Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Laguna Beach?

A lot has changed since "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" aired on MTV. The reality television show introduced us to the world of eight glamorous teens in California, all nearing the end of high school and planning the next chapter of their lives in adulthood. According to series creator Liz Gateley, the true draw of the show was its reliability.

"There are millions and millions of girls that grew up in high school during that time and they think of [Lauren Conrad] as a friend," Gateley told TVGuide.com. "I think it was very powerful because the audience understood that this was a coming-of-age story and a whole generation of girls identified with all the struggles Lauren went through."

The show debuted on September 28, 2004, and fans immediately fell in love with the stories (and drama) of this beautiful, fun, and flirty group of friends. So where is the cast of "Laguna Beach" now?

After the show wrapped, Lauren Conrad left Laguna Beach to star in MTV's "The Hills" for five seasons, documenting her new life. Since then, she has published nine books including "L.A. Candy" and "The Fame Game" trilogies and founded the fashion lines LC Lauren Conrad and Paper Crown. 

"Since the third grade, I've been telling everyone that I wanted to be a fashion designer," she told E! News. "I'm not quite sure what that came from, it was just what I decided I wanted to be."

More recently, Conrad co-founded the fair trade online store The Little Market. Speaking of this transition into running a nonprofit shop, she told E! News, "I felt like I had been given a platform and I had used it to grow my career, but I felt like there was something more meaningful I could do. So we came up with the concept for The Little Market." 

The company works closely with artisan groups and social enterprises to source ethical and sustainable items, giving customers the opportunity to purchase one-of-a-kind pieces from around the globe. Not only that, but the company also helps provide safe income to underserved communities.

On the personal front, Conrad married musician William Tell in 2014. They have two sons together — Liam, born in 2017, and Charlie, born in 2019. The family currently lives in Los Angeles.

Stephen Colletti has stayed in Hollywood, most notably starring as Chase Adams on The CW drama series "One Tree Hill" from 2007 to 2012. On the show's ending, Colletti told Assignment X, "It's been nice to join it for the ride, to come in the middle, meet such an incredible fan base, meet such incredible people in Wilmington, North Carolina, where it shoots, and have the privilege of working under Mark Schwahn."

Colletti also received attention when he portrayed Taylor Swift's love interest in her music video for "White Horse" in 2009. "I watched ["Laguna Beach"] on and off, but I saw him on "One Tree Hill" and thought he was really awesome on that," Swift told MTV News about Colletti's casting. "He had sort of the look we were going for... because the guy in the video is supposed to look really sweet and someone who just looks like he would never lie to you."

Most recently, he co-created, wrote, and starred in "Everybody Is Doing Great" alongside his "One Tree Hill" co-star James Lafferty, which debuted on Hulu in January 2021. As for what's next, Colletti confirmed in an interview with Mashable that future seasons of the show are coming. 

"There's a lot of growth left for these characters, and we're going to continue to explore that," he said.

After "Laguna Beach", Kristin Cavallari made waves by taking over from LC as the lead in "The Hills." Speaking on the manufactured nature of the show, she told Buzzfeed in 2016, "I knew sort of this character that they wanted me to play. When I decided to come on board, I made a decision and I was like, 'OK, this is my job and I'm going to separate my Hills life from my real life.'" Cavallari's role as the lead was controversial with fans, and the show ended after just one and half seasons of her at the helm.

Just as "The Hills" was wrapping up, Cavallari released her debut book, "Balancing In Heels" in 2016. "People think they know me, coming from reality TV, but they really don't," she said about writing the autobiography. "I'm finally at a really good place in my life where I'm ready to share that journey with everybody." She also went on to author two cookbooks, published in 2018 and 2020, and founded her own jewelry company called Uncommon James in 2017.

Cavallari returned to reality TV in 2018 with her own show, "Very Cavallari", which ran on E! until 2020.

Cavallari began dating former NFL player Jay Cutler in 2010, with the pair tying the knot in 2013. However, the couple announced in 2020 that they were "growing apart," resulting in the couple filing for divorce. They have three children together.

Lo Bosworth starred in "The Hills" from 2007 to 2010, but after that, she left show business and reality TV behind. 

"Working in television was not my strong suit," she told Hollywood Life in 2021. "I would much prefer to have a normal, every day job with reliability and security and stability. I am much more comfortable in that space. I was 17 when I was first on television, and I wasn't ready to deal with all the negativity and pressure."

Bosworth launched a website called The Lo Down by Lo Bosworth in 2010 and later released a book by the same name. She started her own successful beauty channel on YouTube in 2013. Most recently, Bosworth founded Love Wellness, a natural beauty store, in 2016. 

"We create total body care for women, so my focus is on women's wellness," she said. "If you were to ever see me on television again, it would be in a wellness space."

Bosworth now lives in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In 2020, Bosworth told ET Online, "I have really created my own path that I'm just so happy to be on and I think I'm getting close to succeeding in building the life I always dreamt of for myself."

Leaving his days of reality TV behind, Talan Torriero has worked in content marketing for over ten years, assisting companies like MGM Studios, ABC, Disney, and The Grammy Awards. In February 2011, he launched the online platform CyberInterns.com, which connects users to virtual internship opportunities across a range of industries. 

"This process of having to sign up for all different sites and going through their listings was long and painful," Torriero told Under30CEO of his inspiration for the website. "I said to myself, there has to be a website that just caters to students looking for just virtual internships."

More recently, Torriero hosted a podcast called "The Dad Debate" with his "Laguna Beach" co-star, Jason Wahler, the last episode of which aired in July 2021. According to his Instagram, Torriero married his wife, Danielle, in 2014 and together they have two children — a son named Bronson born in 2017, and a daughter named Hudson born in 2020. The family now lives in Nebraska.

After devastatingly being rejected from Brigham Young University at the end of "Laguna Beach" season one, Morgan Olsen, now Morgan Smith, reapplied and graduated with a degree in humanities and journalism. She started her career at Elle Magazine in fashion journalism and worked in product marketing before eventually founding the children's swim and resort label Minnow Swim in 2016.

When asked by Forbes if she had seen herself becoming a fashion designer when she was younger, Olsen responded, "Not a designer, per se, but definitely working in fashion. I grew up working in boutiques in high school and college. I once said that owning my own boutique was a goal of mine." 

In fact, the idea to move into swimwear design came to Olsen on vacation. "Disappointed with the lack of options I found in a city with a large children's clothing offering, I started thinking about where I found [my son's] swim trunks back home in California," Olsen said. "There wasn't a consistent brand that I knew of, dedicating themselves to children's swim."

After moving back and forth between New York and California, Olsen now lives on the coast in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, Joel Smith, and three children.

During her time on "Laguna Beach," Christina Schuller, now Christina Sinclair, often spoke about her dream of pursuing a career in acting. However, she refocused her goals after the show's conclusion and began working as a certified nutritionist and fitness instructor. 

"I was an actor... and it just got to the point where I was getting more joy out of teaching than I was out of auditioning," she told Laguna Beach Magazine in 2014. "I was like, 'What am I doing? Isn't it about being happy?'"

In lieu of acting, Schuller ran a popular wellness blog, Beach Babe Fitness, where she posted workouts and recipes until mid-2016. She has now set her focus back to barre instructing and her family. She married Chad Sinclair in 2011 and they now have two children together — Christian Sutton, born in 2014, and Cienna Estelle, born in 2017. She detailed her experiences with giving birth to Christian in a 2014 blog post, where she described her experiences giving birth unmedicated.

The family currently lives in Laguna Beach.

Unlike the majority of his castmates, Trey Phillips has stayed out of the spotlight since the show's conclusion. In fact, his Instagram and other social media accounts are set to private, making it difficult for any "Laguna Beach" fans to find out what he's been up to. 

However, there are some kernels of information that we know about Phillips after his retirement from reality television. Following the dreams he expressed on "Laguna Beach", he moved to New York to study fashion at Parsons School of Design. According to his LinkedIn, he has worked as an associate designer for Vera Wang for over ten years.

Although his personal social media accounts are set to private, Phillips still appears to be friends with members of the "Laguna Beach" cast. He will occasionally pop up on Instagram with Stephen Colletti, Lauren Conrad, and Dieter Schmitz. He even attended Schmitz's wedding in 2016.

While filming "The Hills", Jason Wahler developed addiction issues that resulted in his being arrested more than a dozen times by the age of 23. "That exposure on TV meant that all of a sudden we were all some kind of celebrities," he wrote on his website. "I had everything that 'society' said was amazing: money, girls, notoriety, fame, and unlimited access."

Wahler battled addiction for years before getting sober and now uses his public image to help others overcome substance abuse and mental health issues. "My life experiences allow me to relate to anyone struggling with addiction, whether they are a 16-year-old still at home or a professional at the top of their career because I have gone through it all myself," he wrote. "As an advocate, I have been able to help thousands of people so far and am looking forward to all of the ways I can continue to spread a message of hope."

Wahler's focus has also been on creating a family. He married his wife, Ashley, in 2013 and together they have two children — a daughter, Delilah, born in 2017, and a son, Wyatt, born in 2021. The family lives in Tennessee. Most recently, Wahler appeared in the second season of "The Hills: New Beginnings." He has also discussed his experiences as a father on the podcast "The Dad Debate" that he hosted with his "Laguna Beach" co-star, Talan Torriero.

After wrapping on "Laguna Beach", Alex Murrel launched a singing career. Her debut single "Hello" was featured on the show and she performed the song at the Fight the Slide Benefit Auction. Her follow-up songs "Now" and "What's It To You" were only released on her MySpace page.

Outside of music, Murrel graduated from Chapman University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and a minor in English. In 2014, she launched Mox Agency, a boutique social media marketing agency that creates customized brand solutions for companies, which appears to be where her true passion lies.

Otherwise, Murrel has focused on starting a family — according to her Instagram, she married Kyle Johnson in 2014 and they share three boys named Levi, Kase, and Rome. The family still lives in California and Murrel has largely turned her back on show business. 

"I really had some issues when the show was airing," she told TooFab in 2014. "We wouldn't get the episodes until the night before it aired and editing completely changes the way that you think it's going to come off. I think that for me, I came off a lot meaner and mean spirited."

After his time on "Laguna Beach", Dieter Schmitz left the entertainment industry and focused his career on the hotel and hospitality industry. According to his LinkedIn, Schmitz graduated Magna Cum Laude from Johnson & Wales University and now works as the U.S. Mainland Market General Manager for Marriott Vacations Worldwide.

In 2016, Schmitz married Isabell Hiebl in a beachside wedding attended by a number of "Laguna Beach" alums. Lauren Conrad and Loren Polster both paid witness to the nuptials, with Trey Phillips and Stephen Colletti acting as groomsmen. The couple announced the arrival of their son, Nico Josef, in September 2018 and they moved back to Laguna Beach from NYC the same year. 

"And we've made it," he captioned an Instagram photo at the time. "Picture perfect sunset and dinner with amazing friends to end the road trip. So great to be back."

It definitely doesn't appear that Schmitz's new life out of the spotlight has stopped his friendship from continuing with the "Laguna Beach" cast — he still regularly posts photos on social media with members of the group.

Lexie Contursi has predominantly focused her public career on dancing, appearing as a contestant on "So You Think You Can Dance" in 2010 and in the concert movie "Katy Perry: Part of Me" in 2012.

Contursi filmed an appearance for "The Big Bang Theory" in 2014, but the scene was cut from the aired broadcast. As a result, the show's director Chuck Lorre commended Contursi's acting talent on the vanity card at the end of the episode. 

"I wanted to take this opportunity to tell Lexie, and all her friends and relatives, that she nailed the part," he wrote. "Just nailed it. The fact that it did not appear in tonight's episode had absolutely nothing to do with her performance."

Most recently, Contursi launched a vintage fine jewelry line called Chat Noir Jewels alongside her sister in April 2021. "Sister duo Lexie and Nicolette's admiration for jewelry began at a very young age, inspired by their mother's talent to create looks expressing her personal style with antique jewelry passed down through generations," the website reads. "Lexie and Nicolette's biggest aspiration for Chat Noir is to help others transition their extravagant pieces into everyday essentials."