The Circle 2021: Meet new player Shabaz – playing as chemistry teacher Alice

A brand new player enters The Circle tonight as Shabaz joins the game.

Shabaz is a 29-year-old Secondary school teacher from Blackburn.

However on The Circle he’ll be playing as 23-year-old chemistry teacher Alice.

Ahead of entering The Circle, Shabaz explains: “Her background and her upbringing is totally different to mine. I grew up in a small northern town with working class parents who came from abroad. Alice grew up as the quintessential middle-class white girl in an affluent southern area.

“I think she grew up quite privileged. She went on holidays every year, she did horse riding as a kid, she took violin lessons. Her later years, post 18, will be quite similar to mine: She went to uni where I went to uni; She travelled where I travelled; She’s a teacher and I’m a teacher.”

He continues: “Growing up, I never really saw people like me online. Alice has always been a role model to all types of people. I call her my “last girl” because she’s the girl that survives to the end of the horror film. She’s Sidney Prescott. She’s that girl who goes on the journey from being the simple girl next door to crawling through the mud as a survivor.

“When I was growing up, and I’m sure it’s true for a lot of people of colour, this type of girl was the cool girl role model portrayed in the media and it didn’t make a difference to us. Whereas I think for white people, they wouldn’t have seen many role models from another race. Someone like Alice and I could both go online and talk about things like bullying and racism.

“We could both be saying the same core message, but she would be the one who gets more views because people instantly relate to Alice as a role model.

“People from all walks of life might relate to Alice straight away, whereas I think some people seeing me, Shabaz, could think ‘I don’t get his life. I don’t get his struggle’ just because we aren’t similar.”

Shabaz says he’s “done quite a lot” of research into his character.

He shares: “In terms of being a girl I’ve tried to go deeper than just the superficial things. I think if a lad were doing research, the first thing they might do is read about girl’s makeup, but I’ve tried to go into more detail about the female mind.”

Meanwhile Shabaz won’t be the only player joining The Circle tonight.

Also entering the game will be ‘Father Tom’, a 29-year-old priest, who is actually being controlled by Pippa and Joey after they were blocked in last night’s show.

Pippa and Joey will be secretly working together as a double act in the hope of splitting the prize money if Tom can win the game.

The Circle continues at 10PM tonight on Channel 4 and All 4.