EastEnders star Lacey Turner has reunited with her former colleagues Davood Ghadami and Rakhee Thakrar for her new podcast.
We Started Here, which launches today, is a new series that aims to provide an insight into how famous faces started their careers.
‘The We Started Here podcast is a celebration of people who started their careers in soap, whether that’s in front of or behind the camera’, Lacey said.
‘We’ve got an array of directors, writers, and actors all talking about how they got into their roles, where it led them, and how they went from soap to where they are now.’
Two people joining Lacey in an episode later in the series is Davood Ghadami and Rakhee Thakrar. They portrayed Kush Kazemi and Shabnam Masood in the show, who were once a couple.
Kush and Shabnam went through a devastating ordeal in 2015 when they discovered their unborn baby Zaair had d.i.e.d.
Their relationship came to an end shortly before Shabnam’s departure in 2016. Following the loss of Zaair, and Kush being revealed as the father of Stacey’s baby, Shabnam left Walford alongside her daughter Jade.
Rakhee has gone onto appear in a variety of dramas since her exit from the soap, including Sex Education, Criminal: UK, and Rules of the Game.
Davood’s time in EastEnders ended in 2021, when his character Kush Kazemi was killed by Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith), a twist that sparked huge backlash from the EastEnders audience.
Shortly after his departure, Davood starred in Holby City as Doctor Eli Ebrahimi. He didn’t play the character for very long, however, as Holby ended in 2022, not even a year into Eli’s arrival.
You will be able to see Davood in the upcoming Amazon Prime series House of David, where he plays Eliab.
Reflecting on the importance of soap and the impact they can have on everyone’s lives, Lacey said:
‘Soaps give you real people in real time. You get to play stories out for a long time because there isn’t necessarily a beginning, middle and an end. They can go on for as long as people want them to go on for. Months or years even.
‘What soaps do really well is depict real life stories and issues, touching upon things that real people are experiencing at that time. It gives people who are sitting in their living rooms an opportunity to relate to what they’re watching and that is really important.’
