The Apprentice is back with a fresh batch of contestants vying for Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment.
The long-running BBC reality series will return at the end of this month, with Tim Campbell and Baroness Karren Brady returning as the right and left-hand advisers of our TV business mogul.
Featuring 20 fresh faces attempting to prove their business acumen and pitch their budding business proposal, the new serieswill feature a host of new challenges.
These include everything from creating a children’s book to selling live on television to hosting a corporate away day on the Red Sea in El Gouna, Egypt.
Among the contestants, which include a barbershop owner to a Kim Kardashian-inspired mortgage broker, there has also been some controversy ahead of the season.
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One of the cohort, Levi Hague, released an apology after social media posts resurfaced featuring ‘vile’ racist and sexist comments.
Who is in The Apprentice 2026 line-up?
Andrea Cooper
Lettings agency owner
Andrea Cooper is a 46-year-old grandmother behind two businesses in Barnsley.
As well as being a lettings agency owner, running her businesses and looking after her growing family, she also received a first-class honours midwifery degree, aged 40.
She’s a ‘no second chances’ kind of woman who calls herself ‘hard-working, resilient’ and willing to ‘give anything a go’.
Conor Galvin
Photobooth business owner
Hailing from Cork in Northern Ireland, Conor wants to expand his photobooth business to major cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham.
A medical school (twice) dropout, he eventually graduated in law and business and approaches his light-hearted business with a serious mindset.
‘[I’m] constantly learning the tougher side of strategy, structure and scaling,’ he shared.
Georgina Newton
Actress and events manager
The East London actress and events manager possesses a ‘sunshine that brightens up a room and turns any negative situation into something positive.’
Her ambitions include building a ‘touring theatrical production company specialising in the magic of pantomime’ through the medium of a lorry turned mobile theatre.
This is one contestant who’s heard ‘no a thousand times’.
Dan Miller
Student recruitment owner
After starting a business from his bedroom in Derby aged 17, Dan has gone on to work with major companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Goldman Sachs.
Now living in Richmond, he’s ready to take his company to the next level, with his ‘whole brand and business built around community, giving back and opportunity’.
Carrington Saunders
Online loungewear businessowner
While securing a first-class business degree, she also built her online loungewear business from the ground up.
Relying entirely on social media for her business model, the south East Londoner hopes to impress Lord Sugar with her savviness, adding that she is ‘not afraid to speak my mind, stand up for what I believe in and take the lead.’
Harry Clough
Financial sales manager
‘I may sound posh, but I’ve got no dosh,’ says Battersea resident, Harry, whose business idea consists of a free subscription box collaborating with food and drinks companies.
He described himself as ‘bold, creative, and not afraid to take risks’, adding that he has already ‘failed more times than I can count’.
Karishma Vijay
Beauty brand owner
Hailing from Ashford, Surrey, she’s the first businesswoman in a long line of businessmen from generations past.
She’s in it to win it, saying both she and Lord Sugar ‘both came from nothing and started from scratch’, with her supporting her family financially since she first started earning.
Lawrence Rosenberg
Public relations specialist
Lawrence from Heretfordshire wants to ‘reinvent public relations for the modern era [by] delivering smarter, faster, and more transparent PR through intelligent automation’.
Hoping to blaze a meaningful tech-led trail in the PR industry, his motto is ‘authenticity is the best recipe’.
Megan Ruiter
Bespoke womenswear clothing brand owner
This fashion brand owner has seen her clothes worn by plenty of famous faces, spending her university days swapping out partying for learning how to sew.
Also the owner of two other businesses, her life is a far cry from ‘9-5′ and much closer to ’24/7’.
Levi Hague
Personalised pet cremation urns business owner
Levi Hague is a former RAF gunner from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, who has already stirred controversy after resurfaced social media comments featuring racist and sexist language.
After his presence on the show was challenged by an MP, he said he was ‘ashamed and embarrassed to have made these posts over a decade ago’ and that they ‘do not reflect the values he upholds today’.
The former HGV driver wants Lord Sugar to help make his pet cremation urn business a globally recognised brand.
Roxanne Hamedi
Beauty brand owner
Building on her expertise as a pharmacist, her beauty brand business specialises in combating hair loss – something she herself has had to deal with.
The Aberdeen resident, with Persian and Scottish descent, shared that her friends would describe her as ‘fiery, sassy chilli-pepper pocket rocket, charismatic, caring, unafraid of risks, and never embarrassed to be my goofy, authentic self’.
Marcus Donkoh
Barbershop owner
Starting with a south London barbershop, he hopes to turn it into a global grooming and lifestyle conglomerate.
From humble beginnings cutting hair in his mum’s home, he’s aiming for the sky, expanding into New York, Dubai and Tokyo.
Pascha Myhill
Recruitment consultant
At just 21, Pascha wants to launch her own private healthcare recruitment company.
Seeing her youth as an advantage, she called herself a ‘free thinker, not always following the usual rules’ and admits she often says ‘the most random things without a filter’.
Kieran McCartney
Estate agent
After 10 years as an estate agent, he’s using his seasoned sales skills to help him ‘stand out’.
He hopes to use the quarter-of-a-million pound investment to establish his own estate agency.
His friend ‘often describe me as a hungry, motivated, and super positive person who consistently goes above and beyond for his clients’.
Vanessa Tetteh-Squire
Tech project manager and swimwear brand owner
The north Londoner’s swimwear brand focuses on women with fuller busts, with the hopes of pushing boundaries with her brand and empowering those who wear her pieces.
She said she is confident that she and Lord Sugar will get along ‘exceptionally well, because clear communication and bold thinking are what drive success’.
Priyesh Bathia
Global account manager
Living in Harrow, Priyesh wants to expand his cocktail business into a national brand stocked on supermarket shelves and available to buy from a mobile cocktail bar.
‘[I’m] the perfect mix of charm and hustle who’s confident, quick-thinking, and not afraid to get stuck in,’ he said.
Rothna Akhtar
Student wellbeing advisor
Rothna wants to boost her side hustle bakery business with plans to ‘revolutionise’ the cake and wellness industry with interactive baking workshops and bespoke occasion cakes.
She warns not to mistake her ‘kindness for weakness’ as she won’t let anything get in her way to the top.
Rajan Gill
Pharmaceuticals specialist
In a sharp pivot for the pharmaceutical industry, Rajan wants to kickstart his business focused on mounting TVs and building bespoke media walls.
His aim is for newbuild developers to offer his media walls, TV mounting, and panelling as optional upgrades, just like flooring or kitchen choices.
After spending time on freezing construction sites, he’s got stuck into ‘both sides of business: the boardroom and the physical graft’.
Nikki Jetha
Mortgage broker
With ‘powerhouse’ star Kim Kardashian as her role model, who she praises for ‘redefining what is to be a modern-day businesswoman’ she wants to build a business that streamlines the mortgage industry.
Calling herself one of the ‘top mortgage advisors in the UK’ she admires how Kim has proven ‘that you can be glamorous, family orientated and the complete boss all at once.’
Tanmay Hingorani
AI product consultant
Tanmay wants to create an AI-powered digital loyalty and marketing platform that revolutionises how food and drink businesses connect with customers.
With a strategy mind honed from years of playing chess, he wants to appeal to Lord Sugar’s early business days in tech sales, adding that their ‘skills would complement each other’.
The Apprentice returns to iPlayer and BBC One from January 29.
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