Former Britain's Got Talent Child Star Joins Heated Rivalry Season 2 Cast

Heated Rivalry has made more additions to the cast of its long-awaited second season – including one actor who might be a familiar face to British viewers.

On Tuesday, bosses announced two new members of the cast in the form of Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi, who will be playing Ryan Price and Fabian Salah in the hugely popular sports romance’s next outing.

While Canadian performer Daniel has previously been seen in another queer romance, Netflix’s The Half Of It, as well as Disney+’s Percy Jackson And The Olympians and Amazon’s The Man In The High Castle, Shaheen got his start in a very different way.

In fact, the Welsh actor rose to fame as a child star when he competed on the third season of Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 at the age of 12.

He received widespread praise and sparked a viral moment thanks to his audition performance of Who’s Lovin’ You, which led to him being chosen by the Jackson family to perform the song at Michael Jackson’s televised memorial service later that year.

In the years since his BGT audition, Shaheen has continued to forge a career for himself in the acting world, first playing Shakil Kazemi in EastEnders, before being cast as Marty Kirkby in Casualty.

More recently, he played Celyn in the domestic drama Lost Boys And Fairies and will next be seen in the HBO Max series War, alongside the likes of Line Of Duty’s Kelly Macdonald, It’s A Sin’s Omari Douglas, Rivals’ Luca Pasqualino and The Sandman’s Douglas Booth.

Heated Rivalry creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady said in a statement: “Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy to the world Rachel Reid has created. 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.”

As well as returning stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, the next season of Heated Rivalry will also feature Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie as new couple Harris Drover and Troy Barrett.

Filming is now underway, with production recently released a message addressed to “our incredible fans and everyone who’s been sharing in the excitement for the show”, which read: “Your support, enthusiasm, and kindness have meant the world to us. As we gear up for more Heated Rivalry, please help us in making it the best it can be.

“If you happen to come across one of our filming locations, please give our cast and crew the space they need to do what they do best. We promise it’ll be worth the wait!”