Davood Ghadami joins Strictly Come Dancing 2017: EastEnders’ Kush is second star to sign up to show

The actor plays Kush in the BBC soap
Soap star: Davood Ghadami is the second star to join the 2017 Strictly lineup
BBC/Jack Barnes

EastEnders’ Davood Ghadami is the second star to sign up for the 2017 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The actor, who plays market stall-owner Kush Kazemi on the BBC soap, will join Mollie King who was announced as the ballroom show’s first contestant earlier this week.

In a statement, Ghadami said it was ‘an honour’ to have the chance to appear on the programme.

"It's going to be exciting, challenging and terrifying all at once and I am so looking forward to stepping out of my comfort zone and learning to dance."

The 25-year-old’s role in the Albert Square soap won him the best newcomer at the 2015 TV choice awards. Ghadami has also appeared in Doctor Who, Silent Witness, and Law & Order.

EastEnders actors swapping the soap for Strictly is something of a tradition. Tameka Empson was part of the cast of last year’s series, Jake Wood got through to the semi-finals in 2014 and Kara Tointon won series eight in 2010.

Strictly Come Dancing 2016: red carpet launch

1/11

Earlier this week former The Saturdays singer Mollie King was revealed to be the first star to have signed up for this year’s series.

She told Nick Grimshaw on his Radio 1 breakfast show that she was ‘so excited’ to be joining the programme.

More celebrity names from the 2017 line-up are set to be revealed over the coming weeks.

Strictly Come Dancing will return to BBC One this autumn.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in