[5] The series originally focused on Reza Farahan, Golnesa Gharachedaghi, Sammy Younai, Asa Soltan Rahmati, Mike Shouhed, and Mercedes Javid.

Work on the fourth season was underway when Ryan Seacrest Productions (RSP) and Bravo denied the show's post-production crew a union contract.

[14] Born in Tehran, Iran in 1973, raised in Beverly Hills, Reza Farahan is a real estate agent in Los Angeles.

In season four, Adam and Reza have complications in their relationship and call off their wedding after tumultuous issues arise inside their group of friends following a fake rumor of the drunk MJ carrying the gay couple's love child.

[25] Her father is Mahmoud Gharachedaghi, architect and principal at GA Architecture and Planning, who appears on the show starting in season one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[48] 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.

[55][56][57][58] Ghalichi has had an on-again, off-again relationship with a Houston-based lawyer named Ali; after she graduated from law school in Los Angeles, they became engaged, and she moved back to Texas to live with him.

[64] Before the show debuted, there was concern among the Iranian-American diaspora that Shahs of Sunset would promote an unwelcome image at a particularly tense historical moment.

[25] Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi, worried that "Americans have a chance to see a slice of materialistic, shallow and downright embarrassing Iranian culture.

Two-time Mayor of Beverly Hills, Jimmy Delshad, voiced concerns that instead of showcasing the professional class of doctors, lawyers and business executives, the show would "take us back and make us look like undesirable people.

[22] Professor Gina B. Nahai lamented that the cast was "unattractive, unsophisticated, unproductive" and "consists entirely of every negative stereotype floating around this city about the community".

[65] Author and scholar Reza Aslan felt the concerns of the Persian community were overstated, commenting "Only the most moronic viewers would watch 'Shahs of Sunset' and extract an opinion about Iranians and Iran.

"[25] In response to criticism producer Ryan Seacrest dismissed the notion the series would cast the community in a bad light, describing the show as simply "escapism" that is "meant to be entertaining and fun.

"[25] The president of Bravo described the cast members as representative of what the channel deems "affluencers:" 30-something, upscale, highly educated and influential.

[67] Mike Hale's review in The New York Times commented that the show's characters "are a more diverting bunch than the high school football coaches and community activists of the well-meaning, admirable but prosaic All-American Muslim on TLC", but the "one really unfortunate thing about Shahs of Sunset is the way it exploits, and will in turn amplify, a previously localized phenomenon: the longstanding stereotyping of Los Angeles's Iranian-Americans as vulgar, materialistic show-offs who don't fit in among the city's supposedly more cultured elites.

"[68] Tom Conroy of Media Life Magazine mentions that the show sparks some interest due to the cultural backgrounds of the cast, "but that is nearly outweighed by their dislikability.

"[70] Linda Stasi of the New York Post wrote: "If the goal of Bravo's newest stereotyping gang bang, Shahs of Sunset, is to make Persians in LA look like egomaniacs, soulless bores whom you wouldn't want to spend five minutes with, let alone an hour, then they've succeeded.

"[71] Los Angeles resident Kathy Salem alleged she was subjected to "demeaning and humiliating" situations while filming in Shahs of Sunset.

[72] On September 10, 2014, after receiving no response from Ryan Seacrest Productions (RSP) in reference to their pursuit of a union contract, the 16 post-production crew members of the series walked off of the job site.

"[7][76] "This is no longer just a fight about whether this crew gets health and retirement benefits," MPEG President Alan Heim said, "It's an unabashed attack on the right to organize.

[8] Kiara Belen, a former America's Next Top Model contestant, sued Bravo, Ryan Seacrest Productions and other defendants over a scene in which she appeared "nearly fully nude" while changing in a dressing room in a 2017 episode of Shahs of Sunset.