What Shubham Goel From The Circle Is Up To Now
What would "The Circle" Season 1 have been without the man, the myth...the Shooby!? Shubham Goel is a fan favorite from Netflix's thought-provoking reality competition. So what is he up to now?
Debuting on January 1, 2020, and based on a hit U.K. show of the same name, "The Circle" may sound ... cringey on paper. Who wants to watch eight strangers in separate rooms, "flirt, befriend and catfish their way toward $100,000" (via the show's description)? All by not meeting but creating profiles on a fictitious social media platform called The Circle? Especially during a pandemic?! It sounds "Black Mirror"-esque. And yet, as the contestants DM, learn about each other, and share personal experiences (and yes, "block" one player per episode), "The Circle" is just incredibly engaging, and at times, moving.
Season 1 resulted in some of the most genuine friendships in recent reality TV (Joey and Shooby for life!). So no wonder Wired called it, "The best TV show about the internet." And with Season 2 hitting Netflix in April 2021, it's clear America isn't logging off.
During Season 1, no player embodied the strategy of authenticity, vulnerability, and straight-up adorability more than Shubham. The Indian-American UCLA graduate, who at first calls social media "the bubonic plague" and gets ranked last, ends up (like us) surprised by its heartfelt possibilities. So, what is Shubham up to now? Is he still best buds with Joey Sasso? Scroll down to find out.
Shubham Goel is finishing his master's and is still pals with Joey Sasso
So what is Shubham Goel up to? The shaggy-haired sweetheart from Season 1 of "The Circle" is "finishing his master's in software engineering at Oxford," and "working at the software engineering company he cofounded," as E! News wrote. Oh, and he's taking "super sick" sketch and improv comedy classes, per the outlet. Talk about a triple threat!
As for staying friends with the cast, Shubham told Time, he's in touch, "with all of them." He added, "We have a group chat on Instagram." And of Joey Sasso: "[he's] one of my closest friends for life." He told E! News, "Last weekend, me and Joey ... had a fire FaceTime ... I think Joey called me at, like, 2 a.m. or something. ... I'll give that, like, a 12 out of 10."
As for Shubham's (who once curiously ran for Governor of California) skepticism of social media? "I've always been a skeptic ... and I still am a skeptic," he told Time. That makes how he discovered the show all the more logical. "My friends showed me the flyer for it, and I thought the concept was so interesting." He added that during the entire experience, "they treated us like kings. They brought us food; there were people on speaker at all times; there was a therapist we could talk to whenever we wanted. It was like a vacation in every sense of the word."
You gotta love Shooby!