Where Is The Original Cast Of Storage Wars Today?

If you're looking for something to binge on a lazy Sunday (or a lazy any other day, we're not here to judge), we've got a reality show for you. Storage Wars, on A&E, highlights the curious subculture of folks who attend auctions of storage lockers that are three months behind on rent. For what purpose? To sort through the locker's contents in the hopes of finding the modern equivalent of buried treasure, which the buyer will then sell themselves, in an Inception-esque loop of auctioning and buying. It is, without any trace of irony, a fascinating, supremely entertaining watch. A huge part of its appeal comes from its colorful cast of real-life characters, who bounce off one another with a unique chemistry any network sitcom would go to war for. So now that A&E has unearthed this heretofore unheard of group of people, giving them a taste of unscripted fame, one question remains: What is the original cast of Storage Wars up to now? The bidding starts... now.

He's the closest the show had to an outright villain. He got into fights with his fellow bidders and even the impartial auctioneers. He raised the prices on lockers he had no intention of buying. And he did it all with an infectiously aggravating, legally trademarked "YUUUP!" He's Dave Hester, aka "The Mogul," the "chaotic neutral" member of the Storage Wars cast. And in 2012, he tried to blow the lid off the whole operation. Hester complained to A&E producers that the program was largely faked, with planted items and storylines exaggerated for optimum drama and entertainment value. A&E's response? A pink slip in Hester's locker. So Hester filed a wrongful termination suit for $750,000 in damages, going into detail about the fakeries presented in the show, and asserting that Hester was "not comfortable participating in this charade." However, the suit was settled in 2014, and Hester returned to the show for the remainder of its run. Now, he runs an independent business as an auctioneer and consultant. In an interview with SpareFoot, he said his eventual goal would be "to buy a motor home — and not even have a home address anymore — and just travel from one town to the next and be a gypsy auctioneer."

Darrell has another child beyond Zoie, but if you're a fan of the show, you already knew that. Brandon Sheets was a regular cast member for the first eight seasons of Storage Wars, earning the nickname "The Sidebet." He grew up learning the trade from his father, and he made his business decisions armed only with a GED and a storage locker's worth of street smarts. But in 2016, his newfound TV career came to an abrupt stop. On December 16 of that year, he tweeted that he was "no longer affiliated" with the show, having been let go for budget reasons. As the series went on without him, Sheets relocated to Arizona and became a licensed real estate agent. On his social media accounts, Sheets still seems to express interest in on-camera entertainment, as he creates small episodes that are a hybrid of vlog and webseries. His most prolific series is something he calls #AverageMiddleclass, a tongue-in-cheek spoof of MTV's Cribs in which Sheets brags about normal, average, middle-class things.

Before he built up his auctioning grit on Storage Wars, Ivy Calvin had a history of professional conflict. In the 1990s, Calvin played for the San Jose Sabercats in the arena football league, although he was cut abruptly after only seven games (in a Los Angeles Times interview, he stated that despite being cut, his dream was "still to play NFL ball"). Then, Calvin pivoted to MMA fighting — only one match is listed in his official record, a 2002 cage fight against Samu Samu, but he won by submission. Finally, Calvin was scooped up by A&E as a new Storage Wars cast member, cutting a no-nonsense figure on the program. Nowadays, Calvin stays out of the limelight. He runs a thrift store in Palmdale, CA called Grandma's Attic, and his social media accounts are primarily devoted to detailing the inventory at his store. A tweet written on February 10, 2019 sums up Calvin's current interests: "Grandmas attic is open open open."

Mary Padian's Storage Wars journey began on a spinoff. After her stint on Storage Wars: Texas, Padian was brought on board the main ship in season five. She earned her nickname "The Junkster" based on her devil-may-care attitude toward finding treasures — she was just as comfortable "diving in dumpsters" as she was bidding on traditional auctions. Currently, Padian maintains a vintage store called Mary's Finds, which sells, as Padian describes it, "an eclectic mix of found treasures refurbished or untouched," many of which were featured in Padian's personal Storage Wars journeys. Padian has also worked extensively with Ubuntu Life, an organization dedicated to helping "children with special needs in Kenya by selling products that connect our customers to the lives being changed." Padian personally visited Kenya, met with many of the locals, and collected treasures along the way. She originally sold some of her finds on her website, with 20% of the proceeds going directly to Ubuntu Life.

Injecting a necessary jolt of youth into the Storage Wars pantheon, Edwina Registre and Shana Dahan met each other on a fateful high school orchestra bus trip. Registre played viola. So did Dahan. And the rest was bargain finding history. On the show, Registre and Dahan searched for what they called "new vintage" pieces, in a welcome respite from many of the storage lockers' older items. Thus, they were able to provide a sense of chaotic energy amidst the old-timers of the show, while simultaneously learning from them. The two currently maintain a popular YouTube channel called Thrifters Anonymous, in which they explore thrift stores across the country, show off their impressive hauls, and interact with their fans and fellow thrift enthusiasts. Dahan told the now-defunct publication Loore that their "passion for shopping for fashion on a budget, self-expression, and always having fun each and every time without failure makes it our dream job!" Beyond her ongoing work in front of the camera, Registre maintains an impressive day job as a sales and retention executive at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Las Vegas. 

Husband and wife team Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz were absolute dynamite to watch on Storage Wars. They bickered and bantered fiercely, but you just knew underneath the televised fireworks, they truly loved each other. Oh, and they were pretty good at bidding on lockers, too — Schulz instinctually shot from the hip while Passante analyzed every move before making it. A&E loved their dynamic so much they gave them their own spinoff show. Brandi & Jarrod: Married to the Job aired for eight episodes in 2014, highlighting the couple's struggles juggling their family life with the travails of owning their own business. After both of their TV stints, Schulz and Passante continued to maintain their clothing line Outlaw Apparel, which specializes in iconography dripping in southern biker punk culture. The two also ran Now and Then Second Hand Store, a thrift shop in Orange, CA. They still maintain an online presence, but folks who've tried to visit the store seem to think it's no longer in business. And one person who was able to visit complained of a gross odor.