A Swansea actor who reached the Britain’s Got Talent final at 12 and sang at Michael Jackson’s memorial has landed a leading role in one of television’s biggest dramas.
Shaheen Jafargholi joins the second season of Heated Rivalry as Fabian Salah, in casting first reported by Deadline.
The Canadian series follows the rivalry and romance between two professional ice hockey players, based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels. Its first season became HBO’s highest-rated acquisition in the channel’s history, Deadline reported.
Jafargholi stars opposite Daniel Diemer, of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, who plays Ryan Price. The new season arrives in spring 2027, airing on Sky and NOW in the UK.
“Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy to the world Rachel Reid has created,” said co-creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady. “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.”
They added: “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.”
From a Swansea stage school to a billion viewers
Jafargholi was born at Singleton Hospital, grew up in Swansea and trained at the city’s Mark Jermin Stage School before auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, aged 12.
It nearly went wrong. Simon Cowell stopped his first song, Valerie, after two lines, telling him: “You got this really wrong.” Asked to sing something else, the schoolboy came back with the Jackson 5’s Who’s Lovin’ You, and brought the room to its feet. He went all the way to the final, finishing seventh.
The performance caught the attention of Michael Jackson himself, who invited him to perform at his This Is It comeback shows in London. After Jackson’s death, Jafargholi sang that same song at his globally televised memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, following a eulogy from its writer Smokey Robinson.
Watching in the arena, Motown founder Berry Gordy was asked by broadcaster Larry King who the young singer was. “I have no cotton pickin’ idea who that is,” Gordy reportedly replied, “but if I were still in the business, I would sign him tomorrow.”
Soap fans know him best as Shakil Kazemi, killed off in EastEnders’ harrowing knife-crime storyline in 2018 after two years in Walford, before five years as nurse Marty Kirkby in Casualty and a reprise in Holby City. His recent credits include Wreck and the BBC’s Welsh-set drama Lost Boys and Fairies.
He announced the news on Instagram with two words: “gag it.”
The congratulations rolled in, led by fellow Swansea native and former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, alongside EastEnders co-star Tilly Keeper, new castmate Emily Hampshire and It’s a Sin star Olly Alexander.
The new season’s cast also includes Edvin Ryding, Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Robert Naylor, Sabrina Jalees and Drag Race star Priyanka.
Season one followed players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, as they fought to keep their relationship out of the public eye. Both return for the new run.
Seventeen years after a Swansea schoolboy stood on the Britain’s Got Talent stage, he’ll open next spring on one of the biggest shows in America.
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