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Lala Kent Reflects on Growing up in Salt Lake City Before Her Vanderpump Rules Days
The Vanderpump Rules cast member, along with Katie Maloney, grew up in Utah and opens up about her days in high school.
Over the years on Vanderpump Rules, viewers have watched Lala Kent grow into the woman she is today.
When we first met her back in Season 4, she was a newbie SURver working for Lisa Vanderpump at SUR trying to navigate the rollercoaster ride of emotions and dynamics at the West Hollywood hotspot. These days, she no longer works at SUR and instead is focused on her growing business empire as a fashion and beauty mogul and podcast host all while being a proud single mom to her daughter, Ocean.
Long before she landed in Los Angeles, Lala was, of course, Lauren Elyse Burningham and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over the years, she's shed some light on her youth and her life back home, including her high school experience.
Keep scrolling to find out what she's shared in the past about her life before Vanderpump Rules.
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Lala Kent's High School Experience Before Vanderpump Rules
Lala spoke to The Daily Dish back in 2017 about what her high school experience was like growing up in the Salt Lake City area. Lala was not raised Mormon, but did grow up around the religion and culture, which made for a unique experience.
"I gravitated towards the people that were in theater class and choir. And the arts were usually for people that weren't religious in any way just because we have to say certain things that are in scripts and so those are the people that I gravitated towards. Those people also were not raised Mormon," she said about her school days.
Is Lala Kent Mormon?
During her 2017 interview with The Daily Dish, she noted that at that time she and Katie Maloney were experiencing tension in their relationship, which surprised her given their similar backgrounds.
"Last year we had a few moments where we bonded over being from Utah, but obviously that didn't last. That was not a make or break of the friendship," she said at the time of the interview several years back. "It's so weird. And she also wasn't raised Mormon, which is the main culture and religion in that state. And so even [the fact] that we're both raised in a Mormon state and neither of us were raised that way, that right there should bond you."
Lala Kent on Moving to Los Angeles After High School
She reflected on the move to L.A. after highschool when speaking to Rolling Stone in 2023: "The first time I moved to L.A., I was 19 and fresh out of high school. My two best friends since childhood were working at SUR, and I would go there... I moved back home because I thought I wanted to go to college, didn’t, and moved back to L.A. at 23."
Eventually, Lisa offered her a job at SUR and the rest is history.
Lala Kent on Appearing on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and Seeing High School Friends
Back in Season1 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Lala and Katie both made a cameo on RHOSLC and Lala revealed later on to The Daily Dish: "It was like a melting pot of all these people who I either went to high school with or dated their cousin or their brother. It was nostalgic, amazing."
These days you can catch Lala every week on Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules. She's also spilling all the tea about the dramatic season in the Vanderpump Rules After Show (clip above).
