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| Gabrielle and Sasha: Where Are the Wonka’s The Golden Ticket Stars Now? |
Gabrielle Wright and Sasha Brenden may have entered Netflix’s Wonka’s The Golden Ticket as longtime best friends, but their reality after the competition looks rather different from a life spent chasing golden keys. Sasha has moved further into entrepreneurship, while Gabrielle has built a remarkably varied creative career spanning entertainment, dance, DJ work, acting and content creation. Their time on the show may have ended, but neither appears particularly interested in sitting around waiting for the next golden ticket to turn up.
Gabrielle and Sasha arrived in season 1 with something many reality competition duos desperately need: genuine history. The pair had been best friends for more than 20 years, giving them a natural understanding of each other when the pressure started climbing. Gabrielle tended to focus on strategy, while Sasha brought a lighter energy to the partnership. It was a useful combination, particularly when the challenges became increasingly unpredictable.
Their early run got off to a decent start after they selected the purple toffees during the first Toffee Challenge, helping them progress without quite as much drama as some of their fellow contestants. They also quickly understood that friendship alone would not carry them through the competition. Alliances mattered, and the two formed close connections with Ziad and Austin. The four began working together, even finding time to exercise as a group and support one another between challenges. Reality TV: where even the gym session apparently comes with tactical consequences.
That sense of security took a hit during the Honeycomb Challenge. Ziad and Austin had indicated they would help Gabrielle and Sasha first, but Ziad instead saved Taylor, leaving the two friends in a vulnerable position. Their team ultimately won the challenge, yet the decision clearly damaged their trust. Ziad later said he had not realised whose button he was pressing, but Gabrielle and Sasha were not exactly rushing to hand him another vote of confidence.
The tension continued when Kayla selected Sasha for an elimination game. Sasha managed to secure safety as the second competitor in that round, but the experience added another crack to the pair's increasingly complicated web of alliances. They carried on, determined to make it further into the competition, until the Feeding Room changed everything.
Sasha was sent into the Feeding Room with Everett and Tatum, where she had to secure a golden key card to stay in the game. She failed to do so and was eliminated, leaving Gabrielle to continue without the friend who had been beside her throughout the competition. Rather than falling apart, Gabrielle leaned further into the strategic side of the game. During the third Wonkavision 2.0 challenge, she received a “Good Egg”, securing her safety and giving herself another opportunity to keep going.
Whatever happened inside the competition, Gabrielle's life outside it has been considerably busier than simply being remembered as a reality TV contestant. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Visual and Performing Arts in May 2024, building on a creative career that had already begun years earlier.
Her professional work stretches across several corners of entertainment and community projects. Gabrielle founded the nonprofit A Birthday Party Wish in March 2012 and later worked as an actor at Kidz Theater. In July 2021, she joined Wright Entertainment Group as Creative Director and Talent Coordinator. By 2024, she had also taken on work as an opening act and DJ with Live Nation Entertainment, adding another line to an already rather crowded CV.
Her acting work continued with Central Florida Talent Inc., which she joined in October 2024. From December 2024 through May 2025, she worked as an on-camera talent and creative producer at NRG. She also identifies herself as an author while continuing to develop her work as a dancer and choreographer. Gabrielle is associated with The “Five One Oh” (The 510), a hip-hop dance group, keeping her firmly connected to performance.
Her creative career has continued to expand in 2026. In June, Gabrielle's work took her to Paris Fashion Week, followed by news in July that she would be touring as a DJ with Matt Bloyd in October. In September, she revealed another unusual credit: appearing as a mermaid in a music video. At this point, Gabrielle's résumé seems determined to collect professions like someone collecting loyalty points.
Away from those projects, Gabrielle has developed a sizeable social media following, with more than 20,000 Instagram followers. Travel is another major part of her life, with trips including Hawaii, Italy, Germany and Paris. She also enjoys sport and has attended football and basketball games at stadiums, while skiing and swimming provide some more adventurous distractions. Her family remains important to her too, particularly her mother Erika Wright and her brother, known as Limitz.
Sasha, meanwhile, has taken a different route since leaving Wonka’s The Golden Ticket. Her career began with the Brenden Mann Foundation, where she became a Program Officer in August 2016. She later attended Pepperdine University, studying Advertising and Art from August 2020 before graduating in April 2024. During university, she was also involved with Kappa Alpha Theta.
The entrepreneurial side of Sasha's career became more prominent in January 2024, when she co-founded The Beach Bellas. Her responsibilities include product design, sales tracking, operations and social media, meaning the glamorous side of running a brand comes with rather more spreadsheets than Instagram might suggest.
The Beach Bellas also received a major public-facing moment in August 2026 when the brand was featured on the runway at Swim Week Las Vegas. Sasha also collaborated with the Babes in Toyland community around the event and attended other Swim Week-related activities. Alongside her business, she remains connected to Brenden Theatres and has continued building her presence online, with more than 4,100 Instagram followers.
Sasha's social media also offers a fairly clear picture of a busy lifestyle. She travelled to St Barths and Berlin in July 2026, visited London in August and spent time in Cannes in September. Her 2026 calendar also included Coachella in April and Electric Daisy Carnival in May, suggesting that even after leaving the Golden Ticket competition, there has been no shortage of places to be and things to do.
Her personal life remains closely tied to the people around her, particularly her sister Nadia. Sasha has also continued making time for friends, often exploring restaurants and trying different cuisines. It is a much quieter kind of competition than Wonka’s The Golden Ticket, but deciding where everyone is eating next can sometimes require almost as much negotiation.
There is also something interesting about where both women have ended up. Gabrielle's post-show path has become heavily centred on performance and creative work, while Sasha has focused more strongly on business, branding and entrepreneurship. Their careers are moving in different directions, but neither has simply disappeared after reality television. If anything, the programme looks more like one chapter in two already busy lives than the defining feature of either career.
From an outside perspective, their stories are also a useful reminder that reality television can only capture a small slice of someone's life. Gabrielle's career now crosses acting, DJing, dance, choreography, creative production and social media, while Sasha is developing a fashion and lifestyle business alongside her other professional commitments.
The contrast is fairly entertaining: one friend appears to have answered the question “What do you do?” by bringing an entire paragraph, while the other has apparently decided to build the company herself. Neither career follows a particularly straight line, and that may be the most interesting part of their post-show story.
So, where are Gabrielle Wright and Sasha Brenden now? Gabrielle is continuing to expand her creative career across entertainment, dance, DJ work and digital content, while Sasha is growing The Beach Bellas and developing its presence in the fashion and lifestyle space.
Their Wonka’s The Golden Ticket partnership may have ended when Sasha left the competition, but their friendship and individual careers have carried on well beyond the show. Did you follow their journey on Netflix, and which post-show career surprised you more? Share your thoughts on Gabrielle and Sasha's next moves.