#RHOA Season 8 Casting: Who Is Shamea Morton? Friend or New ‘Housewife’? [PHOTOS]

How many Atlanta ‘housewives’ are too many?? That question remains to be answered as the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta tape the 8th season of the popular reality show.

With the departure of their anchor, Nene Leakes, it seems producers of the show have been actively recruiting and even brought back veteran ‘housewife’ Sheree Whitfield.

As you know actress Kim Fields is also on the roster (not sure if she’s on the trip tho) and while Marlo Hampton was spotted filming once or twice, she apparently wasn’t invited on the annual girl’s trip (which is a tell-tell sign that she’s probably not a solid cast member).

Porsha Wiliams seems to have gained a bit of leverage this season and may have secured her peach. She’s also brought along a new ‘friend,’ Shamea Morton, a former cheerleader for both the Atlanta Falcons & Atlanta Hawks, who made a startling appearance during Williams’s live video from their ‘girl’s trip’ yesterday.

[READ: #RHOA Phaedra Parks & Porsha Williams Share Season 8 Girls Trip Sneak Peek… (PHOTOS + VIDEO)]

Who is Shamea Morton?? More details below…

For the record, Shamea has been hanging out with the cast all Summer long and once appeared on RHOA during season 5 and refers to herself via social media as an ‘actress, singer, dancer, host & on air personality.’ (She should fit right in with the rest of the ‘actresses’ on RHOA!)

Morton’s addition to the cast adds to the growing list of supporting characters, which also include Cynthia Bailey’s sister Mallorie Bailey-Massey, Kandi Burruss’ BFF, Carmon Cambrice and Marlo Hampton will appear occasionally to support Kenya Moore.

So far, the 6 main cast members still consist of Phaedra Parks, Kandi Burruss, Cynthia Bailey, Kenya Moore, Porsha Williams, Sheree Whitfield.

It will be interesting to see how producers incorporate ALL of the supporting characters. I assume the show will focus more on the ladies than their husband’s this season, especially since there’s only three married women (and only two husbands physically available to film).

Whatever the case, Shamea Morton is definitely on board this season and while there rumor is still buzzing about transgender model Amayah Scott, my sources continue to confirm that she is NOT a cast member (click HERE if you missed that).

What do you think of all these random additions to RHOA?