Southern Charm’s Shep Rose has been living a life of luxury since he joined the Bravo show in 2014. He proudly told the audience that he had never had a real 9-to-5 job, which begged the question: what does Shep Rose do for a living, and how can he afford his lifestyle?

The wealthy reality star has admitted on the show that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Despite his family’s money, the reality star has dabbled in art dealing, real estate, and owning restaurants.

Alongside his business ventures and generational wealth, Shep makes a significant amount of his income appearing on Southern Charm. According to a 2019 Radar Online article, the stars of the Bravo series get paid around $25,000 per episode, with an estimated bonus of $60,000. The Sun later reported that in Season 7, Shep and his co-stars were given a pay raise to $80,000 per episode.

A Look Inside Shep Rose’s Career Before Southern Charm

When Shep Rose visited his alma mater, The University of Georgia, he reminisced about his life before becoming a reality TV star. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in business in 2002. He later graduated from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management with a Master of Business Administration degree in the major in finance in 2009.

He explained during his speech that after graduating, he worked in South Florida, Hong Kong, and Dubai. “Thank you to the UGA Entrepreneurship Program for having me speak in class. I basically did 30 min[utes] of bad stand up that is sadly my life story,” he joked on Instagram.

According to The Daily Dish, Shep elaborated on his life in Dubai during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live. “I’ve worked in Dubai. I’ve sold real [estate]. I lived in Dubai and sold real estate. It was crazy,” he explained, defending his relaxed lifestyle. “So right now I’m happy just kind of being the bon vivant as it were.”

According to Reality Tea, Shep previously worked as a market researcher and in land acquisitions for Medalist Golf.

Shep Rose Owns Multiple Restaurants, Has A Merchandise Line, And Wrote A Book

Despite his family’s wealth, Shep Rose has tried to use his fame and fortune to start his own career outside of Southern Charm.

In recent years, Shep has invested in restaurants in the Charleston area. He co-owners the Commodore, The Alley, and the restaurant in the Palace Hotel. These restaurants have become hotspots for his Southern Charm co-stars. “It’s funny — Thomas [Ravenel] and Whitney [Sudler-Smith] both love it,” he told The Daily Dish in 2016.

In 2016, he launched his own coastal fashion brand called Shep Gear. The website sells everything from hats and t-shirts to dog collars. “I started it when I was wearing a homemade American flag hat,” Rose told Saratoga Living. “People kept asking where I got it, so I made some. They sold well, so I just started making shirts that I thought were funny. And people liked those, too.”

Shep is also the author of the essay collection, Average Expectations: Lessons in Lowering the Bar, which covers everything from “relationships to travel to popular culture.”

“I’m really raw about what I thought and how much fun I had — good, bad, and ugly. We had to pare down some of the [travel] stuff, but I’m an open book, no pun intended. So maybe I’ll release, you know, the unabridged version or whatever at one point in my life,” he told Us Weekly. In December 2024, according to The Daily Dish, he announced on Instagram that he was writing his second book.

Like many other Bravo stars, Shep has used his reality TV fame to become a social media influencer. Shep frequently posts sponsored content to his over 900,000 Instagram followers. He has partnered with the likes of Natural Light beer, Columbia PFG, and Hari Mari flip-flops.

Shep Rose Comes From A Wealthy Family

During the first episode of Season 10 of Southern Charm, Shep Rose revealed to Craig Conover and Austen Kroll that his farm, Boykin Farm, has been in the family for generations.

Shep’s family success goes back for generations. His grandfather worked in the steel business, traveling around the world for work. His grandfather on his mother’s side went to Yale Law School and clerked for a Supreme Court Justice before being appointed by Jimmy Carter as a federal judge in Alabama.

According to Decider, Shep’s brother and sister work as lawyers in Charlotte, North Carolina. “They’re all very accomplished. And then there’s me,” Rose joked to Bravo.

Some of Shep Rose’s Family’s Other Accomplishments:

• In an episode of Southern Charm, Shep revealed that the character Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was based on his great aunt.
• His great aunt, Edith Cummings, was a trailblazing golfer and the first female athlete to be featured on the cover of TIME magazine in 1924.
• Shep’s paternal grandmother is related to the famous Boykin family, who founded the South Carolina community of Boykin. The state dog, the Boykin spaniel, is named after his family.
• According to Reality Tea, Shep revealed at 2019’s BravoCon, “My great-great aunt Mildred… no, Mary Chestnut. If you watch the PBS Civil War documentary, they quote her. She kept a journal during the war, and it’s fascinating, so that’s my little nugget.”

Southern Charm

Release Date

March 3, 2014

Network

Bravo

Showrunner

Bryan Kestner, Whitney Sudler-Smith

Writers

Bryan Kestner, Whitney Sudler-Smith

Franchise(s)

Southern Charm