Who is Sharon Rooney? Meet Celebrity Traitors 2026 contestant and actress

It's been a long time coming – but the day has come for The Celebrity Traitors season 2!

This year, 21 famous faces will be heading to The Traitors castle, all ready to play the ultimate game of deception and betrayal in the hope of winning a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

Just some of the celebrities taking part include Ross Kemp, Maya Jama, Richard E Grant and Sharon Rooney, whose strategy is to "keep yourself right".

"That would mean I'm not going to be swayed by any peer pressure. I'm not going to just vote for someone because everyone's doing it," she explained.

"If I don't think it's right, I'm not going to do it. I think that might be dangerous because it might make me look guilty, but I hate that thing where people vote for someone just because everyone's doing it. I’ll be true to myself, and I won’t just go along with the crowd."

So, just who is Sharon Rooney? Read on to find out more about The Celebrity Traitors season 2 contestant.

Age: 37

Job: Actress

Instagram: @sharon_rooney

Sharon Rooney is an actress best known for her role as Rae Earl in My Mad Fat Diary or, for some, as Lawyer Barbie in Greta Gerwig's Barbie.

She received critical acclaim for her portrayal as Rae, which saw her nominated seven times, one of which she won best actress at the BAFTA Scotland awards in 2015.

This led to her casting as Sophie in Two Doors Down. Her other roles include Miss Atlantis in the 2019 remake of Dumbo, Becky in The Capture and more recently, Rachel in The Revenge Club.

Why did Sharon sign up for The Celebrity Traitors?

Like her co-stars, Sharon is a big fan of Celebrity Traitors, describing us "one of those things that you can't say no to".

She added: "I've not even started yet, and this already feels like a wild dream. It's been crazy seeing the list of everyone else taking part."

Does Sharon want to be a Faithful or Traitor?

Sharon Rooney wants to be a Faithful, admitting she does't think she's "cut out to be a Traitor", though isn't sure if she'd be the best Faithful either.

"The main reason being I don't have a good poker face," she explained. "And I think that is quite high up on the job description."

She added: "Because the cloak's good for hiding, but you can't wear it all the time because then they can tell that you're a Traitor. I think I would be quite rubbish at that. I don't know if I'd be a good Faithful either. We’ll have to see."

The Celebrity Traitors starts on Thursday 1 October at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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Authors

Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.