How was The Celebrity Apprentice for Shazia Mirza?

As The Celebrity Apprentice returns for 2025, Shazia Mirza delved into what she thought of the show.

The comedian, actress, and writer will appear in the competition alongside several other well-known faces.

Judged by Lord Alan Sugar, Baroness Karren Brady, and Mike Soutar, the celebrities will find themselves in Lapland.

They will be tasked with creating and marketing their own gingerbread biscuits.

Shazia Mirza will be seen developing Gary the Penguin, which blends lemon, bubble gum, and white pepper.

With the tagline, ‘A Cheeky Treat for Your Little Rebel’, the biscuit is shaped like a festive penguin.

Meanwhile, the other team came up with Jolly McTrouble, a biscuit with vanilla, butter toffee, and Christmas pudding-flavoured festive icing.

It has the tagline, ‘Be Naughty, Get Nice’, and showcases a portrait of Santa Claus’ naughty brother, Jolly McTrouble.

In a first in Apprentice history, the products created by both teams are currently available for the public to purchase.

Talking about why she agreed to star in The Celebrity Apprentice, Shazia Mirza said:

“Because it was for Children in Need, so it was charity, and I wanted to do that.

“And also I’ve watched the show for a very, very, very long time and I’ve always found it very funny.

“So I thought, ‘I think this could be a really funny thing to do’.”

Delving into Lord Sugar, Shazia continued: ” I think he’s very funny, his one-liners and stuff.

“But also, I’ve been in comedy clubs where people haven’t laughed.

“I’ve been on stage at Glastonbury where I’ve died on my arse in front of 5,000 people.

“I’ve had people throw things at me. I’ve had to escape through toilet windows in Sweden because people were offended, and I couldn’t face them.

“I’ve performed in caves, tents, and bars with two people and a dog.

“Comedy’s really hard, and I thought, ‘I’ve grafted, I’ve been in the trenches. This is going to be a walk in the park’.”

Shazia Mirza also spoke about her business acumen and her thoughts about the product.

She explained: “We knew we had a great product with original flavours like bubble gum, white pepper, lemon oil, and nutmeg.

“It fitted the brief, and everyone who tasted it said it was great.

“We weren’t worried; we knew it was good and we believed in it, so it was easy to sell.

“[The retailers] loved our pitch. It was funny, and they warmed to us because we’d already got them laughing.

“We laughed all the way to the bank. They made offers during the pitching process.

“ASDA offered a big deal if we’d come to Leeds, meet their staff, and do some social media for them. We agreed to all that!

“I’m going to spend the next few months working in the petrol station at ASDA! That was the deal, and we had to do it.”

Detailing her boardroom experience, Shazia summarised:

“We had our great product to fall back on; it had been tried and tested, so we knew people loved it.”

“We had a great jingle. We knew the advert could be divisive, and we might get some criticism for that, but we were prepared for it.

“We all agreed to stick together no matter what. We were stronger together; the other team were bickering and fell apart.

“Whereas we defended everything we did.

“When [Lord Sugar] brought up criticism about the flavours, we made a joke of that. We defended our video and the packaging.

“If you don’t believe in your product, no one else will! I think Lord Sugar saw that.”

The Celebrity Apprentice 2025 will be split into two episodes, broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on December 29 and 30, at 9 pm.

You can buy Shazia Mirza’s product here.