Leah Remini Joins The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for Season 16

Leah Remini is joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as a full-time cast member for Season 16, according to Variety. TMZ first reported the news, with Deadline subsequently confirming the casting through its own sources Deadline.

Remini, 56, became a household name on CBS's King of Queens, which ran for nine seasons. She later starred in TLC's reality series Leah Remini: It's All Relative and co-hosted the A&E docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath with Mike Rinder, winning two primetime Emmys. In 2015, she published the memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, detailing her rise in the entertainment industry and her indoctrination into Scientology from the age of nine Variety.

Filming on Season 16 is already under way. Several cast members attended Bozoma Saint John's wedding to Keely Watson in Ghana on 21 August, and Remini began filming her scenes in Los Angeles during that same week Variety.

The returning full-time cast for Season 16 includes Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne Girardi, Dorit Kemsley, Bozoma Saint John, Rachel Zoe, and Sutton Stracke. Kathy Hilton and Jennifer Tilly — the actress known for Chucky and Bullets Over Broadway — will return as "friends" of the cast, a recurring role that involves appearing in fewer scenes than the full-time housewives Variety.

Tracy Tutor, 51, a real estate agent and former Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles star, is also new to the full-time cast this season. She announced her casting on Instagram on 19 August Deadline.

One face from Season 15 will not be back. Amanda Frances, who joined the show for its 15th season, confirmed on social media that she was not asked to return for Season 16. That departure comes despite a direct message from Rihanna reading "We need more of you!" — a detail Variety reported alongside the casting news Variety.

For viewers who have followed Remini from sitcom stardom through her Emmy-winning investigative work, her move into the Real Housewives franchise brings a very different kind of reality television — one built on personal relationships, social dynamics, and, in Beverly Hills, a backdrop of extreme wealth. Whether her history of speaking plainly about powerful institutions carries into the show's signature confrontations is something the cameras are already capturing.