How so many Iranian refugees got wealthy in Los Angeles

In Iran, people are struggling to afford meat and eggs — thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, many from the same country are building real estate empires.

In early 2026, the Islamic Republic of Iran killed thousands of protesting citizens who took to the streets out of financial desperation. 

“If you cannot afford your rent, if you cannot pay for food, then you have nothing to lose,” says Sarmen Gorjian, an insurance agency owner, who immigrated to the US from Iran in 2010. 

Watching from thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, California is the largest group of Iranians outside Iran. They’re also known as one of the most affluent and successful immigrant communities in the United States, with the nickname Tehrangeles. 

“Especially in Los Angeles, a lot of Persians share that — It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, you probably own four or five properties as well. And you have two under construction,” says Shervin Roohparvar, a real estate developer who also starred on reality TV series “Shahs of Sunset.” 

Ironically, Tehrangeles grew out of the same revolution in 1979 — that helped set the stage for the financial struggles of Iranians in Iran today, as well as the war rocking Iran and the wider Middle East today. That revolution set in motion two very different realities on opposite sides of the world. 

The Iranian community in LA largely started from refugees fleeing regime change in the ’70s and ’80s, who avoided the devastating currency collapse and inflation that eventually followed. Many lost nearly everything in the transition. 

They rebuilt in Los Angeles, somewhere that felt… kind of familiar. 

“I think at least the Tehran that I remember was not very different from Los Angeles at the time. It was a really vibrant city. You had people from all over the world there all the time,” said Bobby Samini, a celebrity lawyer who has represented the likes of T-Pain and former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. 

“So I think they almost would have been parallel cities. They would have been sister cities if things had been different.” 

Today, about one quarter of Beverly Hills residents are Iranian, including its mayor Sharona Nazarian, who left Iran’s capital Tehran as a child during the revolution. 

Much of Rodeo Drive was developed by the Mahboubi family, who moved to LA from Iran in the 1970s. 

The exiled crown prince’s daughter Princess Noor now lives here. 

There are even reality TV shows, like “Shahs of Sunset” and “The Valley: Persian Style” riffing off the reputation of Iranians in LA as wealthy and glamorous. 

But it’s not just LA. In the US, Iranians are better off than average. Iranian immigrants report median income that is about 23% more than the total immigrant population, and about 20% more than all US-born Americans.

Watch the video to find out how so many Iranian refugees got rich in Los Angeles, and how the same moment in history sent millions of Iranians down paths that look drastically different today.

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