Chaldean in the City

Yvonne Najor is living her reality

By Crystal Kassab, Ed.D

Yvonne Najor fell in love with New York City the first time she set foot there. Now, New York City loves her back as one of the main cast members on Bravo’s newest hit show, In the City, a spin-off of the network’s Summer House. It is a movement from the single, partying lifestyle to navigating the complexities of adult life, including marriage and personal reinvention. She is the first Chaldean “character” on a mainstream reality show and claims they are all just their authentic selves.

After graduating from the University of Southern California-Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s in Sociology in 2008, she visited her sister, Nadia, who was studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. That visit prompted her to tell her parents she was moving to NYC. They were a little hesitant because of the subprime mortgage crisis at the time, and worried about how she would find work and afford a place to live. They encouraged her and gave their blessing anyway.

“My parents always wanted me to have a career and independence,” said Najor, 40. “They were happy with whatever made me happy.”

Najor grew up in Solana Beach, a coastal suburb of San Diego, California, where there were very few Chaldeans. She graduated from Torrey Pines High School with only two others like her but had spent every weekend 45 minutes away in El Cajon, where the majority of Chaldeans reside, because the rest of her family lived there. Her dad is one of seven, and her mom is one of eight, so there was always a lot going on in the Najor and Kassa families.

“We would have so much fun every weekend sleeping at my grandma’s. My mom and my aunts would pile us cousins into the car for Disneyland or Palm Springs, or we would be going to weddings. I had lots of first- and second-cousins to be with!”

Najor’s big family meant constant gatherings, so it was no surprise that she started a party-planning business geared toward twenty-somethings as her first NYC venture. She eventually sold it four years later and then did marketing and sales events for that buyer’s other company. Najor worked her way up into one of the largest hospitality businesses, serving seven-and-a-half years as Vice-President of Marketing, an incredible feat for a woman in the male-dominated nightlife industry.

Last summer, Najor got laid off. She cried all the time for the next few months.

“Reimagining my career was scary, but it ended up being the biggest blessing,” she remarked.

Najor’s best friend for the past 14 years, Lindsay Hubbard, told her about casting for In the City. Hubbard is one of the original cast members of Summer House and has been part of it for 10 seasons, including the 11th, which is currently filming. Najor and her husband, Nicholas Barber, thought it would be a great opportunity to film with some of their closest friends.

The couple married in Mexico in 2024 in front of nearly 200 guests and making it legal in the US is one of the show’s storylines. That, and having babies.

Najor is proud of her Chaldean roots, and in one scene she counts her family members and, in comical Yvonne-fashion, almost forgets an aunt, but reassures the audience in confession that, “popping out babies is just what we do!”

Nearly two weeks after In the City aired, Najor and her husband made a People announcement that they were expecting, and in the season finale, it was revealed they were having a boy. She is due at the end of August.

Najor felt honored that so many Chaldeans reached out to her on Instagram after seeing the show, especially women who are happy to see her as a representation. She credits her mother, grandmothers, and aunts for her career in hospitality, which she continues to pursue.

“Chaldean women are some of the strongest women I know,” claimed Najor.

Though her path was not the typical or traditional one for a young Chaldean woman—moving out of state, having a destination wedding, pregnant at 40—Najor still maintains her culture by giving out random “halholes” at the clubs in NY and making dolma once a month. For now, all her dreams are coming true.

“Go after your dreams. No dream is too big or too small.”