Sarah Shahi he promised this paradise Fans can look forward to more twists and turns on screen when the hit Hulu series returns for Season 2.
“It’s a rollercoaster. (Creator Dan Fogelman) is so good at grabbing the audience and pulling the rug out from under them,” Shahi, 45, mocked at her Us Weekly digital cover story about his next book, Life Is Lifey: The A to Z of Navigating the Messy Middle of Life. “Just when you think you know what’s going on, (something amazing happens), and then you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I didn’t even see it coming.”
Shahi is “excited” for them to start airing new episodes on February 23 after being so tight-lipped about the show’s return.
“It feels great. I like all the jobs I’ve been in for different reasons, but it feels good to be in something that people like. When the love is that high, it really puts that extra pep in your step,” she noted. “Driving to work in the mornings, it feels great.”
Hulu’s hit series Paradise is back after some shocking on-screen hangings and deaths, but which stars are reprising and not reprising their roles? The political thriller from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman originally opened in January 2025 under a shroud of mystery. Paradise was teased as a show “set in a serene and wealthy community inhabited by some (…)
The actress, who plays psychotherapist and grief specialist Gabriela, praised Fogelman’s vision, adding: “Dan is such an incredible writer, and what I love about him is that he’s an even better human being. I’m like, ‘How is that possible?’ Writing is his superpower between working on his new NFL show Paradise and Only Murders in the Building. He’s just an amazing human.”
Shahi continued, “What I realized from working with people who are so talented is that there’s a level of trust in their work. If one of us as actors felt like that line needed to change or we have a question about something, he takes the time to listen. He’s not precious about things. It’s been really nice to feel that creative freedom and feel like you have a real seat.”
After returning to the second season of cinema, Shahi grateful for the opportunity to further build her character, adding, “It just helps fill in the lines. A lot of times when I’m breaking down a character or I’m looking at something, I like to play what I don’t know. Perfect people are boring. I look for the crack in the veneer, and it just takes a lot of conversations with the director and the writer to make sure the overall story fits together a lot. Conversations and building something together, and that’s what Dan has allowed.”
Hulu’s political thriller paradisewhich was released in January 2025, took the internet by storm as viewers theorized about the various plot twists. Fogelman’s hit series initially appeared to be set in a serene, wealthy community forced to confront the reality of a shocking murder. In typical Fogelman fashion, however, there was a twist at the end of the premiere, when Paradise was revealed to be an underground bunker housing the world’s most prominent individuals after an apocalyptic event destroyed the rest of humanity.
paradise it’s a project that Shahi is very proud of of after revealing to Life is Lifewhich airs Jan. 27, who previously refused to work on network television for a year.
“I was miserable on network TV shows. I’d go to work and it felt like a piece of my soul was missing,” she told Us of the hiatus before booking her dream role as Billie Connelly in 2021. Sex/Life. “I had to really pick myself up and trust my gut and know that I was capable of so much more if I just gave myself the chance.”
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Shahi acknowledged the challenges that came with that choice.
“My reps weren’t happy with the decision. I was making good money as a network actress, and I really took a chance and said, ‘You know what? It’s okay to sit on the sidelines for a while, not to make any money, because I trust she’ll come back,'” she recalled. “And he did, but yeah, it was hard. I had a lot of people in my ear telling me I was making a mistake.”
Life is Life touch not only about the ups and downs of Shahi’s career, but also the changes in his personal life. Shahi intentionally chose to use the lessons she learned as a way to help others going through similar issues.
“I really hope that people have the courage to live their lives as honestly as possible. That’s literally what I want. I really want people to have the courage to live authentically and not worry about what people think,” she shared. “I wrote this book to heal myself. I never expected it to make the impact that it’s causing. But my point of writing it was that there was such a lightness that it brought me in the end that I would love for other people to experience that same kind of feeling.”
paradise premieres February 23rd on Hulu with new episodes every Monday. Life Is Lifey: The A to Z of Navigating the Messy Middle of Life hits shelves on January 27th.