Sebastian Croft says gay people win Traitors by learning to ‘read rooms’ to ‘survive’
Sebastian Croft is the fourth gay winner on the The Traitors in the UK (Getty Images)
Sebastian “Bash” Croft has shared his theory for why gay people keep winning The Traitors, suggesting LGBTQ+ people learn to “read rooms” and “try and survive” in ways that translate to the game.
In a BuzzFeed UK TikTok interview, the actor, who won this year’s Celebrity Traitors with Romesh Ranganathan, said he had seen an online post about the show’s run of queer winners and found himself agreeing with the idea behind it.
“I saw a post about how, you don’t have to be gay to win The Traitors, but, it’s kind of mad that so many people are,” Croft said.
He continued: “One of the top comments was about, which I think is true, about how you learn to read rooms, and you learn to, try and survive.”
Croft added: “You learn to try and get on with people. So it is interesting, the subconscious skill sets, I guess. If being gay means winning The Traitors, then I guess I’m grateful.”
Queer contestants on The Traitors
Croft’s comments have fed into a wider conversation about why LGBTQ+ contestants appear to do well on the BBC reality hit, where trust, alliances and suspicion can decide who makes it to the end.
Croft is the fourth gay person to win a UK version of The Traitors, after Alan Carr won Celebrity Traitors, and Stephen Libby Leanne Quigley won their civilian series. He and Ranganathan split an £83,000 prize pot after winning series two of the celebrity edition last week.
Croft was ‘terrified’ to enter the castle
Croft has also spoken about how daunting it felt to take part, even as a self-confessed superfan.
He said on the Capital Breakfast Show that he was “terrified” because he knew he would be “one of the less-known people” among “so many national treasures”, calling it a “sink or swim situation”.
Croft is known to many viewers as Ben Hope in Netflix’s Heartstopper, a series widely regarded as a landmark of LGBTQ+ teen representation on UK TV.
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