Shaaban studied acting at the Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts.
He started his career in theatre before attracting the attention of film and television series directors, who cast him in important roles in the 1960s. Meanwhile, he worked in numerous radio programmes and series.
However, Shaaban kept returning to stages throughout his journey, starring in plays such as The Bride is Getting Mad (1980) by Samir El-Asfory, One Hundred Good Evenings (1989) by El-Said Radi, and Conquest Gate (2014) by Fahmi El-Kholi.
His breakthrough in films began with There is a Man in Our House (1961), a classic film directed by Henry Barakat and starring the best-known actors at the time Omar Sharif, Rushdy Abaza, Zahret El-Ola, Hussein Riad, Zubaida Tharwat, and Hassan Youssef.
Then, he acted in The Miracle (1962), Cairo (1963), Mother of the Bride (1963), For Men Only (1964), The Three Love Her (1965), My Wife, the Director General (1966), The Second Groom (1967), and The Idol of the People (1967) starring Abdel-Halim Hafez and Shadia.
In the 1970s, Shaaban joined many other renowned actors on the screen in films such as An Incident of Honour (1971) with Zubaida Tharwat and Shoukry Sarhan and Guys in Storm with Nelly and Nour El-Sherif.
He also acted in Moments of Fear (1972) with Farid Shawqi and Mervat Amin and in other well-known films such as Sun and Fog (1973), A Woman with a Bad Reputation (1973) with Shams El-Baroudi and Mahmoud Yacine, Malatily Bathhouse (1973), and The Bullet Is Still in My Pocket (1974), to name but a few.
Shaaban started to be more present in television series in the early 1970s, appearing in Wadha and Ibn Aglan (1975), Al-Zeer Salem (1977), Antara (1978), and The Doughry Family (1980), among numerous others.
Undeniably, one of his most famous roles in those years was that of the intelligence officer Mohsen Momtaz in Raafaat El-Haggan (1988-1991), a TV series based on the life of a real-life Egyptian spy.
In the 1990s and 2000s, he started to appear more in TV series, acting in Ahwal Shakhsiya (1992), Al-Hilali Biography (1997), A Woman from the Time of Love (1998), The Night They Killed the Mayor (2000), Al-Hakika w Al-Sarab (2003), Asmahan (2008), and Heaven and Hell (2009).
His most recent roles include the films Al-Haram Al-Rabea (2016) and Bard Al-Shatta (2015), both written and directed by Peter Mimi, and the TV series Illegitimate Child (2012) and Mulberry Leaves (2015).
In 2016, he played the role of Mohsen Momtaz again in Al-Mishkhsati (The Actor, 2016), directed by Mohamed Abu Seif.
Shaaban announced his retirement in 2017.
In early 2021, the actor contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalised; he eventually succumbed to its complications and died on 28 February that year.
Short link: