SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters line-up: All the celebrities diving into the ITV reality show
Natasha Rigler | 12:01am Fri 11 Jul | Updated 4:54pm Wed 9 JulSHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters has snared seven brave stars to complete the line-up and face their fears in the brand new show.
The ITV series has been described as a ‘wildlife and entertainment hybrid’ and it sees celebs coming nose-to-nose with the frightening creatures.
Each week, viewers will watch as the stars are challenged to swim with bigger and more dangerous sharks. But who was bonkers enough to sign up? Here’s the full line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters…
Call The Midwife’s Helen George stars in SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters [Credit: ITV]
SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters line-up: Helen George
Helen George is best known for starring in Call The Midwife. The actress, 41, landed the role of Trixie Franklin in the BBC drama in 2012 and still plays the character – now called Lady Trixie Aylward, thanks to her marriage.
Helen was born in Birmingham to parents Neil, a political science professor, and Margareth, a social worker. As a child, she was accepted as a junior associate at the Birmingham Royal Ballet. And although she dreamed of becoming the first female manager of Aston Villa Football Club, Helen opted for a career in the arts.
Helen studied musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music in London and landed a job as Elton John’s backing singer. She made her small screen debut in Hollyoaks in 2006, and subsequently starred in BBC shows Hotel Babylon and Doctors before being cast in Call The Midwife.
Helen’s childhood dance training came in handy in 2015 when she competed on Strictly Come Dancing. Helen finished in sixth place with pro dancer Aljaz Skorjanec.
SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters has really tested Helen, who has a fear of water. She was reduced to tears while filming the ITV show and admitted: “I have a real deep rooted fear of putting my head under water, and hadn’t realised how bad it was until it was day one and we were doing scuba training.”
Countdown’s Rachel Riley wrote her will before taking part [Credit: ITV]
Rachel Riley
Countdown star Rachel Riley, 39, was completely out of her comfort zone while filming SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters. The presenter is definitely more at home demonstrating her impressive maths and science talents on dry land.
Rachel, who was raised in Southend-on-Sea, achieved straight As in her A Levels and graduated from Oxford with a degree in applied maths.
Encouraged by her mum, Rachel applied to be the new host of Countdown in 2008 and bagged the job aged 22. She has since hosted 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and It’s Not Rocket Science. She’s also presented The Gadget Show on Channel 5 and Friday Night Football on Sky Sports.
In 2013, she competed on Strictly Come Dancing. Although she didn’t win the Glitterball Trophy, she did find herself a new husband.
During her time on Strictly, it was revealed Rachel had split from her husband of a year, Jamie Gilbert. The break-up was cited as the infamous ‘Strictly curse’. Rachel began dating Strictly pro Pasha Kovalev after the series ended. They married in 2019 and have two daughters together.
Before flying out to the Bahamas to join the line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters, Rachel wrote her will. She told the Daily Mail: “This trip made me want to make sure everything was signed, just in case. They’re wild animals. You’re scuba diving. Anything could happen.”
Sir Lenny Henry was understandably scared during SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters [Credit: ITV]
Sir Lenny Henry
Sir Lenny Henry has enjoyed an impressive career in the spotlight that spans 50 years. But this will be the first time he has been swimming with sharks on camera.
Lenny began his comedy career when he was just 16 years old, landing a spot on TV show New Faces. He soon became a household name and began hosting a Radio 1 show.
He later moved into acting, appearing in London’s West End, and he scooped a string of awards. Sir Lenny, 66, is probably best known, however, for co-founding Comic Relief with scriptwriter Richard Curtis.
The pair launched the fundraiser in 1986 in response to the famine in Ethiopia. Comic Relief went on to raise £1.5billion, before Lenny stepped down in 2024 after 39 years at the helm.
Lenny was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2015.
Behind closed doors, he was married to fellow comedienne and actress Dawn French from 1984 to 2010. The pair are parents to son Billie.
Speaking about SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters, Sir Lenny said: “When the question was put to me, would you like to go on an adventure of ecology and exploration involving sharks, I actually considered it and thought, actually, I’d love to do that.”
But he added: “I was s***ing myself at all stages of the journey!”
Motherland’s Lucy Punch is among the line-up [Credit: ITV]
Lucy Punch
Comedy fans will instantly recognise Lucy Punch for her fabulous portrayal as Amanda Hughes in BBC sitcom Motherland. Lucy played the character of main antagonist Amanda so well that it earned her the lead role in the spin-0ff series Amandaland earlier this year.
But Lucy’s career spans back long before she bagged the role in 2016.
London-born Lucy, 47, has a long list of film credits to her name, including roles in Ella Enchanted, St Trinian’s and Hot Fuzz.
Her first TV role was in The New Adventures Of Robin Hood in 1998 and she’s subsequently starred in shows including Midsomer Murders, My Family, Ben & Kate and Netflix‘s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lucy had a main role in the first series of Doc Martin, and even appeared in US teen hit Gossip Girl.
Speaking about SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters, Amanda admitted it was “very scary”. But she added: “It feels dangerous and they’re huge and intimidating. But I was surprised at how exhilarating and sometimes even how peaceful the shark encounters were.”
Lucy is mum to a 10-year-old son called Rex.
Dougie Poynter is no stranger to dangerous creatures [Credit: ITV]
Dougie Poynter’s in the line-up for SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters
Pop fans will be delighted to see McFly star Dougie Poynter among the line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters on ITV.
The musician was just 15 years old when he became the band’s bass player following a successful audition. Dougie, now 37, has since toured the world over alongside bandmates Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones and Harry Judd.
He has also performed with the lads and fellow pop band Busted in super group McBusted.
Dougie has also walked the runways after dabbling in a fashion career and penned several successful children’s books with bandmate Tom.
This is Dougie’s first time swimming with deadly sharks, but he has faced some horrors on TV before. In 2011, Dougie won ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! On the show, he came face-to-face with snakes, lizards, spiders, insects and rats.
As a result, he went into SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters with a positive mindset. Dougie said: “There were a couple of hairy moments, but I was never really scared.”
Dougie has been in a relationship with The Sandman actress Yasmeen Scott since 2023.
Paralympian Ade Adepitan was ‘buzzing’ to join the line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters [Credit: ITV]
SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters line-up: Ade Adepitan
Paralympian Ade Adepitan admitted he was “buzzing” after joining the line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters.
The bronze medal-winning former wheelchair basketball player, 52, fully embraced the challenge of diving with sharks.
Born in Nigeria, the British television presenter has hosted a string of travel documentaries, which meant jetting out to Bahamas to film the show was second nature.
Ade contracted polio when he was a baby and he lost the use of his left leg but, as with everything he has achieved, it did not hold him back on the show.
SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters is not just an entertainment programme, either. The producers were keen for it to also carry a message about the importance of sharks in the planet’s eco-system.
This is an element Ade was particularly keen on. As a host of the BBC’s The Travel Show, he has explored various conservation efforts across the globe and it is something he has a personal interest in.
He’s married with a son.
Comedian Ross Noble, seen here with co-star Rachel Riley, was bitten by a shark during filming [Credit: ITV]
Ross Noble
Comedian Ross Noble, 49, completes the line-up of SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters. He grew up in Northumberland but struggled with dyslexia as a child. As a result, he focused on finding a career that didn’t depend on academic skills.
He worked as a street juggler, joined a clown troupe and sold balloons while on stilts.
In 1997, he began working as a warm-up act for the BBC’s Friday Night Armistice. Three years later, Ross won a Time Out award for his show at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Ross’ stand-up comedy career was born and he is now a household name, holding the record for the highest number of guest appearances on Have I Got News for You.
But his time on SHARK! Celebrity Infested Waters wasn’t all fun and games. Ross was actually bitten by a shark while filming the show, although thankfully not seriously.
“The only way a shark has got to find out what another thing is, is to have a little nibble of it and see,” Ross has since said.
“I’ve seen a lot of shark documentaries. The big thing that I realised is, it’s not Jaws, sharks don’t attack people. I always knew that when they attacked surfers, it’s because they think they’re seals.”
