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| Halloween Wars Season 15: Where Are the Contestants Now? |
Halloween Wars Season 15 may be over, but most of its contestants have hardly been sitting around waiting for the next spooky season to arrive. The Food Network competition brought together seven teams of cake, sugar and pumpkin artists, with each trio challenged to create increasingly elaborate Halloween displays for a $25,000 prize. Away from the show, the artists have returned to businesses, animation, pastry kitchens, festivals and their own creative projects — proving that making one enormous pumpkin monster for television is apparently just another day at work.
The members of Team Terrifying Trio have continued along very different creative paths. Kelly Shivery remains active as a custom cake artist and baker in Wellington, Florida, while also maintaining a career as an Advanced Certified Paralegal and CMMC Certified Professional at Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC. Her professional life involves legal research, document reviews, filings and working with clients and attorneys, which is quite the contrast to spending hours turning sugar into something that looks far too complicated to eat. Kelly also remains involved in community fundraising alongside her husband, Tim, including The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis organised by Piper’s Angels Foundation.
Kylie Holt continues to operate Kylie Holt – Delectable Artistry from her home in Sunset, Utah, specialising in detailed 3D and gravity-defying cakes. Her Food Network history includes appearances on Cake Wars and Santa’s Baking Blizzard, as well as a win on The Big Bake. She was also named Best of Show at the Sugar Artists of Utah Show in 2021. Beyond commissions, Kylie shares her skills through hands-on baking classes, meaning aspiring cake artists can learn how to construct something spectacular without immediately discovering that gravity has other plans.
Michael Valeroso, better known artistically as Wolfgang Carving, continues combining his technical career as a helicopter mechanic with his passion for pumpkin carving. The Philippines-born artist creates elaborate pumpkin designs and large sculptures, often using materials beyond the humble orange gourd. In April 2026, he and his wife produced a seven-foot World Cup Trophy using recyclable foam and other materials. He has also demonstrated his carving skills at live events, including Spooktacular at Scottsdale Center, keeping his elaborate artwork firmly in the public eye.
For Team Crumb Creepers, the contestants have likewise carried their creative work beyond Halloween Wars. Vanessa “Vanna” Sampson, a New Orleans native and seven-year US Air Force veteran now based around Dallas, continues running A Cake Maker, where she produces sculptural cakes and custom edible designs. Her portfolio has included creations for celebrities including Cardi B and professional athletes. She also teaches classes and continues to describe herself as a multidisciplinary artist and teacher, so apparently there are very few things Vanessa cannot turn into a creative project.
Jennifer Moshier has maintained a rather unusual double career. The Williamstown, New Jersey-based artist has a graphic design background and works as an application developer at Virtua Health, while also running Prima Cakes and Cookies. Her interest in cake decorating began after watching a baking competition and deciding she could do it herself — a bold declaration that eventually resulted in Wilton classes and a serious baking career. Jennifer has competed around the US and won a New Jersey competition with an Emerald City creation inspired by Robert Sabuda’s The Wizard of Oz pop-up book.
Anthony Pater has continued carving pumpkins professionally while moving deeper into animation. The Pennsylvania artist, who studied animation at Edinboro University, has appeared at major carving events including Operation Pumpkin, Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns and Halloweekend in the Burg.
In June 2026, he joined Steamroller Animation as a Junior Animator, adding professional animation credits to a career that already included advertising work associated with Marvel Snap, Toonami and Adult Swim. Anthony first appeared on Halloween Wars Season 12 at only 20, making his early television experience particularly notable.
The three members of Team Poisonous Perfection have also kept their businesses moving. Karine Turgeon runs Idyllik Créations Sucrées, a commercial home bakery in Quebec that focuses on scratch-made recipes and premium ingredients.
Her work includes sculpted cakes, gravity-defying structures, sugar figures, sugar flowers, custom cookies and novelty treats such as stuffed brookies. Her detailed structural designs have helped establish her as a recognisable name in the competitive cake world, with Halloween Wars adding another major television appearance to an already busy creative career.
Jamie Louks continues operating Sugarnova, her Seattle-based cake and sculpture business, after more than two decades working with cake, chocolate and other mediums. Her creative portfolio has expanded well beyond desserts, with large-scale sand sculptures including Mount Rushmore and a towering pirate ship among her projects since 2023. Jamie is also a familiar Food Network face, having appeared on Halloween Wars Seasons 12 and 14 and winning Baketopia, Sugar Showdown and a BMB Championship. She has been married to William since 2011, and the couple have two children.
Paulina Goff Stovall remains busy with Pumpkins by Paulina, also known as CarvedFX, in San Jose, California. Her pumpkin-carving career stretches back around 25 years and began after an unusual live-carving commission at a high-end party. Since then, her work has covered everything from sonograms and sports logos to a San Jose firefighter’s badge. Paulina also runs public carving workshops, including Sculpt & Sip events, while her husband Trent and their two children remain an important part of her life away from the studio.
Team Undercakers brought together artists whose careers stretch well beyond cakes and pumpkins. Margi Laurin, based in Morrisburg, Ontario, continues working from her home studio across several artistic disciplines, including clay sculpture, murals, calligraphy, digital illustration, miniature-making and pumpkin carving.
Her work also includes painted signs, wedding calligraphy and miniature dollhouses. Producers originally noticed her pumpkin work on social media, although she initially hesitated about joining Halloween Wars because of the physical demands involved in carving large pumpkins. Fair enough — even artistic ambition has its limits when the pumpkin weighs more than your patience.
Tenisha Billington continues to juggle cake sculpting, makeup artistry, modelling and cosplay from her New Jersey base. Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, she has built a substantial online following through elaborate fantasy and superhero-inspired transformations.
Her work has included characters such as Starfire, Nebula, Gamora, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, alongside hyper-realistic cake sculptures featuring Jack Skellington and Stitch. Her achievements also include winning Miss Tourism Guyana in 2017 and 2018 and Mrs. Tourism International in 2018, while she continues balancing her creative career with family life alongside her husband, Andrew, and their young son.
Nils Rowland remains at the centre of Crème de la Cocoa, the St. Augustine, Florida bakery he runs with his wife, Bailey Rowland. After studying hospitality and working in restaurant management, Nils moved into pastry and eventually helped build the business from a small operation launched around 2015 into a storefront producing hundreds of cakes each week. His Food Network résumé includes Cake Wars Xmas, Big Time Bake, Holiday Wars and three seasons of Halloween Wars. He also won Sweet Empire: Winter Wars, taking home $50,000 with his teammates.
Team Oven Coven has hardly abandoned the kitchen either. Natalie Collins-Fish continues operating Cake Lyfe by Nattie J, creating elaborate custom cakes from her home in Henderson, Nevada. She began baking with her grandmother at just three years old before attending culinary school and later working at high-profile Las Vegas venues including Bouchon, Prime Steakhouse and The Mansion at MGM. Her designs often feature sports themes, particularly the Raiders and Golden Knights. Natalie also won the first season of Fox's Crime Scene Kitchen with Luis Flores, earning a $100,000 prize, while raising two sons with her husband, Jason Fish.
Kim Simons has transformed years of teaching art into an equally creative cake career. Now based in Wurtsboro, New York, she runs Cakes by Kim Simons after spending 18 years teaching art in New Jersey. Much of her cake-decorating education came from watching competition programmes and teaching herself the techniques.
She has appeared in more than 20 episodes across seven-plus Food Network shows, winning Cake Wars: Star Wars in 2016 and Holiday Wars in 2019, while finishing as runner-up on Halloween Wars Season 11. She has also contributed artwork to Sullivan County's Woodstock anniversary dove project.
David “Pablo” Smith remains focused on ice sculpture through Frost Lion Ice Plus. A culinary arts graduate with honours, he has earned medals in 25 of the 28 National Ice Carving Association competitions he has entered. His work with Ice Alaska has also connected him with the BP World Ice Art Championship in Fairbanks, while his creative toolkit ranges from pen and paintbrush to chisel and chainsaw.
His longtime carving partner Brian “Tater” Edwards has joined him at competitions and Food Network appearances, including Outrageous Pumpkins. Apparently, pumpkins were only one stop on this man's journey towards finding increasingly enormous things to carve.
The artists from Team Wicked Sculptors are also pursuing careers that stretch far beyond their Halloween Wars appearance. Rebecca DeGroot, originally from Michigan and now based around Houston and Spring, Texas, holds dual BFAs in Sculpture and Functional Art and Art Education. She works in visual arts education while developing careers as a professional woodturner and tattoo artist. In 2023, she won first prize in the Young Wood Pro competition with her pieces “Steep” and “Cauldron”, while also selling woodwork through online platforms including Etsy and Wood Symphony.
Sarina, a Manhattan-based self-taught cake artist, has specialised in intricate 3D sculpted cakes since developing her skills more seriously in 2020. She has participated in New York cake competitions, including the Museum of the City of New York's Gingerbread NYC event. These days, however, she has opted for a much quieter public presence, keeping her activities largely private compared with some of her fellow contestants.
Emerlie Ann Miller remains active through Neo Sugar Rush, her Utah-based sugar-art business. She began decorating cakes in 2010 and later worked at Harmon’s and the Cupcake Wars-winning bakery One Sweet Slice before earning a Confectionery Arts Diploma from Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionery Arts in Toronto.
Her specialities include wedding cakes, 3D structures, isomalt, chocolate sculpture and sugar flowers. She also runs Neo Sugar Academy and hosts the Haute Sugar Collective podcast. As a three-time Halloween Wars competitor and Food Network champion, Emerlie has certainly had plenty of practice making desserts look far more ambitious than anyone's kitchen probably requires.
The members of Team Graveyard Shift have taken somewhat different approaches to life after the show. Willy Tuz continues working through Colorado Fruit Designs, also known as Willy's Wild Carvings, in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he carves pumpkins, fruit and ice.
Inspired by his father, a chef, Willy developed his artistic abilities from a young age and later founded local seasonal events including Fall at the Gardens: Harvest Illuminated and the Great West Ice Fest. He has appeared on Outrageous Pumpkins and Halloween Wars, but today keeps the emphasis largely on his professional work and family.
Cat Campbell continues running The Cake Whisperer in Ottawa, a custom cake business known for detailed buttercream designs and celebration cakes. Her Instagram audience has grown beyond 150,000 followers, giving the business a sizeable online presence alongside its real-world work. Away from cakes, Cat is also a mother to three children, Everly, Finn and Bodhi, so her day apparently involves managing both a growing baking business and the sort of family schedule that could probably qualify as an endurance competition.
Kimberly Rivers continues operating Cakes in the City, Utah, the custom cake business she started from her home kitchen in 2019. Her journey began with birthday cakes for her children while she was a stay-at-home mum, eventually leading her towards self-taught cake-making techniques and increasingly ambitious designs.
Her first 3D train cake was reportedly far from perfect, but the early disaster clearly did not stop her. Kimberly later won Holiday Wars in 2022 with Team Rebels Without a Claus, while motherhood remains a central part of her life and the story behind her creative career.
The bigger picture after Halloween Wars Season 15 is surprisingly consistent: the contestants did not simply disappear once the cameras stopped rolling. Many returned to businesses they were already building, while others expanded into animation, teaching, sculpture, live events and completely different artistic disciplines. The show may revolve around a very specific kind of Halloween spectacle, but these contestants have careers that are considerably broader than pumpkins with angry faces and cakes designed to make dentists nervous.
My take is that the most interesting part of the Season 15 aftermath is how little of it feels like a conventional “reality TV contestant” story. These people already had proper creative careers, and the programme was more like one very strange, very televised stop along the way. There is something genuinely satisfying about seeing cake artists continue making cakes, pumpkin carvers continue carving pumpkins and pastry chefs continue producing enough desserts to make the word “portion” meaningless.
At the same time, several contestants have expanded into animation, woodwork, teaching, ice sculpture and large-scale art, which makes their post-show careers more interesting than simply asking who is still famous. If anything, Halloween Wars seems to have been the unusual side quest rather than the final destination. And honestly, after watching grown adults construct enormous haunted creations from food, that feels about right.
For viewers searching for Halloween Wars Season 15 contestants now, the answer is that most are still creating, baking, carving, teaching or building businesses in their respective fields. Some remain closely connected to Food Network, while others have deliberately kept their personal lives quieter. Which contestant's post-Halloween Wars career surprised you most? And whose work would you actually want to see featured in another season?