Here’s the true story of what the cast of BH90210 is doing in real-life. Fox’s highly-rated revival of Beverly Hills, 90210 reunites stars Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Shannen Doherty, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, and Brian Austin Green but with an unusual twist: rather than starring in a continuation of the classic 1990s series, the actors are instead playing “heightened versions of themselves” as they all embark on a reboot of 90210.
In BH90210, Priestley plays an angrier version of himself who is a frustrated TV director; Garth is in the midst of her third failed marriage; Ziering is an entrepreneur who hawks a fitness and lifestyle brand with his wife, who is aspiring to be one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; Green is a bored stay-at-home dad while his pop star wife is the breadwinner who garners all the media attention; Carteris recently became a grandmother; and Spelling is at a crossroads with her career and personal life after her reality series failed. In BH90210’s pilot, the old West Beverly High gang gather in Las Vegas for the 30th-anniversary celebration of Beverly Hills, 90210, which is upstaged by the appearance of Shannen Doherty, who is now a crusader saving endangered animals.
BH90210 was created by Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling, who then got all of their old castmates to join this new series. The entire cast serves as executive producers as well as starring as “themselves”. Luke Perry was also signed on to BH90210 before his tragic death but as a result, Shannen Doherty, who originally wasn’t interested in joining BH90210, came aboard in part to honor Perry’s memory. The reboot is certainly a bizarre concept that plays fast and loose with the facts and real lives of the gang from West Beverly, and totally sidesteps the less extreme real lives of the BH90210 cast.
Jason Priestley
Like his BH90210 counterpart, Jason Priestley is a successful director, though he doesn’t have anger management issues and punch out his actors on-set. Priestley left Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1998 but remained an executive producer until the series was canceled. Priestley has acted in TV series such as Tru Calling, My Name Is Earl, and How I Met Your Mother. Priestley has also directed music videos, a documentary about Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies, 15 episodes of 90210 as well as episodes of 7th Heaven, Van Helsing, Dark Matter, and BH90210. Currently, Priestley both directs and stars in the Canadian TV series Private Eyes, which can be seen on Ion in the U.S.
In real life, Priestley is married to makeup artist Naomi Lowde, while BH90210’s version is married to a publicist named Camille (Vanessa Lachey). Priestley and Lowde have two children, unlike BH90210’s Jason and Camille, who are childless and focused on their careers. It’s unknown if, in BH90210’s universe, Tim Horton’s named a doughnut “The Priestley” after Jason Priestley as they did in the real world.
Jennie Garth
Like her BH90210’s counterpart, Jennie Garth has been married three times but, in real life, she and her current husband, actor David Abrams, worked out their issues and dismissed the divorce proceedings in February 2019. Garth has had a successful acting career post-Beverly Hills, 90210; she starred in the WB sitcom What I Like About You with Amanda Bynes. In 2007, Garth also appeared on Dancing With The Stars and, in 2008, she reprised her role of Kelly Taylor on The CW’s 90210 reboot. She also starred in The Jennie Garth Project, a home-renovation reality series on HGTV.
In 2002, Garth was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve, a condition she has to monitor for the rest of her life; in 2008, she won $100,000 for the American Heart Association on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Garth has three children and owns a horse ranch in Santa Barbara, California.
Shannen Doherty
After being the first main cast member to leave Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994, Shannen Doherty starred as Prue Halliwell on Charmed before being killed off from the series due to on-set tensions with costar Alyssa Milano - circumstances which mirrored her exit from 90210. In 2003, Doherty hosted Scare Tactics on Sci-Fi Channel before starring in the reality series Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty on Oxygen. In 2008, Doherty reprised the role of Brenda Walsh on The CW’s 90210 reboot; she was later a contestant on Dancing With The Stars and, in 2015, Doherty and her Charmed costar Holly Marie Combs starred in a road trip reality series called Off The Map With Shannen and Holly.
In 2015, Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgery and undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she announced her cancer is in remission.
Ian Ziering
BH90210’s Ian Ziering is an aspiring fitness guru with his wife Stacy (Jenna Rosenow), whom he discovers is having an affair. In real life, Ziering is happily married to Erin Ludwig and they run a lifestyle blog together. Ziering has acted in dozens of TV series and movies since Beverly Hills, 90210; most notably, he gained a new cult following from starring in six Sharknado TV movies on Syfy. Ziering has also appeared on reality shows such as Dancing With The Stars, The Apprentice, The Celebrity Apprentice, and The Worst Cooks In America: Celebrity Edition. Recently, Ziering played Blue Devil on the DC Universe original series Swamp Thing.
Gabrielle Carteris
In BH90210, Gabrielle Carteris is President of the fictional Actors Guild of America, which mirrors her real-life position as the President of SAG-AFTRA since 2016. Unlike BH90210’s Carteris, the actual person isn’t a grandmother, although she has two adult children with her husband, stockbroker Charles Isaacs. After she left Beverly Hills, 90210, Carteris appeared in dozens of TV series, films such as Touched By An Angel, JAG, NYPD Blue, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Longmire, and even lent her voice to video games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Spider-Man 3.
Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling is arguably having the most fun mocking herself on BH90210; the bubble-headed fictionalized version of Spelling is married to ex-hockey player Nate and they have six children together. Their reality television career is their main source of income but they’re desperate for cash after their show, Tori and Nate: Spelling the Beans, was canceled. In real life, Spelling is married to Dean McDermott and they only have five children together, but have starred in several reality series and have publically documented money problems.
Spelling has written six successful autobiographies and, along with Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty, she reprised her role of Donna Martin on The CW’s 90210 reboot. She has also appeared alongside Ian Ziering in The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time and was revealed as the Unicorn on The Masked Singer.
Brian Austin Green
In real life, Brian Austin Green isn’t the directionless, stay-at-home dad he plays on BH90210 but he does have a more famous wife: BH90210’s Green is married to hip-hop star Shay (La La Anthony) but the real Brian is married to Megan Fox, with whom he has three sons. (Green also has a son with his ex Vanessa Marcil).
Green’s post-Beverly Hills, 90210 acting career hit a few high spots as well: He played Derek Reese, the uncle of John Connor (Thomas Dekker), on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and he also portrayed Metallo on Smallville. Meanwhile, Green and Fox support the charity Generosity Water and all the money Green personally earns through his partnership with the Cameo app is donated to the charity.
Next: How Is BH90210 Connected to The Original Series? It’s Complicated (And Weird)
BH90210 airs Wednesdays @ 9pm on Fox.