‘Secrets & Sisterhood: The Sozahdahs’ Executive Producers Unpack Cast Drama, Islam Controversy and Season 2 Hopes

Wrangling 10 busy sisters in one room is already a herculean task try planning a production schedule around them. Thats just what the team behind Secrets Sisterhood: The Sozahdahs had to do.

The reality series, which premiered June 7 on Hulu, follows the ten siblings of the Sozahdah family: Shaista, Halimah, Khadija, Rabya, Shakur, Muzlefa, Jamila, Siddiqa, Nooreya and Hamida.

The Sozahdahs have both a complicated past as well as an often complex present that makes for an abundance of story possibilities. These run the emotional spectrum from super heartfelt to hilarious to heated at times, says Dane Joseph, Vice President of Unscripted Series for Hulu Originals. Each of their interactions are rooted in love, but are genuinely unpredictable, which is what makes unscripted content so exciting to work on.

The sisters have also stirred up some controversy online due to their portrayal of the Islamic faith on the show. Theres a clear divide between the so-called elders and their younger wolf pack siblings. The sisters themselves have different belief systems and ways they relate to their culture, but at the end of the day, they still love each other despite their differences, Joseph says. Its great that people recognize that and hopefully its a larger discourse that can travel beyond our screens and into our everyday lives.

Executive producers Erika Bryant, San Heng and Nicole Sorrenti (who also serves as Chief Creative Officer of Half Yard Productions), spoke with Variety to break down the series most dramatic storylines and their hopes for a potential second season.

How do you feel about the inevitable Kardashian comparison that comes about when you tell a story about a group of sisters?

Nicole Sorrenti: That was the first problem in my head. Theyre category killers. You look at the Kardashians: theyre amazing, they are billion-dollar businesses amongst themselves, everybody loves them and they just kill it. We dont want to come off as carbon copies. We talked about this from the jump: If you dont let us in, and you arent authentic, and you dont share the real story of whats going on in this family, we are just going to get this comparison because youre so beautiful.

We spent a lot of time in development, even in the pre-production, trying to make sure we did little things to set them apart, make sure that we built each sisters character very fully and that we were organically hitting on layers that you were not going to see in the Kardashians not because they dont have layers, but because we have these other organic layers here that are tied into culture, tradition, family and religion.

Erika Bryant: Its a lifestyle piece, too. I think the Kardashians are larger than life. Theyre crazy rich. I know that theres a comparison, because there are beautiful women and theyre sisters. But these are everyday girls. Theyre more relatable at this stage of the game than the Kardashians are at this point in their life.

San Heng: The Kardashians have a name: They were the Kardashians before they had a show. The Sozahdahs, nobody knows who they are. How do we make people fall in love with them? We spent a lot of time thinking about the heart of the show. It was really about their story. And that has always been key for us.

What was the process like to carve out 10 individual storylines and choose what to focus on?

Heng: Theyre all actually very distinct. When you grew up with 10 sisters, I think just by nature, they had to find their own way in life to stand out. I remember Jamila telling me, Sometimes my mom would refer to me as Number Seven.

Sorrenti: Theres a thousand stories you can tell. But we understood really quickly that the stories that affect the family as a unit and the sisterhood are the stories we have to run with and focus on. Some things were obvious, like when Jamila confided in San that she was pregnant. She let us in. We knew that was going to be key, because that was going to affect everyone. I think that was the operating principle.

Bryant: For me in the field, it was building a trust with the sisters, so they can really look to you for guidance as you craft their story, because it is a collaborative effort. For instance, Shakur getting back with Josh was something that affected the sisterhood, and they all had something to say about it. They all had opinions and disagreements. There were so many other things that were left on the cutting room floor that we could not fit to the show. We probably had enough for 15 episodes, to be honest with you, because there was so much.

What did you know about Hamidas sexuality before you began filming? Was she hesitant to share that side of herself?

Sorrenti: In pre-production with my dev team, I remember making a joke: Well, theres 10 of them. Odds are someone in that group is questioning some things. I think we did not really know about Hamida until maybe doing the dev tape with Hulu, where she kind of let it out. She was really afraid, I think, to share that. At first, she just kind of blurted it out. I dont know if she knew the reaction she was gonna get. That dinner scene where she tells people is completely real. She didnt know she was going to say that.

Heng: I told her, You dont have to say anything. But I think she fell on the sword because they were grilling Jamila so hard. She was trying to get everybody off of Jamila.

Bryant: We understood the stakes of this. This wasnt your average story. This is a someone who considers herself a practicing Muslim, living her life as modern woman in L.A. and having a very traditional family. It was not easy for her to share that, just like it wasnt easy for Jamila to share being pregnant.

Jamilas pregnancy reveal was a huge bombshell for the family. When did she first tell you?

Heng: With Jamila, her pregnancy was not initially part of development. She called two days before the shoot, and said, I have to tell you something. Of course, my first question is, Do you want to be a part of this? And do you want this to be a part of your story? She thought about it and was like, If Im going to do this, I have to embrace everything. As hard as it was for her, she was open to talking about it. She wasnt ready to tell the family she was ready to tell one sister. And she was ready to tell the other two sisters that she lived with. And that was where we said we could meet her. And that was as far as we got. Until, obviously, things developed further.

Bryant: Secrets kind of make you feel confined. And when you let them out, it kind of also gives you the sense of freedom. I think it was a cathartic experience for a lot of the sisters like Jamila and Hamida.

Sorrenti: The key here was that our team, these amazing women, understood the stakes of everything that we were talking about. Its a family, but also bigger, because youre talking about a culture and a religion and a tradition. So we had to really understand that when we were filming and try not to over-produce. Its brave for them really brave, when you think about it.

Theres been some controversy over the series, specifically from members of the Muslim American community who say the sisters do not represent their values. Whats your response to those criticisms?

Sorrenti: This is something that the three of us spent a lot of time considering. I think the core principle that we got behind was that no culture, religion, ethnicity or race is a monolith. A Saudi Muslim is different from an Afghan Muslim is different from an American Muslim. Eeven within this family, we had a spectrum of conservativism: burkinis and bikinis, if you will.

Were not telling the entire Muslim experience here. We are not representing Islam. Were representing this family of women that love each other, and thats just part of their life. Along with Hulu, we had a cultural consultant who got to help us make sure we were representing certain things factually correctly.

Bryant: It was about asking questions. I was learning about this culture. Im not a Muslim woman. I wanted to be as respectful as possible. As Nicole says, its showing the different types of Muslim. I think its liberating for the viewer to see, Oh, you can be conservative or you can be liberal. You dont have to be this one way. I can do that and God still loves me. Maybe have a little CBD, do a little micro-dosing, and maybe Ill be okay.

Heng: Im happy people are talking about it. Ultimately, I feel like its been more positive than negative. And Im grateful for that. Its getting people questioning. Ive seen the comments educating other people about the culture and the faith. I think that thats great, because people dont talk about it. If they had to see a reality show about it, to get them to talk about a different faith, I think thats great. Thats the purpose of representation.

You may not agree, and thats okay. You may not think theyre what a Muslim should be. But its a conversation starter. They are more than just their culture and their faith. They are refugees. Thats something we wanted to hit on, and we hope to hit on more if there are more seasons: the trauma of what they went through as refugees losing their father.

Speaking of a potential second season, what other stories would you hope to tell if given more time with the sisters? Id love to see more of the elders.

Heng: Weve been hearing a lot of that! Personally, just seeing them be sisters, because they are so fun. You cannot help but want to be one of their sisters and hang out with them because they are as crazy and as dramatic as they can get. Theycannot help but be themselves and its infectious.

Bryant: I would love to see more of their work life. These are working women! Theyre not just sitting pretty and collecting checks. These women are out there hustling, and they work hard. And more of the sisterhood and more of mom! Gul is amazing, and shes such a beautiful spirit. I think what we did explore in this show that other shows maybe dont always touch upon is the kind of respect and reverence they have for their mom and the fear they have with their mom.

Sorrenti: I want to see them trying to do more stuff together like cooking. Thats where I think the elders come in. More of the elders, more cooking, more silly stuff. Also, theyve had businesses together before, theyll have businesses together again, and even hearing about the businesses that have not continued in the past and what maybe is coming into the future no one should ever go into business with their family! We all know this! Maybe itll be a huge success, but we all want to see it. Im dying to see what these girls do together and how they take what theyve got right now and build.

This interview has been edited and condensed.