KARIM Zeroual has had his profile heightened and earned himself a new fanbase since appearing on Strictly Come Dancing.
Here’s everything you need to know about the charming telly star and his career so far.
Karim Zeroual, 26, is a children’s TV presenter but began his career as an actor, starring in CBBC’s fantasy series The Sparticle Mystery.
He also appeared in an episode of Da Vinci’s Demons and the long-running BBC One series, EastEnders.
Born November 14, 1993 Karim attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School and acted in a London West End musical production.
The former child actor is a CBBC host and is of Moroccan and British decent.
He has been partnered with Amy Dowden and the pair climbed up the leaderboard week after week before landing a place in the final.
Karim’s of Moroccan and British descent and grew up in a single-parent family with his mother Carol.
The 26-year-old where money was hard to come by and his mum struggled to raise money for her son’s fees to get into drama school, so he had to work that much harder to gain a place in the school.
He told the Mirror via The Express: “I had a positive childhood – but not perfect… nothing in life is. It was a small, tight-knit family, but maybe not your normal family.”
He added that even raising the funds for the train journeys to auditions in order to win a scholarship were a real struggle for his mother, but still did her best give him the opportunities to succeed.
The Strictly finalist continued: “I was lucky to have a strong mum, strong sister, who supported what I did.”
“We had to really work hard – they took me to auditions, to try and get sponsorship.”
“That cost train tickets, and I used to beg her to take me.”
“The graft was put in not only by me, but them seeing something in me.”
The 26-year-old does have dancing experience, as he attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School as a child.
He also participated in the West End production of The Lion King, playing the lead role of Simba.
Karim informed Newsround that he went to theatre school and has had a bit of dance training but has “not danced in years”.
According to Digital Spy, Amy Dowden defended her partner and shut down claims of Karim having previous dance experience.
“He did musical theatre as a child, but to be honest, that doesn’t always help you,” she told FUBAR Radio. “You’ve either got it or you haven’t.
“I know some people think: ‘Ooh, he’s got dance experience, it helps’. But I say it’s like languages; if you can speak Spanish, it doesn’t mean you can speak Italian.”
The Strictly Come Dancing contestant starred in a number of TV shows, before turning to television presenting.
His most notable work is in the children’s series The Sparticle Mystery, where he played Sadiq from 2011 to 2015.
Also, he has had small roles in programmes like Da Vinci’s Demons, in which he portrayed a thief in 2014.
What’s more, the youngster got to appear in the award-winning soap, EastEnders in 2006 as a character named Ali.
Since acting he had presented TV shows, including Saturday Mash-Up and Midlands Today.
The TV host has been a presenter on CBBC since 2014 and he has also worked on other programmes, including BBC Young Dancer and Wimbledon Live.
He is currently working on a new project, a new travel and sport documentary, entitled A Week to Beat the World.
Karim has managed to keep his love life unwraps, despite being in the public eye for a couple of years.
But it has since been discovered that he is dating Manchester University student Poppy Birtwistle.
The couple have been together for three years and decided to keep their relationship out of the spotlight when Karim’s CBBC career started to take off.
But while Poppy has not been pictured publicly with Strictly star Karim, she has been to rehearsals with him and has met his dance partner Amy Dowden.
A source said: “Karim was really keen to involve Poppy in his training and wanted her to meet Amy to make sure she felt comfortable.
“They got on really well which is great because Karim knows he’ll be spending long hours with Amy and he wants Poppy to feel secure about it.”
