Who is Sharon Rooney? Celebrity Traitors 2026 contestant
Sharon Rooney is a 37-year-old Glasgow-born actress joining Celebrity Traitors season 2 on BBC One. Best known for My Mad Fat Diary and Lawyer Barbie in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, she enters the castle aiming to play as a Faithful, not a Traitor, while competing for up to £100,000 for charity.
Key Takeaways
- Sharon Rooney, 37, is a Celebrity Traitors 2026 contestant and BAFTA Scotland-winning actress.
- She rose to fame as Rae Earl in My Mad Fat Diary and later played Lawyer Barbie in Barbie.
- Rooney says she wants to be a Faithful, admitting she lacks a poker face and struggles to lie.
- Her game plan is to "keep yourself right" and resist peer-pressure voting at the round table.
- Celebrity Traitors season 2 premieres Thursday 1 October 2026 at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Who is Sharon Rooney and what is she known for?
Born in Glasgow on 22 October 1988, Sharon Rooney left Knightswood Secondary School at 16 to pursue acting. She later completed a performing arts course and a drama degree at Hull University before touring stand-up and school theatre.
Her breakthrough came as Rae Earl in E4's My Mad Fat Diary, a role that earned critical acclaim and a BAFTA Scotland Best Actress win in 2015. She went on to play Sophie in Two Doors Down, Lawyer Barbie in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Miss Atlantis in the 2019 Dumbo remake, Becky in The Capture, and Rachel in The Revenge Club.
Other credits include No Offence, Zapped, Jerk, Finding Alice, Daddy Issues, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, and Grow. Fans can find her on Instagram at @sharon_rooney.
Does Sharon Rooney want to be a Faithful or a Traitor?
Rooney has made clear she wants to be a Faithful. "I don't think I'm cut out to be a Traitor really," she said, citing a poor poker face as a deal-breaker for the role. She also admits she is "really bad at lying," recalling how she would confess childhood mishaps to her mum immediately.
If Claudia Winkleman did cast her among the Traitors, Rooney said she would have to treat it like an acting job and play "a version of me." Even then, she doubts she would excel as a Faithful either: "We'll have to see."
Her strategy mirrors her life approach: "keep yourself right." She will not vote someone out just because the group is doing it, even if standing alone makes her look guilty. Her biggest worry is going quiet in large groups of 20-plus people, hoping allies she connects with will not murder or banish her.
When does Celebrity Traitors 2026 start and who else is cast?
Celebrity Traitors season 2 begins Thursday 1 October 2026 at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, airing twice weekly on Thursdays and Fridays. Twenty-one famous faces head to Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands to compete for up to £100,000 for charity, in a game of deception that sits squarely in true crime and unsolved mysteries territory for fans of psychological suspense.
Rooney joins a stacked line-up including Ross Kemp, Maya Jama, Richard E Grant, Michael Sheen, Bella Ramsey, James Blunt, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and Joe Lycett. She called the invite "one of those things that you can't say no to," adding that seeing the cast list already feels like "a wild dream."
Spin-off coverage includes The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked and a new special, Traitor or Faithful? Claudia Decides, on BBC iPlayer from 9.15pm on premiere night.