Rakhee Thakrar was a firm-favourite on EastEnders playing Shabnam Masood – but when she quit the soap, the TV star worked in a shop for years after failing to find any work
Former EastEnders star Rakhee Thakrar once recalled how she ended up working in a clothes shop after she quit the soap.
The actress shot to fame in 2014 when she took on the role of Shabnam Masood in the BBC One soap – replacing Zahra Ahmadi. And it’s fair to say, the daughter of Zainab and Masood was involved in several big storylines.
From a failed marriage to giving birth to a stillborn, Shabnam’s time in Walford was not short of drama. But in 2016, the character exited the soap.
Fans will recall how she fled the square with her daughter Jade. This was after finding out that partner Kush had a child with Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
Rakhee has gone on to bag roles in Netflix smash Sex Education and the recent Blockbuster flick Wonka. But it wasn’t always plain sailing for the telly star.
In 2022, she revealed how when she quit EastEnders she had no choice but to work in a clothes shop. In a bid to make ends meet, she reportedly worked at the shop for two years.
She told Radio Times: “I didn’t think ‘other projects’ meant working in a boutique clothing shop for two years. I left EastEnders and didn’t get any work.”
She added: “I couldn’t bear not doing anything, so I worked in a couple of shops. It was a massive risk to leave a full-time salary [on EastEnders] and it took a while for that risk to pay off.”
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Over in EastEnders recently, Shabnam’s daughter Jade turned up to Walford and has been staying her with dad Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo). But the arrival of Jade got plenty of fans thinking that Shabnam could be returning too.
But in February, Rakhee told TV Times: “No, there’s no talk of that at the moment! It’s so sweet that people are talking about it and I’m very touched that viewers want Shabnam back.”
She added: “It’s weird because it was actually someone in a restaurant who told me that Jade [played by Elizabeth Green] was back, and I was like, ‘What, my daughter’s back?!
