Introduction
Karim Zeroual (born 14 November 1993) is a presenter for BBC's CBBC. He starred as Sadiq in The Sparticle Mystery, which ran for three series between 2011 and 2015, and has also appeared in EastEnders, Blue Peter, Top Class and Saturday Mash-Up!
In 2019 he appeared in the seventeenth series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing where he partnered Welsh professional dancer Amy Dowden. The couple were runners up.
Early life
Zeroual was born in London to parents of Moroccan heritage and was brought up by his mother. He attended theatre school in London.
Stage and television career
He starred as Sadiq in The Sparticle Mystery, which ran for three series between 2011 and 2015, and has had more than two million hits on BBC iPlayer to date. He has also appeared on EastEnders, Blue Peter, Top Class and Saturday Mash-Up!
Zeroual has been a BBC CBBC presenter since 2014, presenting directly from the CBBC HQ. He has also presented Young Dancer and Wimbledon Live and has performed in London’s West End in musical theatre shows such as The Lion King and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In 2019 he started filming a brand new travel and sport documentary for CBBC called A Week to Beat the World, in which he takes three British children to countries including Guatemala, Brazil and Japan to play national sports and see if they can beat the locals at their own game.
Strictly Come Dancing
In 2019 he competed in the seventeenth series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Welsh professional dancer Amy Dowden. The pair received the first perfect 40 of the series for their Jive in Week 11 and were runners up in the competition.
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revel Horwood | Mabuse | Ballas | Tonioli | Total | |||
| 1 | Cha-Cha-Cha / "If I Can't Have You" | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 31 | No Elimination |
| 2 | Foxtrot / "The Way You Look Tonight" | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 32 | Safe |
| 3 | Samba / "Kung Fu Fighting" | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 26 | Safe |
| 4 | Tango / "Paradise" | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 38 | Safe |
| 5 | Salsa / "Who Let the Dogs Out?" | 8 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 36 | Safe |
| 6 | Paso Doble / "Smalltown Boy" | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 29 | Safe |
| 7 | Quickstep / "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 39 | Safe |
| 8 | Viennese Waltz / "Give Me Love" | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 30 | Safe |
| 9 | Charleston / "Happy" | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 39 | Safe |
| 10 | Contemporary / "Drops of Jupiter" | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 38 | Bottom Two |
| 11 | Jive / "You Can't Stop the Beat" | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 40 | Safe |
| 12 | Argentine Tango / "Libertango" American Smooth / "Sweet Caroline" |
8 9 |
10 10 |
9 9 |
9 10 |
36 38 |
Bottom Two |
| 13 | Quickstep / "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" Showdance / "A Million Dreams" Jive / "You Can't Stop the Beat" |
10 9 10 |
10 10 10 |
10 10 10 |
10 10 10 |
40 39 40 |
Runner-up |
- Blue score awarded by guest judge Alfonso Riberio
- Green number indicates Karim & Amy were at the top of the leaderboard