We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson - "I Didn't Even Sign A Contract!" Georgia Harrison, Georgia Kousoulou & Chloe Sims Talk TOWIE

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Paul looks back at The Only Way Is Essex with TOWIE cast members Georgia Harrison, Georgia Kousoulou and Chloe Sims. Together, they explore how the show turned Essex culture into one of Britain’s biggest reality TV phenomena, and what it was really like to be inside the show as it exploded. From glamorous first entrances and overnight fame to low pay, public scrutiny, press criticism and learning how to build a career beyond the cameras, this episode is an inside look at the reality TV show that changed their lives. We're Talking TOWIE (00:00) Intro (00:33) Georgia Explains Essex Culture to Paul (02:50) How Georgia Was Cast in TOWIE (03:55) What It Was Like Filming TOWIE in the Early Days (07:00) How Georgia Went From Side Character to Series Regular on TOWIE (08:55) How Georgia Handled Fame From Being on TOWIE (13:07) What Does Georgia Think Made Her Watchable on TOWIE? (16:04) How Does Chloe Look Back on Her Time on TOWIE? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In this episode, I look back at the only way is Essex, with Georgia Harrison, Georgia Kusulu, and Chloe Sims, exploring how it turned Essex culture into one of Britain's biggest reality TV phenomena. So let's start our ride in one of my favorite places in all of the UK, and that is ethics. Still can't be it was one of your favorite places in the UK. I think it's because it was the first place outside of London, right? So I was working on celebs go dating. And I think during my first week, there was a scene that I filmed with Chloe Sims, Tawi OG, right, where I had to eat eel, pie, mash, liquor.

I still can't believe you done that. It was like, ugh. I would have just left the eel out. Everything else is absolutely fine. Apart from that, I think you got conned. All right, fair, fair. All right, but also, outside of the foo, what I notice is that there's a distinct culture in Essex, right? So if you think about what Essex culture means to you, especially growing up, how would you define that?

What was the environment like? It was always very, like, very glamorous, very over the top, very flashy. Like, there's a lot of actually really famous people that have come out of Essex, especially if you look at reality TV, a lot of people. a lot of people are from Essex. And I think it's just a lot of big personalities. But when I was in school, that was the era when Tawi first started. Okay. So I would have still been in school when it was first coming to the screens.

And before Tawi, there wasn't that many sort of reality TV shows or anything like that was sort of unheard of. And that was when you could really see, like, the rise of people becoming famous for literally nothing around the area, driving around in nice cars, filming TV shows, and actually being very wealthy off the back of it. And I think that is sort of the environment that I grew up in. Interesting.

So did that influence you early on? Did you think, wow, I'd love to get a piece of this? Oh, definitely. I think a lot of my friends would be on a show like that. But at first, when I was younger, I didn't always believe things were that easily be obtainable. Like, I didn't believe in manifestation or really myself that much. And then my mindset began to change.

And that's when I used to think, you know, yeah, I would love to. get a piece of this, do you know what I mean? No, don't need any qualifications. All you need to do is turn up, have a good time, have a bit of personality and a laugh, and you'll be like far more well off than pretty much everyone in your school year. Okay. So you got your wish? I did, yeah. How did you get that? Because it was it 2014 that you were 19, you make your first appearance on Taui. How do you think you actually manifested that? How did you make it happen? So it's weird to say because it's not like I went up to I TV studios and knocked on the door

and I was like, come on, let me on towie or even tried to position myself to be on there. I would literally just manifest that something like that would be really good for me and I would imagine what my life would be like, you know, I would imagine myself getting papped, I would imagine myself being in front of a camera. I was just thinking, I think I just wanted to have a good time.

I don't think I was thinking about anything, any next steps. I was just like enjoying each moment. I was young. I was partying a lot. this for me was just let's see how long it lasts. Okay. And let's hope it does. And let's have a good time.

And let's have a good time, yeah. So on Tawi, did you get paid for Tawi? Yeah, we did, but not a lot. So you would only get paid for the days that you filmed. And that was only like two or three days a week. Okay. And I can't remember how much it was, but it was low there. Like how much, I'm trying to think roughly how much you think it was.

It might have been like 80 quid. Per day? Yeah, per day. And you don't film every day. I'm pretty sure. I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure it was that. Georgia, you were losing money then. Well, yeah, because obviously as well,

you're then having to keep up with all of these expenses because everyone looks so good and so glamorous and you can't work because most nights you'll get told at 12 o'clock that night what day you're filming the next day, so you can't commit to anything. So how are you surviving financially at this point? I mean, I was just doing my best.

I had a part-time job as a shot girl, so sometimes I'd be doing towing and sometimes I'd be selling shots in clubs in London, Okay. So Tawi then becomes the beginning of what looks like. Like you've done endless television. Yeah. I mean, you have done. All right. Tell me if I'm off on this. So Tawi. Love Island, Love Island All-Stars, Celebrity S-A-S, The Challenge. Yeah. You've hosted a documentary. Yeah. And Celebrity X on the B. Not top of the list. I did it. So you've done all of these shows. Yeah.

Right. So at what point do you start looking at reality television as a career? And is there anyone that you aspire to be like? See, one thing if you do want to have a career in reality TV that you have to do nowadays is I think when I've done TOWI, I only got about 60,000 followers. But I didn't do that much with it. That was when Instagram was first coming around. And then when I got Love Island, which was a few years later, and it was massive. So I knew when I came off, I was going to have a very big platform, regardless of how long I was on there.

You could literally go in and breathe in that villa and you would come out an influencer. Right, right. And I thought, I'm actually going to put some real work into it when I do come out. So I've always put a lot of work into my social media pages into doing my best to, like, study the algorithm, see what other influencers are doing, listen to podcasts about what's most successful on each platform, make sure to run multiple platforms at the same time. Yes. And I think that is the plan.

The plan is if you can keep yourself relevant on social media, then the other opportunities will follow in and around that. Yeah. I think this is something that is underappreciated by the public. And that is, I think, I think, a lot of people look at those who land on reality TV shows and think, you know what, they lucked up, got on this show, and they got X number of followers, however many that is. and they got all these other deals out of luck.

Yeah. And I think that people don't realize how strategic and well thought, right, a lot of these contributors are. And to your point is that you were consciously thinking, okay, if I do this show, here's what I can do, here's how I can leverage it afterwards. Yeah. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.

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Once you were invited on, you were invited on not as a main character, right? It was basically you were Grace's friend. Grace's friend. So Grace was brought on. You were brought on as her friend. Yeah, so we went on together. Grace was talking to this guy on the show and they really wanted two girls to come on. I don't know, maybe it was more of an entrance or, you know, more powerful together.

and they said it'd be great you two coming on together and we did we walked straight in Mario's party together I was shaking I was so scared where are you yeah because I was like what am I doing she's seeing this guy and I'm just I was working in my shop an hour ago you know like I was it was so quick I don't even think I signed a contractor on this I just kind of walked into this set and was like oh okay then this is what we're doing and I just went with it

just went with it yeah just it was crazy you know I find the not signing a contract, it seems like that's what was done at that time. Yeah, it was just like. Yeah, just come on, just do it. So were you paid then? Yeah, I think we was paid. I can't really remember, but I don't think it was very much, you know. I always kind of knew that I was going on.

Me and Grace was together, but Grace, you know, had a storyline. She was seeing this guy. I was there for, like, moral support, really. So you were like her supporting character. Her supporting character that she needed to get on the show, you know? So she needed me to come on with. But I was kind of just there because I was like, well, what am I doing? I had a boyfriend at the time.

So I weren't there for the guys. And I walked straight in and all the girls on Tower, we just looked at us like, why are they here? Because it was very like that back then. It was like, have you two come for our boyfriends? It was very like that. And I'm the girliest girl ever. And I was like, hi. And they're like, they're not hiring me.

Oh, well. They're just looking. And who were the girls on the show at that time? They had like the Gemmers, the Ferns, all of the original girls. You know, Amy had left at this point. And I'm like, ha-ha. And they were like straight-faced. I thought, oh, scary.

Oh, my gosh. And even for, so that was your first scene on the tower. How did you prepare for it? I remember we got ready in a pub down the road. They, that was the days where the producer told you nothing. Nothing. It was very like, it was so real to the point where terrifying real. They were like, what are you going to do is you're going to just walk straight into that party.

I'm like, sorry. They're like, just walk. I'm like, well, where we go? they're like, you know, I'm like, ah. And what are we doing? We were just linking arms and we're walking. And I remember I had the heels on like this high because that was fashion back then. And I was walking, I was thinking, oh my God, please don't fall.

And my hair was big and it was just all a lot and I had this dress on. And I thought, what we're doing? And then we just walked in and that was it. My whole life changed from that minute. Did it? It was scary. Wow. So it changed, but how quickly did your life change?

I just got thrown in from that minute. Like, from that moment. that minute, I remember thinking, wow, I've walked in. I felt like I'd stepped into a different world. Like, I was, I was so confident in my shop and I had my little surroundings and I had good friends and family and, like, I had a boyfriend. If it was, like, very content and then they've dropped me into this world where I don't really know, I knew a few people from my school back in the day, but all of these girls, I thought, oh, I feel like it's like, not like a war, but it was very like, why you're here?

I couldn't believe it. I didn't experience that before. These girls were like, this is our show. What are you doing? I was like, me and Grace was like, okay, Grace, what we're doing now? And I kind of didn't really think it'd last long. Not for me as well, because I kind of thought, well, I'm just here with Grace, you know. Sure.

And I thought, well, what am I bringing? What did you think you were bringing? Moral support. That was it. I thought, yeah. So you never saw yourself as a main character? No, not at all. All right.

No. So then you're then asked to come back and back and back? And back and back. Yeah. And you're still running the shop at the same time? Yeah. All right. Then it got tricky because I didn't realize that filming was six days a week

and you never knew your day off. So how it worked was I'd get a text the day before and it'd say you will be needed for filming tomorrow at 12 o'clock, picture, cut, dress glam. It was always dressed glam. And I'd be like, oh, okay then, I've got a shop to run. And in the midst of this, I decided to add some beds and a hair station and a makeup station to the shop. Wow. Yeah.

To make it the really one, one-stop shop. It was unbelievable, but that meant I had all this staff. I had so many girls in there. It was unbelievable, but I couldn't do both. It got to a point where I was like, my dad sat me down and he was like, you need to sell this shop. If this is what you want to do, because I loved it. I really enjoyed Towie, although it was terrifying. I found my feet of it quite quick.

And he said, you need to sell this shop quickly before it goes under because we've got a lease on this. And I did. You sold it. Which is such a shame in a way because actually looking back, if I knew I was going to stand tower or I kept it, you know. It helped me. I kind of didn't know what I was doing.

I was like, oh, I'll just go over this path now. The path, it just, it was like my path was here. And then all of a sudden it went this way really quickly. I thought, okay, well, I can't do both. So let's get rid of that shop. All right. So you could double down, focus on Towai. Just focus on Towery.

So I'm sure. you're starting to get recognized. Yeah. You're probably getting offered brand deals at this time. Yeah. Right. So is what's your goal? What are you thinking long term?

Or were you even thinking long term? No. I was more like, well, this is great. I'm getting paid to talk to my friends. Wow. I'm good at talking. That's what I thought. I thought, I can do this.

This is good. And I've really enjoyed it quite quick. And I thought, I'm just going to go with it. I'm just going to go with it. And it kind of felt easier because there was less responsibility. You know, like having a shop, although it was unbelievable, it was a big responsibility that. Yes. Especially when I started having staff, it was hard work then.

Yes. Because staff is hard. They don't come in and things like that. And it's hard. And there was, you know, girls, girls, they have like dilemmas and stuff. So I thought, oh, this is fun. I've been fun here with these friends. And yeah, so I kind of just threw myself into it.

Okay. So what do you think made you good? at Towie. Just being out to talk. That is it, I think. I don't know. I actually don't know. But what, wait, all right, let me push you on this, right?

You think about, you went from supporting character. Yeah. To main character. Yeah. To popular main character. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Own that. Own that. All right then, yeah. So what do you believe it was about you that allowed you to do those things? I'm quite a nice person, honest. I'm actually quite nice. And I like people, which helps. And I naturally took on the role of kind of like the agony aunt, naturally.

People, I have a way that people open up to me quite a lot. And they tell me things they probably shouldn't. Because I could have just met her. They just tell me things. I don't know why. I feel like you have that about you, actually. And people seem to tell me things. And I would end up getting things out of them, not by purpose.

So the scenes we would be doing would be so good because people would just open up. And I'd be like, oh, hang on a minute. You just said you didn't want to talk. And actually, you just told me everything. And it just become this natural role. And I like helping people. So straight away, someone's sad. I'm helping.

Someone's got a dilemma. I'm helping. Their boyfriend problems. I'm helping. They're happy I'm helping. So I could then, I was put in a lot of scenes. and I could film with everyone. That was my superpower.

I could film with everyone. Look at that. Then I know also around that time, that's when Pete Wicks. Yeah, he come on. Came on the show. Who else? Chloe Sims.

Chloe. So Chloe was on there already. And Lydia. Lydia was on there. And she'd left and then she come back on. It was a good time to be part of that show. There was really good characters on there. Yes.

It was good. We had Georgia Harrison on Georgia. So I got Georgia on the show. Oh, you did? Yeah. So she come on as my friend. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

So you knew Georgia just from around? I knew Georgia. We used to play out together when we were younger. She's younger than me, but she used to live down my aunties road. So Essex, that's what Essex is like. So they said, we used to put people forward all the time. And I said, I've got this girl, Georgia. I think she'd be great for the show.

And she come on as my friend. Wow, look at that. Yeah. Look at that. It's incredible. I didn't know that story. Yeah. Yeah.

You now land on TOWY. This is the second series. Yeah. Okay. And I didn't realize this, but you know this. You were the longest running cast member, the history of Tawi. Do you know how many series you were on? Um, I'm going to say 29.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, 29 series. Yeah. 29. And I was 29 when I joined. So that's a series every year. Yeah. Gosh. Now, think about that.

So when you think about Taui, right, there's so much that we could talk about. But what immediately comes to mind? Because sometimes people reflect back at projects and they're uncomfortable with them. They don't want to be associated with them. Sometimes they're very appreciative of what they did. What's your perspective on your time? with Towie. When I think of Tawi, like, it's fond.

It's fond of memories. It was hard, Paul. Like, I joined TV when there weren't a lot of roles. And there weren't all this, like, you know, like, they just, it was different TV times. Let's put it that way. There was allowed to be little rascals. But overall, I had a blast. I had 10 years of an absolute blast.

Like, there was a lot of highs and lows. Don't get me wrong. but it completely changed my life overnight, like that. And it had a lot of negativity. It was like a, you know, a bit of a seesaw. But as far as, like, where I am today, I could never have got this without Towery. I would never have, I wouldn't have this any.

I wouldn't even be sitting with you. We wouldn't know each other if it wasn't for that. You said it changed your life like that. Overnight. Overnight. How so? Well, I went on a TV show for, two weeks, didn't tell a soul, I let it go out.

Can you imagine what happened with my phone? I didn't have any social media. I only had Facebook, which I disabled, because that is what advice I'd been given. Okay. And one of the other cast members, she made me a Twitter. I didn't even know what Twitter was. I didn't have it. She was like, you need Twitter and she set it all up.

And I remember my blackboard going, ping, bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, it was like crashing because it was so mental. This TV show just was so big. Yes. I had a very negative entrance, again, about my looks, because now I took it too far. So now everyone was like, oh, look at her lips, look at her missing tooth. She's this, she's ugly, blah, blah, blah.

So then I had all that negativity. Interesting. But that's not Towie's fault. They're just filming me how I was, you know. But like the press, yeah, they were terrible as a way to describe them. They was allowed to talk about us in any which way they was allowed. It was like a given then. They used to call me like car crash Chloe and talk about my looks

and like use really unflattering photos. But I didn't really give a shit. I was making all this money. I was getting, I was getting chased by Papps. Like me and Maddie were living, you know? Like I was thinking I've done it. I've sorted me and Maddie out. Like we're good.

You were like, I've arrived. Yeah. Next minute I had a brand new car, brand new out of the showroom. Like you would, that girl that was. stood in the shop who didn't have anything, just paying a rent. Suddenly, I had it all. I went off to LA, started taking Maddie on lovely holidays. And I thought, wow, like, suck of rags to riches overnight story.

Where does the money in the early time of TOWY? Where does the money come from? Because what I understand is they weren't paying you. No, they didn't pay in Series 1. In Series 2, they paid for your expenses. which was £50 every time you filmed, not per day. And at the time, we were filming like six days a week. But we was earning money from magazine interviews, appearances, and PAs.

Lots of money. I see. Money that I had an ad ever. So it's not lots of money compared to like what the Kardashians are for. Right. But a lot of money in comparison to what I had. Yes, yes. So I see.

So as soon as the show hits the air, it starts coming in. Yeah, like people wanted to do fake tans with me, clothing lines with me, plus you're getting given everything. Yes. So you're not even really spending as much money now. I didn't even really have to buy stuff.

That stuff, tell a light, that did come later. The first season, I did make money, but this is a true story. When I joined, I had my life savings, and it was £1,000. And I remember having to dip into that to get clothes originally. because I needed the clothes to wear because obviously six days a week

I didn't have enough clothes for that so yeah I remember dipping into that but then I started getting my deals and everything for free interesting but even dip I would imagine because you'd been saving that for that thousand pound was my life line that was my my nanoway said

always have something put away for an emergency and don't spend it and even if I borrowed something out of it I'd always put it back you know okay so and you dipped in to buy, and some people would say, you dipped in to buy clothes, but it seems like your plan was, no, when I show up on this show, I'm going to make sure that people see me.

Yeah, it was an investment. I was like, that was my life savings. And I lived above a clove shop, and then facing it was another clove shop, and I was going in there and buying the dresses. And then eventually they said, you ain't got paid for him no more. Just do us a tweet. And I was like, okay. And if you want to hear the full unfiltered,

stories from today's guest, you can check them out on the We Need to Talk page. Drop a like, leave a comment, and hit subscribe. See you next week.