Culture & Lifestyle
Celebrity Traitors: Can Myha'la Really Win?
The reported second-series cast promises serious competition, but we’re more interested in how Myha’la handles suspicion than how convincingly she plays ruthless.
By Eleanor Marsh, Senior Writer
Published · 6 min read
Quick answerMyha’la is in the reported line-up for the second Celebrity Traitors series, listed to start on BBC One on Thursday 1 October at 8pm. She is a contender, not a confirmed winner: playing Industry’s Harper Stern tells us little about her actual strategy.
Myha’la faces a particularly awkward introduction to The Celebrity Traitors: arriving with a fictional reputation that other players might mistake for a real one. The Industry actor features in the reported cast for the second celebrity series, alongside names including Maya Jama, Michael Sheen and Bella Ramsey. The listed opening broadcast is Thursday 1 October at 8pm on BBC One.
We rate her as someone worth watching, but not because Harper Stern’s competitive instincts somehow transfer with the costume change. Her more interesting challenge would be persuading a room full of performers to judge the person in front of them rather than the character they remember. In this game, being considered dangerous can be considerably less useful than being dangerous.
What happened
The reported line-up brings together actors, presenters, musicians, comedians and online talent for another celebrity version of the deception competition. Claudia Winkleman hosts the format, in which most contestants are Faithfuls trying to identify a concealed group of Traitors. Players face votes to banish them, while the Traitors can remove opponents through the game’s overnight “murders”.
Among the reported participants are Richard E. Grant, Miranda Hart, James Blunt, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jerry Hall and King Kenny. That range matters beyond the promotional photograph: contestants arrive with different audiences, professional habits and degrees of familiarity with one another. Celebrity status is not a single, evenly distributed advantage.
There is also a substantial comedy contingent, including James Acaster, Romesh Ranganathan, Joe Lycett, Rob Beckett and Joanne McNally. We wouldn’t assume that makes the comedians a ready-made alliance. Shared professional territory might help people establish rapport, but it can also give them reasons to scrutinise a colleague whose behaviour suddenly seems unfamiliar.
For now, the useful distinction is between casting information and competition results. The reported names do not establish who becomes a Traitor, who survives a banishment or who reaches the final. Nor does the supplied material include an official scheduling announcement. Treat the listed transmission time as planning information to check against BBC listings, not a licence to invent an episode-by-episode forecast.
The background
The first celebrity series ended with Alan Carr winning after a finale involving Joe Marler and Cat Burns. That result supplies a useful corrective to any attempt to select a winner by professional seriousness. A comedy career plainly does not prevent a contestant from succeeding at deception; equally, Carr’s victory is not evidence that another comedian must repeat it.
The format creates two separate problems for a Faithful. Identifying a Traitor is one; staying in the competition long enough to act on that judgement is another. A player can make an intelligent observation and still become a target. Conversely, surviving several rounds does not necessarily mean someone has understood what is happening.
That is why a contestant’s impressive CV makes such a poor prediction tool. Mathematician Hannah Fry and University Challenge presenter Amol Rajan feature in the reported cast, but analytical ability cannot supply information that a player has never been given. The challenge is reasoning from incomplete evidence while other people are actively trying to corrupt it.
An acting role is not a personality test
Myha’la’s best-known television role makes the comparison especially tempting. Harper Stern operates in Industry’s competitive financial world, where ambition and shifting loyalties drive the drama. But a scripted performance involves learning material and delivering a character. A social-deception game involves responding to other participants without knowing all their motives.
There may be transferable skills: listening, maintaining composure and adjusting a performance to a scene partner. Those are plausible advantages, not demonstrated strengths in this particular competition. They are also hardly exclusive to Myha’la in a cast containing experienced actors such as Sheen, Grant and Julie Hesmondhalgh.
The celebrity edition adds a further complication to the basic game: an existing public image. A familiar face can feel trustworthy before that contestant has done anything to earn trust. Our reading is that the strongest player will need to recognise those assumptions without becoming trapped by their own. Being everybody’s favourite television presence is not an immunity shield.
What people are saying
The obvious pre-series argument for Myha’la is the Harper Stern comparison: she makes a formidable fictional operator, so perhaps she will make a formidable contestant. We find that entertaining as a viewing hook and unconvincing as evidence. There is no verified winner information in the supplied material, and no contestant testimony establishing how she approaches the game.
Our position is narrower: Myha’la is an intriguing prospect because expectations could shape her reception before she speaks. If fellow contestants anticipate calculation, ordinary hesitation might look suspicious. If she wins their confidence, that same reputation could become less important. Watching her negotiate that gap would tell us more than another prediction based on a television character.
Maya Jama offers a different question. Presenting requires keeping conversations moving and responding to people in the moment, but those professional demands do not establish how she would manage a hostile vote. We would watch who volunteers information to her, rather than assume an assured public manner automatically produces influence.
The comedians could expose another distinction: being entertaining and being persuasive are not the same thing. A joke can defuse a tense exchange, but it can also prevent a useful question from being answered. Our test would be whether humour helps a contestant examine an accusation or simply changes the subject. Both might be effective, for very different reasons.
Richard E. Grant’s presence raises the question of affection. A contestant whom others like might find it easier to be heard, but popularity can become a liability if rivals see an easy route to the final forming. We would resist making age, warmth or professional reputation shorthand for how anyone will actually play.
What happens next
The first meaningful evidence will be the contestants’ behaviour once the competition begins. Before that, assigning finishing positions would amount to dressing instinct up as information. A more useful preview identifies what could change our assessment: role allocation, early voting choices and the way players respond when their first theory turns out to be wrong.
For Myha’la, we would watch how she handles disagreement. Does she explain her reasoning, ask another question or make the exchange about loyalty? None of those responses proves guilt. Together, over time, they could reveal whether she is building a position that survives challenge or relying on people accepting her initial judgement.
Watch the quieter exchanges, too. A forceful accusation at the round table may be the visible endpoint of conversations that happened elsewhere. To assess influence, ask whose suggestion others repeat and who receives information without having to demand it. Volume is easy to spot; persuasion takes more attention.
There is also a limit to armchair detective work. Viewers see an edited account, not every conversation in full, and knowledge available to the audience may differ from what contestants know. An expression selected for a reaction shot is not, by itself, reliable evidence of someone’s intentions. Keep that in mind before declaring anybody hopeless.
Our verdict for the opening episode: follow Myha’la, but leave Harper Stern out of the evidence pile. The interesting contest is not which celebrity appears most ruthless on paper. It is who can make sound decisions, adapt when challenged and remain someone the others want to keep around. That is a much better reason to tune in.
Related: Blackmere: Charlie Brooker’s detective comedy takes shape
Related: The Celebrity Traitors: Why Claudia’s Wardrobe Works for Men
Why this matters
For UK viewers, the practical move is to check the BBC schedule, avoid treating predictions as spoilers and give the contestants room to surprise you. If you’re watching with friends, make your opening picks, then revisit them using actual votes and conversations rather than celebrity reputations. The pleasure of this format is having your judgement tested. Deciding that an actor must behave like their best-known character rather defeats the point — and gives your group chat a theory it hasn’t earned.
Common questions
- is Myha’la in Celebrity Traitors?
- Myha’la features in the reported line-up for the second celebrity series. Her inclusion does not establish whether she plays as a Faithful or a Traitor.
- has Myha’la won Celebrity Traitors?
- There is no verified result in the supplied information establishing Myha’la as the winner. Any claim that she will win is a prediction, not a confirmed outcome.
- when does Celebrity Traitors series 2 start?
- The listed start is Thursday 1 October at 8pm on BBC One. Check BBC listings before making plans, as the supplied material does not include an official scheduling announcement.
- who won the first Celebrity Traitors?
- Alan Carr won the first celebrity series. Joe Marler and Cat Burns also reached the finale.
- who does Myha’la play in Industry?
- Myha’la plays Harper Stern in Industry. The character’s competitive approach is not evidence of how the actor will behave in a social-deception competition.
- how does Celebrity Traitors work?
- Faithfuls try to identify hidden Traitors and remove them through banishment votes. The Traitors conceal their identities and can eliminate opponents through the game’s overnight murders.
- who hosts Celebrity Traitors?
- Claudia Winkleman hosts The Celebrity Traitors, the celebrity version of the deception competition.
About the writer
Eleanor MarshSenior Writer · Edinburgh
Hairstyle trends and the stories behind them.
More from EleanorSources
This article is original reporting by The Good Cut based on the sources above. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Product mentions are editorial unless clearly marked as sponsored.
