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’90 Day Fiancé’: What does Angela Deem do for a living?

How does Meemaw make money?

Angela Deem and Michael Ilesanmi in Lagos, Nigeria
via TLC

Angela Deem’s eight-season journey across the 90 Day Fiancé universe has featured some pretty interesting financial decisions from the reality TV franchise legend – including hefty visa immigration bills, frequent trips to Nigeria, as well as a planned surrogacy and even a $25,000 facelift.

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Fans who follow Angela will be curious as to how the star makes money and supports herself financially, as filming for 90 Day can be extensive, making it difficult to balance a normal, 9-5 job. Here’s what we know about Angela’s work, both on and off-screen.

What is Angela Deem’s job?

Before her debut on 90 Day Fiancé, it is believed that Angela Deem worked in healthcare, working as a nursing assistant at a hospice. While it is not known if she ever left that profession, busy filming schedules, lack of privacy in a job that requires patient confidentiality, and other paid opportunities for Angela makes it somewhat likely that she no longer works in that field.

American 90 Day Fiancé cast members are thought to earn approximately in the ballpark of $1,000-1,500 per episode. According to In Touch Weekly, Angela earns around $15,000 per season of the show, with a $2,500 bonus for the tell-all, reunion episodes that wrap up every season. Given that Angela has been on eight different 90 Day seasons across the franchise, Angela has earned around $140,000 from episode appearances alone, making her one of the 90 Day universe’s top earners. As one of its biggest stars, there’s every chance the American could be earning even more than that.

Other ventures

Angela also has a Cameo account, where fans can pay for video messages or private, text-form messages. As of May 2024, Angela charges $125 per video and has made 836 videos, totaling around $100,000 worth of income for the star. Deem also uses FanBasis, a Cameo-like app where fans can pay her to interact with them on social media, have a FaceTime call with her and her family, have a song and dance party with her, or give their business a shoutout. These rates will certainly be higher than the average Cameo video.

Thanks to her larger-than-life personality, Angela, as shown on her Instagram, gets paid to do public events, such as club nights and specialist parties. It is common for reality stars to have appearance fees for events – although they do not tend to publicly disclose how much that fee is.

Although often deleted at a later time, Angela has also done her fair share of spon-con (sponsored content) for various brands. Angela has also made sponsored posts promoting “flat tummy teas, apple cider vinegar gummies, hair straighteners, and luxury car rentals”.

The site also alleges that many of Angela’s cosmetic procedures that she shares openly with her followers, like dentistry and cosmetic surgery procedures, were paid for by those clinics as part of a sponsorship deal. Like her appearance fees, Angela will certainly be paid a hefty sum for the posts – although how much exactly is kept strictly private.

Angela Deem’s 90 Day Fiancé timeline

Angela Deem, a proud “Meemaw” (Southern slang for grandmother) from the state of Georgia, met Michael Ilesanmi, a Nigerian, after he added her on Facebook. Initially suspicious of his interest in her, as well as their 22-year age difference, Angela was charmed into dating Michael long-distance, before meeting him in his home country, as shown in Before The 90 Days.

When the pair met up in person, their romantic spark was evident (as well as some fiery arguments), and it wasn’t long before the two got engaged and started planning their nuptials. Although the couple wed in Nigeria in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic – with a host of other visa-related issues for Michael – prevented the Nigerian from coming back to the U.S. with Angela.

As a result, the couple went back to long-distance, which led to rumors of a split between the two. Angela later admitted in a reunion episode that two highly testing mid-pandemic years, thousands of miles apart, may well stamp out their relationship. International tensions were worsened by an ill-fated attempt for Angela to become pregnant in her fifties, and the revelation that Michael had been unfaithful – all seeming to pointing to a dead end for them.

That is, until Angela and Michael (the latter virtually) attended the couples retreat on 90 Day: The Last Resort, where a series of successful couples’ therapies caused Angela to joyfully rip up the divorce papers she brought to the retreat. Things seemed sweet, with Michael’s arrival in the U.S. at long last being featured in the follow-up series 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, until news broke that Michael went missing shortly into his arrival into the country.

Although Michael was thankfully found, reports stated that he wanted to be kept away from Angela, leaving the fate of their relationship to be revealed in the upcoming final episodes of Happily Ever After.