Aussie star Eden Gaha became a US reality TV producer and knows what it’s like to work with Trump
Eden Gaha left a successful career in Australian TV to move to the US. Now he is one of the most influential reality television producers in LA who has worked with Donald Trump.
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He’s remembered in Australia as a stage and screen star from the ’90s, but Eden Gaha is now one of the most influential reality television producers in Los Angeles – and he’s lifted the lid on what it was like to work with Donald Trump.
Gaha, 55, returned to Sydney to marry his now-wife, Trent, and to introduce their 15-week-old son to extended family.
Elia is their first child, his second, and it’s a convenient coincidence both families live on the Central Coast.
The newlyweds are sitting at a park in Coogee, relieved and elated because Elia is in a good mood for the photo shoot. “He’s ready for his close up,” Gaha joked.
Packing up his life in Australia in 2001 to start fresh in Hollywood was a gamble, but it paid off.
He went from performing on A Country Practice, Home and Away, Police Rescue, E Street, Vidiot, and Animal Hospital to producing some of the biggest reality shows in the world.
MasterChef and MasterChef Junior are on his CV, along with The Biggest Loser, Farmer Wants A Wife, Love Is Blind, The Contender, and The Island with Bear Grylls. His work on Survivor scored him two Emmy Award nominations.
He was named the president of major production and distribution house Shine USA (now called Endemol Shine) and spent a year running Eureka Productions.
But his time on set with the current US President seems to attract ongoing attention. Gaha worked on five seasons of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, a program that elevated Mr Trump’s reputation from bankrupt businessman to real estate mogul, with prime time slots between 2004 and 2015.
Gaha worked on the show between about 2007 and 2012.
Contrary to popular belief, he was adamant there were no hidden tapes of Mr Trump being sexually inappropriate to women on show.
“I can dispel the myth there’s tapes somewhere, because there’s not. Everything you saw on the show, and everything you see about it now, is what he tells you,” Gaha said.
The rumours began during Mr Trump’s inaugural Presidential campaign in 2016, when a recording from 2005 was leaked. In the tape, he could be heard laughing with then-Access Hollywood anchor Billy Bush about groping and sexually assaulting women.
Mr Trump brushed it off as “locker room talk”, against mounting allegations of sexual misconduct by a number of former contestants.
There was intense speculation about the existence of similar recordings that never went to air.
“I know people like to think there’s hidden tapes, but there’s not. At least, I’m not aware of them,” Gaha said.
“Nothing happened while I was on the show, and I would probably have known about it. Back then, everything was on tape and transcribed by third-party services. If there was anything untoward, we’d know about it.”
Gaha noted his responses to Trump-related questions aren’t always what people want to hear.
“He’s so controversial, but honestly he was the consummate professional. I’ve never known anyone to remember lines like he can,” Gaha said.
“He’d look at a script, look at bullet points and say, ‘let’s go’ and he’d do it in one take. He was always on time, he treated us really well and he was a great TV talent. We had a great working relationship then. He also wasn’t the President back then and he wasn’t running for President.”
Gaha wasn’t surprised when he learned the businessman-turned-reality star was running for the White House in 2016. Speaking on personality alone, he also wasn’t surprised the presidential campaign was twice successful.
“Donald Trump is one of those people who can create a movement, and when people are around him they act differently, they feel differently, there’s just a special air around him that people do absolutely respond to,” he said.
“That’s why he won the election, not just the Electoral College, the popular vote as well.”
Mr Trump is just one celebrity Gaha has worked with. Others include Naomi Campbell, Piers Morgan, Khloe Kardashian, Cyndi Lauper, and Sharon Osbourne.
His favourite? Gordon Ramsay, who is apparently nothing like the tyrant shown on Hell’s Kitchen.
“He is one of the sharpest and best TV talents I’ve ever known,” he said.
“A great producer, he’s great on camera, he’s the nicest person in the world, he really cares about everything that happens. I couldn’t say enough nice things about him, despite the character you see on screen.”
When Gaha moved to LA, his credits in Australia meant nothing and he started again from the bottom, working as a personal assistant on set. Reality TV was in its infancy, Idol and Big Brother were taking off on international screens. He fell into it, and fell in love with it.
Part of the appeal was the speed of reality TV production. Unlike scripted dramas, there’s no predetermined storyline. Real situations are filmed and producers have to watch until the storyline reveals itself.
“People don’t realise how much work is involved in reality TV and how much we shoot – you’re shooting at least 12 hours a day on anyone’s story and that might end up being two or three minutes on television,” he said.
“On a show like Survivor, so much happens when they’re not doing anything at all because they’re really hungry, so when something really kicks off, you go ‘well there it is, there’s the story’ and you follow the thread.”
He still watches Survivor in his downtime because, he said, it’s still evolving even after 50 seasons. Talent shows like The Voice are also high on the list because he gets sucked into the emotional stories, but his favourite seems to be Storage Wars.
“It’s like a game show but in the real world, so you feel like you can get involved,” he said.
Gaha hopes to spend more time in Australia producing scripted and feature documentaries. He’s also finished a mystery novel and is in the middle of writing another loosely based on the story of his uncle, who was a popstar in France in the ‘70s, but the names have been changed.
“I get up every morning and knock out 2000 words if I can,” he said. “They’re not always good.”
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