Basketball followers could acknowledge a well-recognized face on Netflix‘s Squid Recreation actuality TV spin-off, Squid Recreation: The Problem. Who’s TJ Stukes from Squid Recreation Problem? Maintain studying to be taught extra about participant 182’s background.

Netflix’s Squid Recreation: The Problem options 456 gamers who’re making an attempt to win the streamer’s largest money prize in actuality TV historical past: a whopping $4.56 million. The actuality present relies on 2021’s Squid Recreation, the South Korean collection that includes a gaggle of 456 cash-strapped residents who’re lured right into a lethal competitors in hopes of successful a large prize of 45.6 billion gained (or 38.7 million US {dollars}.)

Launched on Nov. 22, The Squid Recreation Problem recreated nearly every part from the viral survival drama, from the recognizable inexperienced tracksuits to the child-like video games together with red-light, green-light. However not like the 2021 collection which kills opponents once they lose a sport, there are (fortunately) no deaths within the real-life actuality model.

Squid Recreation: The Problem government producers John Hay, Toni Eire, and Stephen Yemoh spoke with Leisure Tonight on Nov. 22 in regards to the large endeavor to solid the present. They revealed that there have been three casting administrators, together with two within the U.S. and a workforce within the U.Okay. who had been in command of casting U.Okay. and international contestants.

“We had over 80,000 individuals apply. Big. We had been searching for the identical stuff you would in any casting, however simply the entire thing was supersized to a extraordinary diploma,” defined Hay. “The sport is a take a look at of human nature, so that you need the widest doable number of people to play it and reveal themselves by the method.”

Eire continued, “That’s one thing that was an actual north star for us, that we needed to have an inclusive solid representing individuals from numerous completely different backgrounds. And we additionally had no thought who was going to get by every spherical, so we had no thought which tales we might get to inform at any level.”

Nonetheless, there’s presently one competitor who was knowledgeable athlete, which may give him an enormous benefit within the competitors to this point. Study extra under.

Who’s TJ Stukes from Squid Recreation Problem?

Who’s TJ Stukes from Squid Recreation Problem? Stukes, one of many 456 contestants on Squid Recreation: The Problem, is a retired skilled basketball participant and an actor.

In The Problem, Stukes (aka participant 182) was launched in the course of the “Warships” sport in episode three. He’s the captain of one of many groups and instructs his gamers the place to put their ships and the place to seek out the enemy ships to get rid of them.

Stukes was born and raised within the Bronx and Mount Vernon and was within the foster care system. At 6 foot 18 inches, Stukes started his basketball profession at Independence Neighborhood Faculty and Kansas’ Pittsburg State College, in response to his July 2023 interview with Beatrice Journal. Throughout this time, he met his now-wife Samantha, and the couple now share two kids: Amare and Alana Aofia-Stukes.

After school, TJ signed with the Harlem Wizards as “Tomahawk” Stukes in 2009. Stukes retired in March of 2023 after 20 years in basketball and has been an assistant basketball coach for Northern New Mexico Faculty since then.

“One of many largest challenges as a coach is the transition from a participant to a coach. At one level I used to be extraordinarily vivid that I used to be not prepared to educate as a result of I anticipated my effort from different individuals and that’s not honest in any respect,” he defined within the interview. “I’m not them and they don’t seem to be me so I’m studying to regulate and adapt as I at all times do. I’ve had a mentor to look as much as and that’s my spouse. She is without doubt one of the finest coaches I’ve witnessed, so I usually observe and choose her mind.”

As for his profession within the arts, Stukes has appeared in varied performing initiatives, together with a actuality present on MTV2, an Adidas business and a job alongside Adam Sandler within the Netflix movie, Hustle. He advised Beatrice that he hopes to turn into a full-time actor someday.

“My expertise as an actor was an unconventional one! I used to be a part of an enormous actuality present on MTV2 approach again in 2005. The present was known as Nike Battlegrounds and it was hosted by Lebron James. That was once I turned enamored by the trade,” he added. “I actually wished to behave and never play basketball for a very long time, simply due to the stress I put my physique by, nonetheless I acquired rejected for MANY roles and that discouraged me closely. So I caught to basketball and watched as alternatives handed me by till I put my head down and advised myself I’ll get one thing!”

Moreover, Stukes and his spouse competed and gained $50,000 on TBS’ 2021 sport present, The Dice, hosted by former NBA participant Dwyane Wade, in response to KTSM. The article additionally famous on the time that the couple owned a fitness center in Northeast El Paso known as Southwest Desert Hoops which “trains adults in addition to at-risk youth athletes of their group and assist them get into school.”

Watch Squid Recreation: The Problem on Netflix.