{"id":516724,"date":"2026-03-05T21:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516724\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:17:10","slug":"700-erewhon-hauls-21-hour-shifts-celebrity-assistants-go-public-with-their-grueling-fabulous-work-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516724\/","title":{"rendered":"$700 Erewhon hauls, 21-hour shifts: celebrity assistants go public with their grueling, fabulous work | Celebrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria Hiegel, personal assistant to a celebrity client she cannot name because of a nondisclosure agreement, spent 13 February ferrying Valentine\u2019s Day cookies across Manhattan. Her boss \u201cdoesn\u2019t love chocolate,\u201d so Hiegel had to hunt for a bakery that could swap the batch\u2019s chocolate chunks for sour hearts. She posted<\/a> part of her search to TikTok, where she received thousands of views from people keen to watch her cater to the whims of the rich and famous.<\/p>\n

Hiegel, 26, is a microcelebrity in her own right. Wearing her blond hair in carefully styled waves and speaking with a practised ease, she has obvious star appeal. But it is her career that fascinates her 1m followers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was initially really scared about posting,\u201d said Hiegel who started working for her current employer four years ago, citing the NDA. They\u2019ve since compromised: \u201cI never film around her apartment, and I can never say what she does for a living. That would be really bad. It would be even worse if people knew who her husband was,\u201d she said, teasing. While commenters are sure it\u2019s Anna Wintour she works for, Hiegel said she will never tell. \u201cI can\u2019t even walk with [my employer] in public any more, because then people will know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Hiegel. Photograph: Courtesy of Victoria Hiegel<\/p>\n

Hiegel is among the most prominent figures in an emerging class of service workers \u2013 including private chefs, assistants and stylists, most of them women \u2013 who are monetizing the backstage maintenance of celebrity by documenting their work across TikTok and Instagram. They have influencerized tasks once defined by discretion: mixing a \u201csix-step drink regimen<\/a>\u201d for the \u201cfunniest movie star in Hollywood\u201d; pocketing a $1,000 tip from rapper Big Boogie<\/a>; eating Popeyes with Ray J<\/a>; and even degreasing Meghan Trainor\u2019s camera lens<\/a>. Other parts of the job remain invisible by necessity, as in the case of Hiegel\u2019s mystery employer \u2013 although ultimately, all of the conjecture only helps her engagement.<\/p>\n

The trend reflects a broader shift in celebrity culture itself; fame is no longer assumed to be self-evident, but is increasingly understood as constructed and forcefully sustained. Fans now speak easily about figures such as Tree Paine, the longtime publicist for Taylor Swift, and Lena Dunham\u2019s social media ghostwriter<\/a>. The trend is bringing the economic realities of private staff further into view, too. Private chefs say they wear their whites even on off-days just in case they\u2019re called. Hiegel says her job \u201ctotally bleeds into her personal life\u201d, demanding a constant state of readiness that blurs the line between paid labor and private time.<\/p>\n

double quotation markNo day is the same: shopping for shows, packing bags, family stuff, literally everything, at anytimeGabby Mayo<\/p>\n

For many assistants, social media offers practical benefits. Some entered the field soon after graduation, uncertain whether to pursue corporate or creative careers but capable of taking on roles requiring equal parts organization and improvisation. Visibility online can be a hedge against the precarity of service work, a way to accumulate an audience, and therefore future opportunity, beyond any single employer. \u201cYou\u2019re always so replaceable, so many people work for these celebrities for free,\u201d said Dafne Mejia, private chef to celebrities including the Kardashian-Jenners. \u201cMy platform has definitely helped make my job more secure,\u201d she said, since it functions as a safety net in case employment falls through.<\/p>\n

There is also an immediate financial incentive: creators like Hiegel say they earn significantly more from posting content than from their day jobs (pay for these roles can vary widely, with some staff pulling in solid six-figure<\/a> salaries).<\/p>\n

Gabby Mayo. Photograph: Courtesy of Gabby Mayo<\/p>\n

Gabby Mayo, 37, an Atlanta-based personal assistant to rapper and actor Ludacris (and formerly actor Uzo Aduba), found her job a few years ago via a domestic household agency that connects the wealthy to hired help, and applied on a whim to a listing. The staffing agent told her the employer was \u201ckind of famous. His name\u2019s Chris.\u201d When Ludacris (legal name Christopher Brian Bridges), showed up on the introductory Zoom call, Mayo muted and paused her video. \u201cI just screamed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A few months in, after her friends asked a few too many times what the job actually entailed, Mayo began posting her \u201cday in the life\u201d videos with Ludacris. \u201cNo day is the same: shopping for shows, packing bags, family stuff, literally everything, at anytime.\u201d She insists it doesn\u2019t feel like work. \u201cIt\u2019s like going to my uncle\u2019s house. He\u2019s just so cool.\u201d She runs every video by him first \u2013 he prefers to post content from concerts and photoshoots himself \u2013 and typically forgoes all the mundane parts of the job to broadcast cruising around on Ludacris\u2019s private yacht or flying on his jet. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t mind me posting because he just enjoys me,\u201d Mayo said, \u201cbut I always want to make sure I\u2019m not posting anything I\u2019m not supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khristianne Uy, known online as Chef K, cooks for members of the Jenner-Kardashian family. She had no intention of building an online presence when she started doing it five years ago. \u201cI was traveling with a client who was active online,\u201d she recalled. That client was James Charles, the makeup artist with more than 23m YouTube subscribers. Charles featured her in a post and then suggested something that, at the time, bewildered Uy: \u201cYou don\u2019t post on social media? Let\u2019s make a TikTok<\/a>.\u201d She claims she didn\u2019t even know what TikTok was.<\/p>\n

That clip, which showed everything Uy had cooked for Charles in a week, performed unexpectedly well and combined with his encouragement gave her \u201cthe push to start consistently sharing on my own channel\u201d. She now has well over 1m followers across her Instagram<\/a> and TikTok.<\/p>\n

Chef K. Photograph: taylortonez\/Courtesy of Chef K<\/p>\n

Still, Chef K, who is 42 and based in Los Angeles, is careful to note that social media can distort perceptions of the profession. Audiences are naturally drawn to the flashy aspects of the job, while overlooking the years of discipline and technical skills required to reach such positions. \u201cMost of us started washing dishes and making mistakes before we were trusted with anything important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mejia, a chef who moved into private work during the pandemic, recalls a time when filming in the kitchen was frowned upon. Now it\u2019s more like a necessity: \u201cWe have to post so we get followers who will want to come to our restaurant, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mejia, who is 33, films \u201cday in the life\u201d content with her clients: picking up $700 worth of groceries from Erewhon for a single meal, cooking octopus on an enormous grill. But the sheen of celebrity doesn\u2019t awe her. \u201cYou don\u2019t even think about being in this famous person\u2019s home because there\u2019s staff everywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir kids are always so spoiled. They have nannies who are 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cooks often for the Kardashian-Jenners, a family who\u2019ve long served the illusion of access and intimacy, \u201cbut they rarely actually film in their own house; they\u2019re renting a house\u201d. Mejia is working up the courage to ask the family whether she can film in their home kitchen. \u201cThey\u2019re so private,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want people to know their lives, but not like that.\u201d Having worked with Kris Jenner for only a year, and picking up occasional substitute days cooking for Kim Kardashian, she worries about seeming opportunistic: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be that chef that\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, can I record?\u2019\u201d Maybe, she figures, she\u2019ll ask \u201clike, three years in\u201d. Ultimately, she needs to expose more people to \u201ca product, which is either myself or the food\u201d.<\/p>\n

In some cases, celebrity employers and agencies see a strong, polished online presence as evidence of discretion, taste and proximity to influence. The shift, Mejia notes, has reached some industry gatekeepers. She recently came second in Gordon Ramsay\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen, for which she was selected based on the strength of her cooking as well as a social media presence. \u201cThe first thing the Fox network asks is how many followers you have,\u201d she said, \u201cand it\u2019s like, why do you care about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ki\u2019Loni Lee, 30, a personal assistant based in Atlanta working under strict nondisclosure agreements for musicians and actors, describes social media with cautious pragmatism. She still calls herself \u201creally, really lowkey\u201d despite her visibility. Her videos show only fragments of her shifts, which typically run from 4am to 1am the next morning, and she is one of the only creators to remark on the stressors of the job: the extremely long hours and lack of downtime. \u201cI get so many emails from people who want to know how to get into the industry, so this is my way of sharing tips and what to expect,\u201d she said. For her, posting is more about mentorship than self-promotion.<\/p>\n

In one of her early posts, Hiegel documented a search in Manhattan for a particular set of black silverware requested by her client. Millions watched as her prosaic task unfolded as a kind of miniature quest. An hour before she took a call for this story, a fan stopped her excitedly on the street. \u201cWhen people watch my videos, they feel like they\u2019re on a FaceTime with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiegel sees this as a generational shift in how audiences relate to fame and wealth. \u201cIt\u2019s such a trend right now for. Gen Z is really interested in access to luxury as opposed to owning it,\u201d she said, pointing to the growing popularity of luxury rentals and a wider online fixation on wealth. After all, this is a generation facing prohibitive housing costs, stagnant wages and diminished prospects of ownership. \u201cAnd I think that all of that coincides with people getting sick of the creators they made famous starting to completely neglect their audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ki\u2019Loni Lee. Photograph: Courtesy of Ki\u2019Loni Lee<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an arc that troubles the influencer economy: creators who once felt accessible have accrued major brand deals and notoriety that suddenly made them seem out of reach, ultimately undermining their initial appeal. Watching someone shop for someone else\u2019s vintage handbags, source a client\u2019s onyx black forks, or add spirulina cilantro to Adam Sandler\u2019s morning smoothie<\/a> is more tantalizing than watching an influencer show off her own 24 karat gold Labubu.<\/p>\n

With her TikTok money and fame, Hiegel is finally able to shop vintage Chanel for herself, but she takes care to remain proximal to her audience: \u201cIt\u2019s totally fine to buy nice things, but we don\u2019t need to see your Birkin.\u201d As her audience grows, she imagines one day needing an assistant to help her manage it all, hinting at a future in which more and more assistants to the famous become famous enough to require assistance themselves \u2013 the backstage maintenance of celebrity expanding until it becomes a stage all its own.<\/p>\n