Shahs of Sunset is an American reality television series that aired on Bravo. The series debuted on March 11, 2012, and ended on August 29, 2021.Jethro Nededog, Bravo Renews 'Shahs of Sunset' for Second Season, The Hollywood Reporter, April 17, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2012. The series followed a group of Iranian Americans living in Beverly Hills (and the greater area known as "Tehrangeles"), who are trying to juggle their active social lives and up-and-coming careers while balancing the demands of their families and traditions. It is the second American reality television show about Iranians after E!'s Love Is in the Heir in 2004.Porochista Khakpour, A New Persian Empire Plants a Personal Flag, The New York Times, March 6, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2013. The series originally focused on Reza Farahan, Golnesa Gharachedaghi, Sammy Younai, Asa Soltan Rahmati, Mike Shouhed, and Mercedes Javid. Of the original shahs, Younai left after the first season and Soltan Rahmati departed after the sixth. The remaining shahs joined in later seasons, Rose and Vand in the seventh. Past shahs include Lilly Ghalichi (seasons 2–3), Asifa Mirza (season 4) and Shervin Roohparvar (seasons 5–6).
Work on the fourth season was underway when Ryan Seacrest Productions (RSP) and Bravo denied the show's post-production crew a union contract. The crew went on strike with the support of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Bravo fired the crew and the fourth season had been delayed. Eventually, RSP "ratified a union agreement, ending the month-long strike."Patten. "'Shahs Of Sunset' Strike Over: Deal Ratified With Ryan Seacrest Productions." Deadline. October 10, 2014. October 11, 2014. The fourth season of Shahs of Sunset premiered on March 2, 2015. In June 2015, the show was renewed for a fifth season which premiered April 10, 2016. On October 27, 2016, the show was renewed for a sixth season which premiered Sunday, July 16, 2017. In April 2018, the show was renewed for a seventh season.
In January 2020, Bravo announced that Shahs of Sunset would return for its eighth season on February 9, 2020, with Destiney Rose, Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi, Mercedes "MJ" Javid, Mike Shouhed, Reza Farahan, and Nema Vand returning as main cast members. Sara Jeihooni joins in a supporting, friend role.
In April 2022, it was announced that Shahs of Sunset had been canceled after nine seasons. Reza Farahan, Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi, and Mercedes "MJ" Javid eventually joined its reboot, The Valley: Persian Style, which premiered in January 2026.
Cast
Reza Farahan Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1973, and raised in Beverly Hills, California, Reza Farahan is a real estate agent in Los Angeles. He works with MJ at Keller Williams Realty.
Farahan's father is Jewish, and his mother is Muslim. In an episode, he reveals his father converted to Islam to marry his mother. When his parents' marriage ended in divorce, his father moved back to New York City to be with his Jewish family; in an episode, it's revealed that Farahan's paternal grandmother pressured his father, and rejected Farahan because he was not Jewish.
Farahan is openly gay and has struggled with prejudice regarding his sexuality. He wanted to participate in the show after seeing news reports about the suicides of teenagers who were bullied because they were gay, and he wanted to help by portraying a positive image of a gay Middle Easterner. He is married to Adam Neely, a former fashion model who works in post-production on Ryan Murphy's shows. Farahan and Neely have been together since 2010, and their engagement was featured in the third-season finale of Shahs of Sunset. In season four, they call off their wedding after issues arise inside their group of friends following a fake rumor of MJ carrying the couple's child. The group continues on to the wedding trip to Thailand.
Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi Gharachedaghi is an entrepreneur who begins the show unemployed and financially dependent on her father. She comes from a wealthy, nominally Muslim family.Charlotte Safavi, Shahs of Sunset: Episode 3 With a Nugget From Episode 1, The Huffington Post, March 28, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2012. She lunches with her friends during the day and socializes at night. She has eight tattoos, including one on the inside of her lip. With a fiery, combative personality, she claims to have been kicked out of a number of schools while growing up due to fighting.Diana Falzone, 'Shahs of Sunset' star GG kicked out of 10 schools, says she'll 'always be a spoiled brat', Fox News Channel, February 6, 2013 Growing up she attended Jewish daycare, Catholic preschool and Loyola Marymount University.Martha Groves, 'Shahs of Sunset' stirs concerns among Iranian Americans, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2013. Her father is Mahmoud Gharachedaghi, architect and principal at GA Architecture and Planning, who appears on the show starting in season one.Green Architect Design – Home of the top architecture company based in California Over the second season, she launches "GG's Extensions", a brand of hair extensions, with her sister Leila.Shahs Of Sunset Recap: "Being A Skinny Bitch Ain't Everything", RealityTea, January 14, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.Mike Shouhed from Shahs of Sunset Praises GG Extensions Launch, LALate.com, January 20, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013. In December 2012 she told Andy Cohen that she was engaged to Omid Kalantari, who has a recurring role in season 2.Shahs of Sunset's Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi Is Engaged to Omid Kalantari: All About the Proposal!, Us Weekly, December 10, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013. The two broke off their engagement the following month.Shahs of Sunset's Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi Breaks Off Engagement to Omid Kalantari, Us Weekly, January 22, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
Mike Shouhed Shouhed is real estate agent in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of UCLA.Mike Shouhed , BravoTV.com. Retrieved January 28, 2013. After losing some money in the Las Vegas commercial real estate market, he has moved back home to rebuild. He and his family are Persian Jews. Shouhed married Jessica Parido on March 29, 2015 at the Biltmore Hotel in L.A. According to the documents, the couple separated on August 1, 2015, and less than eight months after they tied the knot, Parido filed for divorce from Shouhed on November 20, 2015 citing irreconcilable differences. Nearly a year after Parido filed for divorce from her ex-husband, a judge signed off on the divorce documents; the date of termination on their marriage is October 21, 2016. They share no children together. In July 2022, Shouhed was charged with 14 criminal charges stemming from an alleged domestic violence incident involving his fiancée Paulina Ben-Cohen.
Mercedes "MJ" Javid Javid is a real estate agent living in the Hollywood Hills. She was born on August 16, 1972. MJ grew up conscious of her weight and was put on diet pills by a physician at age 14 in order to try to lose extra pounds, though she later quit them.Erin O'Sullivan, "Shahs of Sunset's Mercedes 'MJ' Javid Opens Up About Weight Struggles: A Doctor Put Me on Diet Pills at Age 14", Access Hollywood, February 6, 2013. MJ and her mother have a very difficult relationship and argue frequently on the show. MJ and her father, however, were very close before his death in February 2018. She works with Reza at Keller Williams Realty. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from California State University, Northridge in 2002. During the season 2 reunion, Javid admitted she is a felon, having been convicted of bank fraud in 1994.Nik Richie, "Shahs of Sunset Mercedes 'MJ' Javid Is Not Who You Think" , TheDirty.com, January 8, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.Shahs of Sunset Star Mercedes MJ Javid Has a Criminal Past, RealityTea, January 8, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.Shahs Of Sunset Reunion Recap: Part Two Of Friends Ripping Each Other Apart, RealityTea, March 4, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013. On April 21, 2018, Javid married Tommy Feight at the Jeremy Hotel in Los Angeles. On April 17, 2019, Javid gave birth to a son, Shams Francis Feight. She was taken to the ICU due to "complications" during labor and later revealed on Instagram that she "can never carry a baby again." MJ has a YouTube channel with her husband Tommy.
Destiney Rose (Seasons 7–9) (friend in season 6)
Destiney Rose first became known to television viewers as one of the stars of The People's Couch. Destiney appeared on the show with her sister Cathy, and at the time was a general manager at a nightclub, where Cathy worked under her as a supervisor and bartender. As Shahs of Sunset began filming, Destiney was scaling back her life in the nightclub industry and working in party planning as she tried to get a more healthy work environment.
She got involved in Shahs being a good friend of co-stars Reza Farahan and Shervin Roohpavar. In an October 2018 Watch What's Happening Now episode, Reza claimed he has known Destiney Rose since she was 1 month old.
Nema Vand
(Seasons 7–9)
Nema Vand is a former talent executive turned bicoastal director. Vand joined the cast of Shahs of Sunset in season 7 (2018). Born in New York, but raised in Los Angeles, Vand has helped create award winning content for brands such as Adidas, Nike, Ford, Jordan, Target, Samsung, among many more. A relative newcomer to the group, Vand's career is now focused on directing original content in the digital media space. In 2021, Vand directed an acclaimed short film on the artist, Beeple. Vand speaks openly about having grown up without his mother or sister, his love for rosé wine, and reconnecting with his Persian culture. He graduated from UCSD and started his first company at 26.
Asa Soltan Rahmati (Seasons 1–6) (guest appearance in season 7)
Rahmati is an entrepreneur and artist from Venice, California. Her paintings were published in the art book Imagining Ourselves, published by the International Museum of Women in San Francisco. Over the second season, she developed and launched Diamond Water, a bottled water that is alkaline water put in contact with diamonds before being bottled.Diamond Water by Asa Gets Splash on WWHL, LALate.com, January 27, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013. She is from a Persian family; her parents and her brother, Arta, all appear on the show. Soltan Rahmati has been in a relationship with Jermaine Jackson Jr., the eldest child of Jermaine Jackson since 2010 and he has appeared in the second season.TAMARATATTLES EXCLUSIVE: Steaming Hot Persian Tea on Who Shahs of Sunset's Asa Soltan Rahmati is Dating, tamaratattles.com, December 19, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013. The couple gave birth to their son Soltan Jackson on January 20, 2017. She graduated from UCLA with a double major in Psychology and Philosophy. She claims her family left Iran as political refugees when she was a young girl; she grew up in Europe before moving to Los Angeles as a teenager.
Sammy Younai (Season 1) (friend in season 2) (guest appearances in seasons 3–4, 7)
Younai is a residential developer in Beverly Hills, specializing in building multimillion-dollar homes. Sammy comes from a Persian-Jewish family. His family left Iran and moved to Florida when he was young, later moving to Beverly Hills when he was a teenager.Ilana Angel, A Conversation with Sammy Younai of Shahs of Sunset, The Jewish Journal, March 25, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013. During season 1, he worked with celebrity developer Mohamed Hadid on a 48,000-square-foot, $58-million house in Bel Air called The Crescent Palace.Got $58 Million Lying Around? Buy the Mansion Featured on Shahs of Sunset!, RealityTea, July 11, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013.Morgan Brennan, Celebrity Developer Mohamed Hadid Asking $58 Million for Crescent Palace, Forbes, June 28, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
Neelufar Seyed "Lilly" Ghalichi (Seasons 2–3)