Actress Nina Wadia joins Strictly Come Dancing’s official line up

Actress Nina Wadia has been officially announced for Strictly Come Dancing’s latest season.

Nina Wadia OBE is an actor and Strictly’s eleventh confirmed celebrity contestant.

Nina is an actor well known for many roles including starring in the BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, Open All Hours spin-off Still Open All Hours, and for playing Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, where she won ‘Best Onscreen Partnership’ and ‘Best Comedy’ at the British Soap Awards.

Nina has performed in a variety of theatre productions including the Tony award winning The Vagina Monologues and recently appeared in the live-action film remake of Aladdin. Nina is also a regular presenter on BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live. A JDRF ambassador, she received an OBE in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List for her services to charity and entertainment.

Nina said: “I’ve always danced like nobody’s watching, so if we blindfold the judges I could actually win Strictly 2021.”

The news was revealed today (Thursday 12th August) on ITV’s Lorraine.

Other celebrities confirmed for Strictly Come Dancing line up include cookery author John Whaite, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and soap star Katie McGlynn.

Also on the cast are comic and actor Robert Webb, Dragons’ Den’s Sara Davies MBE and BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker.

Finishing the 2021 contestants are TV presenter Rhys Stephenson, TV and social media personality Tilly Ramsay and TV presenter AJ Odudu.

More names will be confirmed over the coming days.

Further celebrities rumoured for Strictly Come Dancing line up currently include Years & Years star Olly Alexander, actor Gregory Piper from Line Of Duty, GMB stars Alex Beresford and Laura Tobin and fitness guru Joe Wicks.

Further rumoured names include footballer Michael Owen, BBC weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker, football star Peter Crouch, rugby player and pundit Ugo Monye, Westlife’s Mark Feehily and TV star Ryan Thomas.

Strictly’s new series starts in the autumn on BBC One, fronted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman

Meanwhile over on spin-off show It Takes Two, Janette Manrara will present after Zoe Ball stepped down.

Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood will return as judges joined by Anton Du Beke for this series. Bruno Tonioli will not take part this year because of the ongoing travel restrictions.

Picture: BBC