Shaheen Jafargholi / instagram.com/shaheenjafa
Former EastEnders actor Shaheen Jafargholi has joined the cast of hit drama Heated Rivalry for its second season.
Filming of new episodes of the acclaimed gay drama, which stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as two top ice hockey players who fall in love, recently began in Canada.
Several new castings have already been announced for season two – and now Jafargholi, 29, has also joined the ensemble.
The Welsh actor played youngster Shakil Kazemi on EastEnders from 2016 until 2018, when the character was tragically killed off in a knife crime storyline.
Jafargholi has since gone on to appear in Casualty as a series regular, the BBC Three comedy drama Wrecked and the LGBT drama Lost Boys and Fairies.
In Heated Rivalry he will portray the character of Fabian Salah, an aspiring musician who forms a relationship with anxiety-riddled ice hockey player Ryan Price, who will be played by Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘ Daniel Diemer.
Fabian and Ryan’s romance is the key driver of book three of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, Tough Guy.
“Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy to the world Rachel Reid has created,” executive producers Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady said in a joint statement.
“They are bold, complicated, and deeply compelling characters, and finding actors who could really take on all of those different sides was so important to us. Daniel and Shaheen bring such confidence and emotional honesty to the roles.
“We can’t wait for audiences to see what they do with Fabian and Ryan and how they make these characters their own.”
The new season is expected to premiere in April 2027.
