Check out more fun facts about Jamil below:
1. My nickname is Bambi — because every time I walk, it looks like the first time.
2. When I’m sad I go and wander around supermarkets. I find aisles of snacks very comforting.
3. My idea of heaven is Target.
4. I had my first kiss at 21.
5. I am genuinely very afraid of ghosts.
6. I love wearing a bra, even to sleep.
7. I have had the same hairstyle since I was 2.
8. I don’t care about what anyone thinks about me apart from Keanu Reeves. I really want him to like me.
9. Manny Jacinto is the seventh person I have ever kissed, and it was on screen so everyone says it doesn’t count, but screw them. I’m counting it.
10. I can’t watch myself on television.
11. I have terrible social anxiety.
12. I have a phobia of velvet.
13. I have an invisible disability called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome that makes me so bendy that I can pretty much kiss my own arse.
14. My favorite podcast is “Equal Too: Achieving Disability Equality Podcast,” an amazing series about disability that is so thought-provoking, inspiring and insightful.
15. I am a Mariah Carey stan.
16. I once wore a chicken suit for 30 days to raise money for charity.
17. When I dance and I will sometimes spontaneously break into a gallop — it cannot be helped!
18. I am a computer game addict.
19. I once ONLY ate potato chips and no other food for a year.
20. I would risk it all for sourdough pizza or Shake Shack fries.
21. I once lied that I could DJ and got booked to perform for Elton John so had one week to teach myself.
22. I was the first ever woman to host the BBC Radio 1 Official Chart in its 60 years on air.
23. I have three roommates, soon to be four. And I’m 35 and I don’t care. I want to live with them all forever.
24. I am obsessed with The Rock and am desperate to be invited to one of his cheat meals.
25. I am not Cece from New Girl [played by Hannah Simone]. Or Priyanka Chopra.