Pleasant Gehman

Pleasant Gehman is a true renaissance woman. A lifelong multi-disciplinary artist, she is a writer, professional dancer, actor, psychic, musician and painter; she has  often been called “a force of nature”.

A Hollywood rock ‘n’ roll icon, during the 1970’s, she was one of the first punks in Los Angeles, documenting the scene she helped create in her fanzine Lobotomy, which lead to writing for the top mainstream rock publications. During the 1980’s, she toured fronting her three bands, all of whom released multiple recordings: The Screaming Sirens, The Ringling Sisters and Honk If Yer Horny. Concurrently, she was the talent booker for the seminal Los Angeles “alternative” clubs Cathay De Grande and Raji’s.

Since the early 1990’s, under the stage name Princess Farhana, she has appeared internationally as a professional belly dance and burlesque performer and teacher, touring in Egypt, Turkey, China, Australia, and constantly across Europe, The United Kingdom and North America. She’s danced and acted in numerous motion pictures, in music videos and on television shows and has been featured in many documentaries on belly dance and burlesque, performing and as an interview subject. In 2009, she was the star of Steve Balderson’s feature length documentary Underbelly: A Year In The Life Of Princess Farhana, released worldwide in theaters as well as on DVD. 

A practicing witch, her work as a psychic, intuitive Tarot reader and energy healer has been life-long; she currently shares her gifts with clients worldwide. 

From the age of sixteen onwards, Pleasant has been a journalist and cultural commentator with literally thousands of articles published nationally and internationally on everything from rock ‘n’ roll to the paranormal, from magic to homeless teenagers. Her memoirs, short stories and poetry have been widely anthologized and many works were recorded on her spoken word CD Ruined. 

In March 2020, she launched the  popular podcast  The Devil’s Music, which explores the intersection of rock’n’roll and the occult. It is available across all podcasting platforms. 

Pleasant is the author and/or editor of eight books, including The Belly Dance Handbook and the memoir Showgirl Confidential: My Life Onstage, Backstage And On The Road

(Sept. 2013, Punk Hostage Press)

She authored her own chapters in John Doe and Tom Desavia’s Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History Of LA Punk and More Fun In The New World: The Unmaking And Legacy Of La Punk

Pleasant lives in Hollywood, California, with four spoiled rescue cats.