Shabana plays the main cast role of Victoria Javadi in Emmy-award winning US TV series The Pitt, which is currently streaming on Max in the USA, Binge in Australia and a number of other platforms around the world. Amidst strong reviews, Shabana's work has regularly been singled out for being both nuanced and engaging, and she will reprise her role for the show's second series.

She also plays the lead role of Irene in the feature film, Birdeater (dir. Jack Clark & Jim Weir); for which she was awarded Best Actress by the Australian Film Critics Association. The film also

won the AACTA for Best Independent Feature Film, the audience award for Best Australian Narrative Feature at Sydney Film Festival and had sold out screenings at Melbourne International Film Festival prior to a very well-received release in the USA at SxSW.

Multi-talented, Shabana also voices the lead character of Saira, in the animated feature film Lesbian Space Princess which sold out all of its three premiere screenings at the Adelaide Film Festival, taking out the Feature Fiction Audience Award. It was also selected for the 2025 Berlinale where it won the Teddy Award, which recognises films representing issues of social diversity.

Additional TV credits include recurring roles in the ABC's In Limbo, SBS' The Hunting and Metrosexual for Channel 9. As well as guest roles in Netflix's TV drama Apple Cider Vinegar, Nautilus for Disney+, ABC's Utopia, ABC/Netflix's The Letdown and Why Are You Like This? and a memorable turn in web series Triple Oh! funded by Screen Australia.

Shabana has also worked on a number of other feature films, short films and web series. She co-won Best Female Actor at Tropfest in 2019 and was nominated for Best Performance at Stellar Film Festival and Best Actress at the South Australian Screen Awards for her work in the feature Crush. She also plays Lali in the short film I'm The Most Racist Person I Know (dir. Leela Varghese) which won the Special Jury Award at SxSW 2025 and Best Short Film at Cinefest Oz in 2025.

As half of comedy band, The Coconuts, Shabana has received strong reviews for Brown on the Outside, White on the Inside at Adelaide Fringe in 2023, was a 2019 Raw Comedy South Australian State Finalist and is developing a web series with the band's content. Their show won the Fringe Tour Ready Award at Adelaide Fringe in 2023, awarding them the financing to tour the show to major cities around Australia.

Shabana also regularly lends her voice and talent for accents to voiceover work and audiobooks, including the very important story Home to Biloela by Pruya Nadesalingam. Passionate about telling stories that push the envelope, Shabana has worked with a number of female directors, queer creatives, and culturally diverse teams of storytellers.