Tonight, Bravo is premiering a new show that fans have been asking for for years: Next Gen NYC follows the kids of Real Housewives who have grown up on reality TV and are now processing their overexposed childhoods by … appearing on more reality TV. Alas, producers didn’t get every 20-something Bravo kid to star on this new show (I personally was hoping for Quincy Morgan, daughter of former Real Housewife of New York Sonja Morgan), but the cast still has plenty of recognizable faces, like Gia Giudice and Brooks Marks.
And then there’s the rest of the group, who have more tenuous connections to reality TV royalty. The logline puts it thusly: Next Gen NYC “follows a tangled web of friends raised in the spotlight — or at least close enough for good lighting — as they stumble into adulthood one brunch, breakup and spontaneous decision at a time.” Ha.
So who are these young people making their way in the Big Apple? And how might you know them? Below, a cheat sheet.
Instagram followers: 953,000
Famous parent: Teresa Giudice of The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Best known for: Writing and performing the original song “Wakin’ Up in the Morning, Thinkin’ About So Many Things” during a season-three episode of RHONJ. She was 9 years old and crying. The audio went viral on TikTok several years later.
Instagram followers: 857,000
Famous parent: Kandi Burruss of The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Best known for: Appearing on RHOA from the tender age of 6. Fans watched her all along the way until she headed off to college at NYU in season 13.
Instagram followers: 632,000
Famous parents: Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and other spinoffs
Best known for: Politely weighing in on her parents’ ongoing divorce and well-documented financial problems (Biermann reveals in the first episode of Next Gen NYC that her mom now asks her for money).
Instagram followers: 45,000
Famous parent: Zach McLeroy, the billionaire founder of Zaxby’s
Best known for: Dating Ariana Biermann.
Instagram followers: 75,000
Famous parent: Meredith Marks of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Best known for: Creating a line of much-discussed tracksuits during the first season of RHOSLC.
Instagram followers: 111,000
Famous parents: Damon Dash and Rachel Roy
Best known for: Her modeling gigs. Dash has not appeared on reality TV before, but she did grow up with genuinely famous parents.
TikTok followers: 1.3 million
Famous parent: n/a
Best known for: Her modeling work and her TikTok platform. In 2022, D’Spain became the first Black transgender model to work with Victoria’s Secret.
Instagram followers: 1,500
Famous parent: n/a
Best known for: Appearing on this show. Her castmates refer to her as a true New Yorker, which is something.
Instagram followers: 875
Famous parent: None, but Zakkour says on the show that his dad is a retired investment banker who gives him money to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Best known for: Dating Lindsay Lohan when he was in high school. Also: “Page Six” got photos of him looking on as one of his friends was arrested in the cryptocurrency kidnapping and torture case last month. Yikes. Zakkour has not been accused of or charged with any crime.
