Jen Shah

Born in Salt Lake City on October 4, 1973, Jen Shah is known for her reality TV role on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. She quickly earned a reputation as the most over-the-top SLC Housewife, managing to fight with all of her fellow cast members — including her best friend, Heather Gay — in the show’s first season, which aired from November 2020 to February 2021. One of her biggest battles was with Mary Cosby, who infamously upset Shah when she told her she “smelled like hospital” after she had visited her aunt. Shah later called Cosby, who is married to her step-grandfather, a “grandpa f—ker.”

Shah is married to Sharrieff Shah, a football coach at the University of Utah, where the pair met during their college days. They share two sons, Sharrieff Jr. and Omar. Raised as a Mormon, Jen converted to Islam after learning about the historical mistreatment of Black people within the Mormon religion.

Jen owns three businesses — JXA Fashion, Shah Beauty and Shah Lashes — but in March 2021, she was arrested and charged with running a nationwide telemarketing scheme along with one of her assistants, Stuart Smith. At her arraignment in April 2021, Shah pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In July 2022, Jen changed her plea to guilty, and in exchange, the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering was dropped. Judge Sidney Stein sentenced her to 78 months in prison in January 2023. On February 17, 2023, Jen reported to FPC Bryan in Texas to begin her sentence.

News broke in November 2025 that Jen would be released early. She left prison one month later — less than three years into her sentence.