Reza Farahan dropped a surprising bombshell regarding the Shahs of Sunset casts’ salary increase.
“The last thing they want is for the cast to figure out how valuable they are. They want to keep you in the dark and keep a thumb on your head, so you don’t ask for more money,” Reza, 52, recalled in his new book Memoirs of a Gay Shah: My Story of Family, Fame and Becoming a King, released on Tuesday, April 7. “There’s no gold statue moment. It’s a constant game of trying to keep you in check no matter how popular you become.”
Reza, who appeared on the show from 2012 to 2021, recalled “investing” his own money to promote himself and his lifestyle. He specifically recalled “buying Louboutins” to maintain his image while his checks were allegedly not “covering the price of the shoes.”
“With how dumpy everything about the production was at that point, my minuscule check felt like it might be eating up the majority of the budget,” he continued. “During season 1, I shot my confessional interviews in a storage closet. I’m not even kidding. The camera person was doing my makeup, for God’s sake. We didn’t have a legit makeup artist. She bought some cosmetics and kept them with her. She would help us put them on before we shot.”
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Shahs of Sunset followed a group of Iranian Americans living in Beverly Hills as they tried to juggle their social lives and up-and-coming careers while balancing the demands of their families and traditions.
Reza recalled the cast coming together as a group to negotiate a raise when the season 3 offer was “a pittance.”
“I’m not going to lie. It was four figures an episode,” he wrote. “At the end of the day, it all worked out. We agreed to a favored nations contract and our per episode salary went up something like six or seven times what it was previously. We went from four digits per episode to five for the season. So that was a nice bump.”
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Elsewhere in his memoir, Reza detailed tension between the cast based on who was “doing more press” pegged to the show, revealing he catfished his cast early on by pretending to be an anonymous producer who mocked them and addressed the show coming to an end.
Shahs of Sunset’s finale paved the way for Reza, Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi and Mercedes “MJ” Javid eventually joining the Bravo reboot: The Valley: Persian Style.
Memoirs of a Gay Shah: My Story of Family, Fame, and Becoming a King is out on bookshelves now.
