"When building empires for its clients, Shab Azma's Arc Collective sees television as the foundation." Why It’s So Hard for Reality Stars to Get Protection From Exploitation Talent Manager Echoes Bethenny Frankel’s Call for Reality TV Union: ‘There Just Isn’t Any Protection at All’ A talent manager’s perspective: Time for unscripted casts to “get their fair share” I am a first-generation Iranian-American. My parents immigrated a couple of years before I was born — right as the revolution was beginning to heat up. At the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, to be Iranian in Jersey, or anywhere else state-side, was to be decidedly different at best, villainized at worst. “We’re so happy for the unions that are getting what they need, but there’s this whole faction of people that don’t even have a union and need ...things like improvements on streaming and improvements on residuals.” But according to Shab Azma, a talent manager and founder of the reality management firm Arc Collective, the idea of unscripted television getting involved in collective bargaining isn't exactly new. “If the network’s making the same amount of money on a show whether it’s unscripted or scripted, I don’t see why the talent can’t be paid more." Hidden Gems: Meet Shab Azma of Arc Collective "From an industry perspective, we need everyone to take swings and try new things...We, as an industry, have improved, but we need to go deeper and wider." While making money is great, our deepest goal is to help build bigger platforms for our clients so they can help educate and empower more people with their stories and their craft. “It’s been great to see networks really embrace such a broad range of talent,” Azma said, citing clients who are building media careers after establishing themselves as botanists, architects, doctors, restauranteurs and hospitality mavens. Amid calls for fair pay and misconduct lawsuits, a union for unscripted talent has been tossed around — but change won’t be that simple.