Beyond Paradise is back on BBC One with Zahra Ahmadi as Esther Williams and in the new season, she is thrown out of her comfort zone with an unexpected change in her personal life. She also faces more challenges with her daughter Zoe (played by Melina Sinadinou), who makes a bold decision.

Zahra Ahmadi is a 43-year-old actress from Plymouth, and she is of Persian descent. She is best known for playing the original Shabnam Masood in EastEnders - a role she embodied from 2007 until 2008.

She admitted she left the soap to try other roles, but claimed it wasn't easy, saying at the time: "I've made the tough decision to leave as I'm still young and I want to try other roles.

"But I'm really happy the door has been left open for me to return as it has been a great experience." After EastEnders fame, she went on to star in Count Arthur Strong Innocent and The Bay.

Viewers may also be interested to hear she appeared as a guest in Death in Paradise before landing a main role in the show's spin-off, Beyond Paradise.

In 2018 she played the role of Daisy Anderson in the episode titled Murder on the Day of the Dead.

Although she did not appear alongside her co-star Kris Marshall, who played Humphrey Goodman in the series, as the lead role had been taken over by Ardal O'Hanlon.

Her character was the murder victim who had been organising a charity auction at the yacht club and was also having an affair.

Zahra admitted she had "a hard time in Guadeloupe" while filming Death in Paradise due to her fear of bugs.

"I don't like bugs, so I had a lot of bug incidents in Guadalupe..." she explained to Sunday Brunch.

At one point, filming had to stop as Zahra had a poisonous centipede on her leg. She added: "All of a sudden, someone said, 'Get up, get up, get up!' So I kind of stood up and I had this dress on, and 10 people descended on me, shaking it out, brushing down my legs.

"And nobody would tell me what was going on, and then eventually, I got it out of my makeup artist.

"And it was a scolopendra - quite a poisonous centipede and it was on me and they have quite nasty bites and can give you quite a bad allergic reaction."

Beyond Paradise airs on BBC One on March 28 at 8pm