Characters / The Real Housewives of Atlanta: Season 2-5 Additions

The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Cast Index | The OGs | Season 2-5 Additions | Post-Season 5 Additions | Friends Of The Housewives

The Core of Atlanta
L-R: Kandi, NeNe, Phaedra, Cynthia, Kenya, and Porsha

These women were the first to come into the show after its debut season. They, along with original Housewife NeNe, are among the most iconic members of the Bravo universe. They starred on the series during its peak and helped establish RHOA as a pop culture phenomenon.

They are the longest-tenured members of the cast with all of them serving for at least seven seasons. They served as the backbone of the cast with their newer counterparts being unable to last as long as them.

As of Season 16, Kenya and Porsha remain though both of their terms have been non-consecutive.

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Kandi Burruss

Kandi Burruss Tucker

Kandi (Season 15, 2023)

Full-time: Seasons 2-15

"Don't mess with the boss or you might get fired!"

—Kandi's Season 10 tagline

Kandi is the first person to be added to the series after its debut season. As of 2023, Kandi is not only the longest standing peach-holder, but she is also the longest standing Housewife in the entire franchise. She has worked with every other peach-holder, except DeShawn (whom she replaced).

Kandi's tropes:

• Affectionate Nickname: "Kandi Yams," from Kenya. A play on candied yams, a soul food staple.
• Auntie Pennybags
• Babies Ever After: Kandi is pregnant with her son, Ace, during Season 8. She has a surrogate carry her third child, daughter Blaze, during Season 12.
• Berserk Button: Do not, under any circumstances, come for her man, her mother, or her money. Don't mess with her children either. And certainly not her food. Examples of Kandi's button being pushed:
  • Marlo calling her a sugar mama in reference to her relationship with Todd.
  • Kandi rushes over to Cynthia's sister, Malorie, after she pushes Todd during the hotel party in Season 6. NeNe, of all people, is the first one to get Kandi and attempt to calm her down.
  • NeNe and Kandi's explosive argument over NeNe addressing Mama Joyce in a blog spawned the infamous header quote from NeNe's profile.
  • Marlo triggers Kandi in Season 15 when she tries to link her nephew's^note completely unrelated shooting death to OLG because he worked there.
  • Downplayed against Natalie in Season 6. While not outright angry with her, a fed-up Kandi completely shuts Natalie down after she badmouths Todd.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Kandi is usually even-tempered and easy to get along with, but she's not afraid to get into it with anybody—especially when it comes down to defending her family. Malorie, Natalie, NeNe all have firsthand knowledge of this. And she's not afraid to get physical either. Kandi was known to get active with her group members back in the 90s.
• Big Eater: One of Kandi's defining character traits.
  • Kandi becomes very hangry in Season 5 after NeNe dismisses the group from her home for arriving at her house far too late for dinner. Her mood lightens once the group stops to get burgers.
  • In Season 6, Kandi and Phaedra were late meeting the group on the travel bus because they stopped to get Chick-Fil-A.
  • When the cast visits Dr. Jeff in Season 7, Kandi denies his offer of candy but quickly makes her way to the food table once she spots it.
  • Kandi scolds Kenya for making reference to Mama Joyce to make fun of Shereé's hair with a mouth full of burrito.
  • Kandi makes up with Marlo in Season 14 over a bucket of Jamaican KFC.
• The Clan: Kandi comes from a quite large family. Quite a few of them feature quite prominently on both the show and her many spin-offs. Aside from her daughter and mother, her aunts, Nora and Bertha, are among her most famous family members.
  • This could also apply to her friends and employees, dubbed by Porsha as "The Kandi Koated Clique."
• Convenient Replacement Character: For DeShawn.
• Eating Establishments: Two: Old Lady Gang and Blaze Steak & Seafood. Her spin-off Kandi & The Gang was primarily based on her and her crew running the two restaurants.
• Foil: To Marlo: Kandi has always been one of the more easygoing members of the cast. Her tagline in Season 7 was "I'm not about the drama. Don't start none, won't be none." On the other hand, Marlo has made it a point to antagonize every member of the cast throughout her years on the show, including Kandi. Since finally gaining a peach, Marlo has dedicated her tenure to antagonizing Kandi.
  • To her former friend, Phaedra: While Phaedra was much more private and calculated about what she chose to share with the cameras, Kandi has been noted to be very open, honest, and willing to share whatever. These are the exact reasons why Phaedra lost her peach and Kandi has been able to keep hers for so long.
  • To her mother, Mama Joyce. Joyce is much more hot-headed compared to Kandi.
  • To her predecessor, DeShawn. Both have played neutral while the bigger personalities feuded with each other, but Kandi has always voiced her own opinions of what was going on. DeShawn did her best to try to keep the peace amongst the group, so she was noticably quiet about the drama going on within the group. DeShawn is an original cast member who held a peach for only one season before exiting the show; Kandi took her spot and managed to become the longest-tenured peach-holder.
• Girl Group: Kandi's initial claim to fame is her stint as a member of 90s R&B girl group, Xscape (Group). She's pre-Housewives as Phaedra would say.
• Good Stepmother: Kandi is quite fond of her stepdaughter, Kaela Tucker.
• Happily Married: To Todd Tucker, a former producer of the show whom she met during the Season 4 cast trip to Africa.
• Leitmotif: "Legs, Hips, Body" from her play, A Mother's Love. The song resurfaced and gained virality in 2022. Andy makes reference to address Kandi in the first segment of Season 14's reunion.
• Long-Lived: Kandi has enjoyed the longest tenure of any other Atlanta Housewife, outlasting all five OGs. With the exception DeShawn, Kandi has filmed with every other peach-holder.
  • For comparison, original Housewives DeShawn, Lisa, and Kim's combined eight seasons is dwarfed by Kandi's fourteen.
  • She is the longest-tenured full-time Housewife of the entire franchise, surpassing OG Housewives Vicki Gunvalson of Orange County and Ramona Singer of New York City who couldn't make it past thirteen before their firings.
  • There is a slight dispute of whether or not she is the longest-standing Housewife in the entire franchise or not. Teresa Giudice, an original Housewife of New Jersey, has been a Housewife longer than Kandi by chronological years; New Jersey premiered in May of 2009, while Kandi debuted in July that same year when the second season of Atlanta premiered. However, Atlanta has had more seasons than New Jersey resulting in Kandi currently holding fourteen under her belt compared to Teresa's thirteen. Perhaps it just depends on who you ask.
• Mama's Girl: Kandi's mother, Mama Joyce, is very involved in Kandi's life. Mama Joyce makes such a splash that she even gets an invitation to the Season 6 reunion for her antics.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Her mother is this to her husband, Todd.
• Only Sane Woman: Kandi often plays this role in the group.
• Prone to Tears: Though she may not seem like it at first, Kandi is one of the most emotional members of the cast. As NeNe once said, Kandi will cry at the drop of a damn dime.
  • She cried on her very first episode!
• Satellite Character: Kandi has many surrounding her: the OLG, Don Juan, and Carmon.
• Spin-Off: Kandi has had many spin-offs: The Kandi Factory (2013), Kandi's Wedding (2014), Kandi's Ski Trip (2015), Xsape: Still Kickin' It (2017), Kandi Koated Nights (2018), Kandi & The Gang (2022).
  • While not branded a RHOA spin-off, SWV & Xscape: Queens of R&B (2023) also premiered on Bravo and prominently features Kandi along with her group, Xscape, and fellow girl group, SWV.
• Struggling Single Mother: Averted. Kandi was a single parent to her firstborn, Riley. However, Kandi has never been strapped for cash by any means. She fought for child support from Riley's father in order to put more money in her daughter's pockets.
• Team Switzerland: In Season 7 between the NeNe and Kenya factions. That comes to an end after she and NeNe get into it at the reunion.
  Kandi: "We see each other."
  NeNe: ""We see each other! We good!"
• This Is My Chair: Zig-Zagged. Kandi has only sat next to Andy at the Season 9 reunion and she hated it. She even makes a comment about not caring much for her seating when Andy mentions that it was the first time in all her seasons that they were next to each other. She is much more comfortable being seated second or third on the couch.
• Voice of Reason: Kandi often plays this role amongst the group.
• The Worst Seat in the House: Is next to Andy according to Kandi.

Cynthia Bailey

Cynthia Bailey

Cynthia, Seasons 12 & 13 (2019-2021)

Full-time: Seasons 3-13

Guest: Season 15

"Now what else is goin' on?"

—Cynthia's catchphrase.

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Cynthia's tropes:

• Amicable Exes: With her ex-fiancé and father of her daughter, Leon Robinson; as well as her ex-husband, Peter Thomas.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Cynthia may be the sweetest of the bunch but she isn't to be toyed with. Unfortunately, Phaedra and especially Porsha had to learn this the hard way.
• Catchphrase: "Now what else is going on?"
• Gasp!: Cynthia performs one of these when Kenya tells her and Kandi that her dog, Velvet, had passed away.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Was this with NeNe in her initial seasons.
  • The two were so close that Porsha insinuated that the two of them were lesbian lovers, leading to the first of many spats between she and Cynthia.
• Older Than They Look: Cynthia is the oldest of the entire Atlanta cast. She is in her mid-forties when she begins the show.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Cynthia was the blue oni to NeNe in her early seasons, then to Kenya in the later years. She also was the blue to former husband Peter's red.
• Sidekick: Arguably, she was this to NeNe in her earlier seasons.
• Satellite Character: Following her Season 13 departure, Cynthia becomes this to Kandi and Kenya in Season 15.
• Second Love: Cynthia marries her second husband, Mike Hill, in her final season.
• Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Downplayed. Cynthia is behind only Kandi in number of consecutive seasons as a full-time Housewife with eleven. She is the only other Housewife to reach double digits in one term.
• This Is My Chair: While she never was seated first chair, Cynthia sat almost exclusively in the second seat at every ^note in-person reunion. She only lost her spot to Kandi and Kenya in Seasons 7 and 9 respectively.
• Verbal Tic: Cynthia seems to say "chile" more frequently than the other women.

Phaedra Parks

Phaedra Parks

Phaedra (Season 8, 2015-2016)

Full-time: Seasons 3-9

"Google me. Your claim to fame is this show. Honey, I'm pre-Housewives."

—To NeNe. Season 3, Reunion Part 1

Phaedra joined the show in Season 3 along with Cynthia. She is an attorney, most famous for working with Bobby Brown. She is also a socialite in the Atlanta scene.

She and NeNe grew up in Athens around the same time. Though Phaedra claimed to know NeNe, NeNe denied knowing Phaedra, leading to Phaedra's first big feud on the show.

She exited the series after Season 9 after she helped spread a salacious rumor involving drugs and criminal sex acts about her former close friend Kandi. Despite no longer being on RHOA, Phaedra is still hanging around in the Bravo universe. She was featured on Season 2 of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip—appropriately titled The Ex-Wives Club—alongside Eva. In 2023, she joined the cast of Married To Medicine during Season 10.

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Phaedra's tropes:

• Creepy Mortician: Phaedra becomes a mortician in Season 6, adding to her eccentricity.
• Crusading Lawyer: Acted as this for Shereé during her child support cast against Bob in Season 4. Unfortunately, they lost the case.
• The Dividual: With Porsha in Seasons 8 and 9. The two gain the nickname "Frick & Frack."
• Establishing Character Moment: Phaedra came onto the show lying about her pregnancy. This was only a taste of what was to come...
• Evil Former Friend: She becomes this to Kandi following the Season 9 rape scandal. Kandi feels so strongly that she vowed to leave the show if Phaedra were to ever return.
• Friendship Denial: Faced one of these from NeNe in her debut season, sparking her first feud on the show. The two had grown up around each other in Athens but NeNe claimed that her and Phaedra never had much of a relationship prior to the show.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Formerly with Kandi.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Phaedra infamously lied about her due date to a table of women who were already mothers in her debut season. It is theorized that she was lying to cover up the possibility that she had gotten pregnant before she got married which is not allowed in her family.
• Hidden Depths: Who would have thought that the prayer-cloth-carrying Southern Belle lawyer knows a stripper who can suck his own dick?
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Purposely averted. Phaedra remarks that she considers herself a "wordsmith" who does not have to solely rely on swears to decorate her speech in comparison to Kim.
• Love Triangle: Between herself, her husband, Apollo, and Kenya.
• Mama's Girl: Phaedra is very close to her mother, Pastor Regina Belle. Aside from her husband and children, she is the most frequently seen member of Phaedra's family.
• Simple Country Lawyer: Maybe not simple, but definitely country.
• The Smart Gal: The resident legal eagle Phaedra is college educated and proud of it.
• Southern Belle: Phaedra embraces this image wholeheartedly. Being from Athens, Georgia, it comes naturally to her.
• Token Religious Teammate: Most of the Atlanta Housewives are Christian but Phaedra's faith was a prominent characteristic of hers. Fitting since she was raised by preacher parents.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Kandi. They were very close prior to Season 7. She was even a bridesmaid in Kandi’s wedding!
• The Woman Behind The Woman: Porsha reveals at the Season 9 reunion that the rape rumor about Kandi came to her from Phaedra.

Kenya Moore

Kenya Moore (formerly Kenya Moore Daly)

Kenya (Season 15, 2023)

Full-time: Seasons 5-10; 12-present

Guest: Season 11

"I won Miss USA, not Miss Congeniality."

—Kenya's Season 5 tagline

Kenya Moore, the second Black Miss USA in history, joined the cast in Season 5. She set the show ablaze with her antics and quickly solidified her spot in the show.

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Kenya's tropes:

• 0% Approval Rating: In her first two seasons. No one except NeNe—ironically enough—cared too much for Miss Moore. Unfortunately, their friendship didn't last too long.
• Arch-Nemesis: To Phaedra, Porsha, and NeNe.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Twirl," from NeNe.
• Babies Ever After: Kenya finally achieves her dream of motherhood between Seasons 11 and 12 with the birth of her daughter, Brooklyn.
• Berserk Button: Being called a “whore” or a “tramp.” Phaedra was good for pushing this one.
• Big Fancy House: Moore Manor.
• Catchphrase: "I'm Gone with the Wind fabulous!"
  • She even made a song about it!
• Convenient Character Replacement: For Shereé, and again for Shamari (who replaced her first).
• Establishing Character Moment: After she gets into an argument with Porsha, she begins to yell and twirl away, yelling her now-infamous Catchphrase. This scene helps establish Kenya's flamboyance as a key aspect to her television persona. It also is where her fandom name comes from!
• Fan Community Nickname: Team Twirl!
• Foil: To Porsha. The two of them came into the show together and almost immediately clashed. While Porsha came into the show being coddled by the rest of the older cast, Kenya found herself on the outs with almost everybody.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: During her first two seasons. It's so bad that when she gets her hair pulled by Porsha at the Season 6 reunion, no one went^note on camera at least to check on her, and instead went to support Porsha. Luckily this changes by the end of Season 7.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Many people may not like Kenya for her deeds but she does have her moments where she's displayed genuine kindness even to those she had conflict with:
  • She was quick to comfort NeNe at the Season 7 reunion when she breaks down about her relationship with her mother. She even implores Kandi to come over when she originally decided to remain seated.
  • Comforting Shereé when Bob makes everyone uncomfortable with his distasteful joke about their abusive relationship.
  • She threw a divorce party for Cynthia and Phaedra in Season 9. Neither one desired one, feeling melancholic about the dissolution of their marriages, but Cynthia realized that Kenya wasn't acting out of malice. However, Phaedra hated and resorted to blaming Kenya for her divorce again, leading them to revert back to the negative place they were in for years prior.
• Love Triangle: Between herself, Phaedra, and Phaedra's husband, Apollo.
• Parental Neglect: Kenya has been dealing with this from her mother all of her life. The elder Ms. Moore even denies Kenya entry to her home on camera.
  • Kenya mentions that in the beginning, she and NeNe were able to connect over their mothers’ abandonment of them.
• Parental Substitute: Kenya was raised by her late paternal grandmother. Kenya honors her by naming her own daughter after her.
• The Rival: To Shereé. Kenya and Shereé have argued multiple times over whether or not Moore Manor is better than Chateau Shereé and vice-versa.
• Signature Song: The appropriately named "Gone With The Wind Fabulous."
• Spiritual Successor: To Kim in a sense. After Kim's departure and her own fallout with NeNe, Kenya took on the brunt of going head-to-head with fellow Alpha Housewife NeNe.
• This Is My Chair: She inherited Kim's seat next to Andy at the reunions and held it for four seasons straight (including her debut season!). She lost her spot the next three reunions for varying reasons:
  • To Kandi in Season 9. A given due to the rape rumor drama with Phaedra and Porsha that season.
  • To Porsha ^note  (of all people) in Season 10. Production seated her behind both Porsha and Cynthia as a punishment due to Kenya's private, off-camera wedding.
    • It was obvious she couldn't stand sitting at the end. When she begins arguing with Kim, she gets up to move to the opposite couch between NeNe and Kandi.
  • Season 12 because the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to film the reunion on Zoom^note  though she likely would have had it that year.
  • She got it back in Season 13, but lost it again the following season where was not only seated to Andy's left (the viewer's right), but also behind Shereé. She was noticeably tiffed about it, especially when Marlo is seated in her usual spot.
• We Used to Be Friends: With NeNe. Initially, she was the only one who was still fond of Kenya by the end of Season 5. That fell apart over the hotel party in the following season. Since then, there's been bad blood between the two of them.
  • With Phaedra as well. The two initially hit it off but later fell out over the Booty Boot Camp exercise video. Kenya’s flirtation with Apollo did not help the situation. The two later make up by Season 9 but it quickly falls apart.
• Wham Line:
  • "Maybe you should stop texting me then," at the Season 5 reunion.
  • "NeNe was flirting with Peter!" at the Season 7 reunion.
• The Worst Seat in the House: Kenya is seated at the end of the couch in Season 10 and very obviously hated it.

Porsha Williams

Porsha Williams (formerly Stewart and Guobadia)

Porsha (Season 12, 2019-2020)

Full-time: Seasons 5-6; 8-13; 16-present

Friend of the Housewives: Season 7

"Somebody's driving the train..." (in reference to the Underground Railroad).

An Atlanta native and the granddaughter of civil rights activist Hosea Williams.

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Porsha's tropes:

• Awful Wedded Life: With Kordell. He leaves her hanging at the Season 5 reunion.
• The Baby of the Bunch: When she first joined the show in Season 5.
• The Bus Came Back: Porsha returns to the show for Season 16 after her Season 13 departure.
• Convenient Character Replacement: Kenya confirms in an interview with Carlos King that Porsha was this for Kim following her abrupt departure from the show.
• Demoted to Extra: Subverted. She was demoted to a Friend Of in Season 7. However, she was still very much a major player of the season.
• Famous Ancestor: Porsha is a granddaughter of the late civil rights activist, Hosea Williams.
• Foil: To Kenya.
  • To Tania Richardson.
• Friend of the Housewives In Season 7. Claudia Jordan filled her spot for the season.
• Hypocrite: Porsha attacks Kenya for waving her scepter at her in Season 6, but she does the same thing to Marlo with her fan in Season 10. Luckily, things didn't escalate further as they did before.
• Karma Houdini: Porsha had a hand in spreading that nasty rumor about Kandi... but somehow managed to be able to stay on the show while Phaedra got the boot.
• Producer's Pet: In later seasons. Most obvious in Season 13 where the show became more or less centered around her.
• Rousing Speech: Porsha delivers one of these at her first reunion in Season 5. This is what saved her from becoming a one-season wonder.
• Sixth Ranger: Seventh, actually—for a brief period at least. Porsha was not introduced to the audience until the third episode of Season 5. She was originally not supposed to be a full Housewife at all. Kim’s abrupt departure in the middle of the season opened up a slot for Porsha.
• Stepford Smiler: While married to Kordell.
• Spin-Off: Porsha's Having A Baby (2019) and Porsha's Family Matters (2021).
• Superior Successor: To Season 2's Tania Richardson. Tania was an ex-girlfriend of Porsha's former husband, Kordell, as well as the mother of his son. Tania had appeared on the show before Porsha but was unable to gain a peach.
• Trophy Wife: Formerly to ex-husband Kordell Stewart.
• Wham Line: "...So what I want to do is have Phaedra speak because she's the one who told me that Kandi said that," at the Season 9 reunion.