Celebrity Traitors Cast: Meet All 21 Stars of Series 2

Last Updated: 8 October 2026

The celebrity traitors cast for series 2 is the biggest line-up the BBC show has ever assembled, with 21 famous faces checking into Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands when the new series began on Thursday 1 October 2026 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Hosted once again by Claudia Winkleman, the series has already delivered a record-breaking premiere, a first murder and a roundtable cliffhanger that has the whole country talking.

If you want to know exactly who is in the celebrity traitors cast, who was secretly chosen as a Traitor, who has already been murdered, and what happens in episode 3 tonight, Thursday 8 October, this guide has everything as of 8 October 2026 — the full cast table, the story so far and the complete broadcast schedule.

Who is in the celebrity traitors cast? Series 2 features 21 stars at Ardross Castle, including Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Maya Jama, Richard E. Grant, James Acaster and Romesh Ranganathan. Claudia Winkleman hosts, episodes air Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm on BBC One, and episode 3 is tonight.

What Is the Celebrity Traitors Cast? The Simple Definition

Here is the simple definition: the celebrity traitors cast is the group of famous contestants who play the BBC’s game of trust and betrayal at Ardross Castle, secretly divided into Faithfuls and a small team of Traitors chosen by host Claudia Winkleman. The Faithfuls must work out who is lying, while the Traitors try to stay hidden, eliminate rivals at night and reach the final undetected.

The format is simple to follow but fiendishly hard to play. By day, the whole celebrity traitors cast works together on missions to build a prize pot for charity. By night, the Traitors meet in secret and choose a Faithful to “murder” — removing them from the game. In between, everyone gathers at the roundtable, argues their case and votes to banish the person they most suspect. Banish a Traitor and the Faithfuls celebrate; banish a Faithful and the Traitors edge closer to winning the money for their own chosen charities.

What makes the celebrity version so compelling is familiarity. Viewers already have opinions about every member of the celebrity traitors cast before a word is spoken — who seems trustworthy, who seems too clever, who might crumble under pressure. Series 2 leans into that brilliantly, mixing actors, comedians, presenters, musicians and broadcasters so that reputations collide in almost every scene. A beloved sitcom star can look suspicious simply by being quiet, while a famously sharp comedian can hide in plain sight by making the table laugh.

Celebrity Traitors Cast: The Full 21-Star Line-Up

The full celebrity traitors cast for series 2 contains 21 contestants — the largest cast in the show’s history. The line-up, as confirmed in coverage of the series including Radio Times’ guide to the Celebrity Traitors cast and line-up for season 2, is:

Contestant	Known for	Status as of 8 October 2026
Amol Rajan	Broadcaster and presenter	Murdered in episode 2 — first murder of the series
Bella Ramsey	Actor	In the game
Hannah Fry	Mathematician and broadcaster	In the game
James Acaster	Comedian	In the game
James Blunt	Singer-songwriter	In the game
Jerry Hall	Model and actor	In the game
Joanne McNally	Comedian	In the game
Joe Lycett	Comedian and presenter	In the game
Julie Hesmondhalgh	Actor	In the game
King Kenny	Content creator and boxer	In the game
Leigh-Anne Pinnock	Singer	In the game
Maya Jama	Presenter	In the game
Michael Sheen	Actor	In the game
Miranda Hart	Comedian and actor	In the game
Myha’la	Actor	In the game
Richard E. Grant	Actor	In the game — facing the roundtable vote in episode 3
Rob Beckett	Comedian	In the game
Romesh Ranganathan	Comedian and presenter	In the game
Ross Kemp	Actor and documentary maker	In the game
Sebastian Croft	Actor	In the game
Sharon Rooney	Actor	In the game

Read the table and the balance of the celebrity traitors cast becomes clear. There is serious acting weight — Michael Sheen, Richard E. Grant, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Sharon Rooney, Bella Ramsey, Myha’la and Sebastian Croft — alongside a deep bench of comedians in James Acaster, Joe Lycett, Joanne McNally, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan and Miranda Hart. Add presenters and broadcasters Amol Rajan and Hannah Fry, music stars James Blunt and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, model Jerry Hall, documentary maker Ross Kemp and creator King Kenny, and almost every corner of British fame is represented around one table.

That mix matters strategically. Actors are assumed to be natural liars, so they attract suspicion early whether they deserve it or not. Comedians can deflect with humour, but a joke at the wrong moment looks like nerves. Analysts like Hannah Fry are expected to spot patterns, which makes them valuable to the Faithfuls — and dangerous to the Traitors. Every member of this celebrity traitors cast therefore starts with both an advantage and a target on their back.

Who Are the Traitors in the Celebrity Traitors Cast?

Claudia Winkleman made her first selections in episode 1, choosing Maya Jama and Richard E. Grant as the series’ opening Traitors. It was a bold pairing: a presenter known for warmth and quick wit alongside one of Britain’s most distinguished actors. Between them they had charm, authority and — crucially — faces the rest of the celebrity traitors cast instinctively trusted.

In episode 2, the pair strengthened their team by recruiting a third Traitor: comedian James Acaster. Recruitment is one of the game’s cruellest twists, because the chosen player must abandon the Faithful cause and begin lying to people who, moments earlier, were allies. For viewers, the recruitment instantly changed the dynamics of the celebrity traitors cast: three Traitors can coordinate votes, protect each other at the roundtable and spread suspicion across several Faithfuls at once.

The Traitors’ first murder followed swiftly. Amol Rajan became the first contestant murdered in series 2, leaving the game in episode 2. First murders are rarely random: Traitors usually remove someone they see as observant, influential or likely to organise the Faithfuls. Losing a broadcaster of Rajan’s sharpness so early was a statement of intent — this Traitor team is playing to win, not to coast. You can catch up on the wider series story in our earlier guide to Celebrity Traitors 2026.

What Happened in Episodes 1 and 2?

Episode 1, broadcast on Thursday 1 October, did what great opening episodes do: it introduced the celebrity traitors cast, set the stakes and lit the fuse. The contestants arrived at Ardross Castle, Claudia selected her Traitors with the now-famous shoulder taps, and the first mission gave everyone a false sense of teamwork. Beneath the laughter, alliances were already forming — and so were the first, fateful misreadings of body language and small talk.

Episode 2 raised the temperature considerably. The recruitment of James Acaster expanded the Traitor team, Amol Rajan’s murder gave the Faithfuls their first genuine loss, and suspicion began to settle in unexpected places. The episode’s closing roundtable then produced the moment everyone is still discussing: Richard E. Grant came under intense scrutiny after a slip in which he appeared to admit that he was a Traitor.

Whether that moment was a genuine error, a joke taken out of context or clever editing designed to mislead, viewers were not told. The episode ended on a cliffhanger, with Grant’s fate at the roundtable unresolved. For a member of the celebrity traitors cast who actually is a Traitor, it is close to the worst possible position: one careless phrase can undo two episodes of careful performance in a single vote. Our profile of Richard E. Grant looks at the actor’s career and why his Traitors moment landed so hard.

Episode 3 Tonight: The Richard E. Grant Cliffhanger

Episode 3 airs tonight, Thursday 8 October 2026, at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer — and it begins where episode 2 stopped, with the celebrity traitors cast deciding Richard E. Grant’s fate. If the table votes to banish him and he is forced to reveal his true role, the Faithfuls will score their first major victory and the Traitors will lose their most experienced performer. If he survives, he will arguably be even stronger: a Traitor who talked his way out of an apparent confession becomes very hard to accuse twice.

Tonight’s episode matters for the whole series, not just one contestant. Here is what to watch for:

1. The opening minutes: the roundtable result is expected first, deciding whether Grant stays or is banished and must declare his role.
2. Maya Jama’s reaction: as a fellow Traitor, she must react convincingly either way without exposing herself.
3. James Acaster’s position: freshly recruited, he needs to blend in while suspicion is focused elsewhere.
4. The next murder: whoever survives the banishment, the Traitors will strike again, and their choice will reveal how threatened they feel.
5. New suspicions: a resolved cliffhanger always creates a new one — expect fresh accusations before the episode ends.

One practical tip for tonight: avoid social media from 8pm until you have watched. Cliffhanger resolutions are spoiled within minutes, and tonight’s outcome is precisely the kind of moment the celebrity traitors cast conversation online will not wait for anyone to discover at their own pace.

When and How to Watch: The Full Series 2 Schedule

Series 2 runs for 10 episodes, airing on Thursday and Friday nights at 8pm on BBC One, with every episode also available on BBC iPlayer. That twice-weekly rhythm gives the celebrity traitors cast story room to breathe: Thursday episodes tend to end on a murder or a mission twist, while Friday episodes deliver the roundtable fallout.

• Started: Thursday 1 October 2026, BBC One and iPlayer.
• Episode 3: tonight, Thursday 8 October 2026, at 8pm.
• Pattern: two episodes a week, Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm.
• Final: expected on Friday 30 October 2026.
• Spin-off: Uncloaked, the companion show, airs on the BBC after episodes with cast interviews and analysis.

If you are catching up, iPlayer has the opening episodes in full, and Uncloaked is well worth your time: eliminated players describe what they suspected, what they missed and how it felt to learn the truth. It is also the safest way to enjoy more of the celebrity traitors cast without straying into spoiler-filled comment threads about episodes you have not reached yet.

A note on timings for new viewers: each episode runs at a generous length, so an 8pm start means the roundtable drama usually lands in the final stretch of the hour, just as social media reaches peak volume. Recording the show or watching on a short delay is a sensible compromise if you cannot watch live — you keep the tension of the reveal, skip nothing important, and still finish early enough to join the post-episode conversation. What you should not do is dip into a phone feed “just to check the score so far”: with this series, a single trending name can give away a murder, a recruitment or a banishment in one glance.

Why This Series Is Breaking Records — and Who Said No

The numbers underline the scale of the launch. The premiere drew an average audience of 8.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched debut of any Traitors series in the UK. For a format still young by British television standards, that is remarkable — and it reflects how completely the celebrity traitors cast concept has captured the public imagination. Casting famous faces did not dilute the game; it amplified every suspicion, because viewers feel they already know these people.

Perhaps the most surprising casting story, though, concerns someone who is not in the castle at all. Liam Gallagher has revealed that he turned down a place in the series. It is easy to imagine the chaos he might have brought to the roundtable — and his refusal only adds to the mythology of a celebrity traitors cast that producers clearly aimed as high as possible when invitations went out.

There is also a charitable heart to all the scheming, which is easy to forget amid the cloaks and accusations. The prize pot the contestants build through their missions is destined for charities chosen by the winner or winners, so every successful mission genuinely matters beyond the game itself. That knowledge sharpens the moral edge of every betrayal: a Traitor who sabotages a mission is not just playing hard, they are visibly costing good causes money, in front of colleagues who will eventually learn exactly who was responsible. It is one reason the reunions on Uncloaked can be so emotional — and why viewers forgive the lying far more readily than they forgive a half-hearted mission.

So who wins from here? The honest answer is that the game is beautifully poised. The Traitors hold a numbers advantage and have already removed a strong Faithful, but their most visible member faces banishment tonight, and a recruited Traitor always carries the risk of playing the role slightly differently from those chosen at the start. The Faithfuls, meanwhile, have a castle full of clever, funny and highly competitive people — if they can organise without turning on each other, this celebrity traitors cast could yet produce a famous Faithful fightback.

Conclusion: 21 stars, three Traitors and one enormous cliffhanger. The celebrity traitors cast of series 2 has already given viewers a record-breaking premiere, a ruthless first murder and a roundtable moment that will be replayed for years whatever happens next. Tonight at 8pm, Richard E. Grant’s fate is decided — watch live on BBC One if you can, catch up on iPlayer if you cannot, and bookmark FamePost’s Entertainment coverage for the result, the reaction and the next twist in this extraordinary series.