Shivangi Sinha
Food Network’s ‘Halloween Wars’ pits seven teams of three against one another. Each team brings together skilled cake, sugar and pumpkin artists as they compete for the $25,000 cash prize. In season 15, each challenge revolved around creating different Halloween treats and elaborate displays like haunted houses, creepy creatures, spooky graveyards and monstrous pumpkins. Along with the creativity and skill required for each challenge, the season captured the fun and spirit of Halloween, making the competition even more special.
Team Terrifying Trio is Continuing Their Respective Creative Careers
Kelly Shivery is a custom cake artist and baker based in Wellington, Florida, who also has a professional career in the legal field. She works as an Advanced Certified Paralegal and CMMC Certified Professional at Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC, where she assists with cases involving alleged fraud against the government. Her work includes legal research, document review, drafting filings and working with clients and attorneys. Kelly also has an Associate of Science degree in Legal Assistant/Paralegal studies from Broward College. She is well known as a baker and sugar artist, creating detailed custom cakes and elaborate edible designs. She and her husband, Tim, are very active in their community and every year they participate in The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, a fundraiser organized by Piper’s Angels Foundation that provides financial assistance to families affected by the disease.
Kylie Holt is a Utah-based cake artist and baker who runs her custom cake studio, Kylie Holt – Delectable Artistry, from her home in Sunset, Utah. She has competed on Food Network shows, including ‘Cake Wars’ and ‘Santa’s Baking Blizzard,’ and won ‘The Big Bake.’ In 2021, she was named Best of Show at the Sugar Artists of Utah Show. Kylie specializes in 3-D and gravity-defying cake creations. Alongside creating custom cakes, she also offers hands-on baking classes from her home, teaching others how to create elaborate and artistic cakes.
Michael Valeroso is a helicopter mechanic from the Philippines who is a well-known pumpkin carver under the artist name Wolfgang Carving. He creates elaborate pumpkin carvings and large-scale sculptures in his spare time, often turning ordinary materials into detailed works of art. In April 2026, Michael and his wife created a seven-foot World Cup Trophy using recyclable foam and other materials. He has also taken his craft to live events, including the Spooktacular at Scottsdale Center, where he demonstrated his pumpkin-carving skills during Halloween.
Team Crumb Creepers are Pursuing Their Passions Beyond the Show
Vanessa “Vanna” Sampson is a New Orleans native who is a seven-year US Air Force veteran, based in the Dallas, Texas area. She runs A Cake Maker, where she creates extreme, sculptural cakes and custom edible designs. Her work has included cakes made for celebrities such as Cardi B, as well as custom creations for professional athletes. Alongside her cake business, Vanessa continues to share her artistic skills through classes and describes herself as a multidisciplinary artist and teacher.
Jennifer Moshier is a Williamstown, New Jersey-based cake artist who graduated with a graphic design degree in 1995 and works as an application developer at Virtua Health. She began decorating cakes around 2010 after watching a baking competition and telling her husband she could do it too. She soon enrolled in Wilton cake-decorating classes and developed a passion for the craft. Jennifer owns Prima Cakes and Cookies, an online baking business where she also teaches dessert-decorating classes. She has competed in baking competitions across D.C., Florida, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and won a New Jersey competition with an Emerald City cake inspired by Robert Sabuda’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ pop-up book.
Anthony Pater is a Pennsylvania-based pumpkin carver. He graduated from Altoona Area High School in 2020 before studying animation at Edinboro University. He now carves professionally at festivals across the country, including Operation Pumpkin in Cincinnati, Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns in Chicago and Halloweekend in the Burg in Reynoldsburg. In June 2026, he was hired by Steamroller Animation as a Junior Animator. His professional credits include advertising work for Marvel Snap, Toonami and Adult Swim. Anthony made his first appearance on ‘Halloween Wars’ Season 12 at just 20 years old, making him one of the youngest artists to compete on the Food Network series.
Team Poisonous Perfection is Growing Their Creative Businesses Today
Karine Turgeon is the owner of Idyllik Créations Sucrées, a successful commercial home bakery based in Quebec, Canada. She avoids cutting corners or compromising on ingredient quality, instead using premium raw materials and scratch recipes. Her specialty is creating custom sculpted cakes, including large, gravity-defying designs, along with intricate sugar sculptures and lifelike edible figurines. She also makes gourmet novelty treats such as stuffed brookies and custom sugar cookies. Her structural cake work has earned her recognition in the baking industry and appearances in major competitions and publications. Turgeon has also gained recognition through Food Network, where her elaborate cake artistry has made her a notable competitor.
Jamie Louks is the owner of Sugarnova, a Seattle-based cake and sculpture business, and has more than 20 years of experience working with mediums ranging from cake to chocolate. Since 2023, she has also created large-scale sand sculptures, including a scaled Mount Rushmore, a towering pirate ship and a Seattle sculpture connected to a world soccer event. On Food Network, Jamie is a ‘Halloween Wars’ veteran, having appeared in Seasons 12 and 14. She has also won competitions, including ‘Baketopia,’ ‘Sugar Showdown,’ and a BMB Championship. Jamie has been married to her husband, William, since 2011, and they have two children.
Paulina (Goff) Stovall is a San Jose, California-based professional pumpkin carver who runs Pumpkins by Paulina, also known as CarvedFX. She discovered her passion after being commissioned to live-carve pumpkins at a high-end party following her art training in high school and has since built a 25-year, largely self-taught career. Her work ranges from sonograms and sports logos to a San Jose firefighter’s badge. Paulina is married to her husband and best friend, Trent, and they have two children: a son, Trenton, and a daughter, Sabriel. Her family often joins her on outdoor adventures and inspires her memory-focused art. She also teaches public carving workshops, including Sculpt & Sip events.
Team Undercakers Are Making Their Mark in the Food Industry
Margi Laurin is a 67-year-old artist and pumpkin carver based in Morrisburg, Ontario, where she runs her home studio. She now makes art that includes clay sculpting, murals, calligraphy, digital illustration and miniature-making, along with pumpkin carving. Her work also includes hand-painted signs, wedding calligraphy and miniature dollhouses. ‘Halloween Wars’ producers discovered her pumpkin work on social media, and although she initially declined because large-pumpkin carving was physically demanding, she eventually joined her team. Margi is married to Sam, owner of the local newspaper, and is a mother and grandmother devoted to her four grandchildren.
Tenisha Billington wears many hats as an artist. She is a cake sculptor, makeup and special-effects artist, model and cosplayer originally from Georgetown, Guyana, who is now based in New Jersey. Her artistic background includes elaborate superhero and fantasy transformations inspired by characters such as Starfire, Nebula, Gamora, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, which have earned her a following of more than a million across Instagram and TikTok. She won Miss Tourism Guyana in 2017 and 2018 and Mrs. Tourism International in 2018. She was named Emerging Makeup Influencer of the Year at the 2022 AIA Awards. Her hyper-realistic cake sculptures include Jack Skellington and Stitch. She is raising her little son with her husband, Andrew Billington, in a warm and happy home that she has filled with love.
Nils Rowland is a pastry chef and co-owner of Crème de la Cocoa, a bakery in St. Augustine, Florida, which he runs with his wife, Bailey Rowland. After studying hospitality at the University of Central Florida and working in restaurant management, he attended pastry school, where a banana truffle sparked his passion for the craft. The couple began Crème de la Cocoa as a small operation around 2015 before expanding into their own storefront. They are now producing hundreds of cakes each week. Nils has competed on several Food Network shows, including ‘Cake Wars Xmas,’ ‘Big Time Bake,’ ‘Holiday Wars,’ and three seasons of ‘Halloween Wars.’ He won ‘Sweet Empire: Winter Wars,’ taking home $50,000 with his teammates.
Team Oven Coven is Keeping Their Passion for Baking and Carving Alive
Natalie Collins-Fish is a custom cake artist from Palmerton, Pennsylvania, who began baking at just three alongside her grandmother. After graduating from culinary school in upstate New York in 2006, she moved to Las Vegas, where she trained and worked at renowned kitchens including Bouchon, Prime Steakhouse and The Mansion at MGM. She now runs Cake Lyfe by Nattie J from her home in Henderson, Nevada, creating elaborate custom cakes, particularly sports-themed designs featuring the Raiders and Golden Knights. Natalie won Season 1 of Fox’s ‘Crime Scene Kitchen’ with baking partner Luis Flores, earning a $100,000 prize. She is married to Jason Fish and is a proud mother of two sons, whom she calls her whole world.
Kim Simons is a custom cake artist from Liberty, New York. She is now based in Wurtsboro. Before pursuing cake artistry, she spent 18 years teaching art in Leonia and Fort Lee, New Jersey. She taught herself cake decorating largely by studying competition shows, eventually turning her artistic skills into a career through Cakes by Kim Simons. Kim has appeared on more than 20 episodes across seven-plus Food Network shows, winning ‘Cake Wars: Star Wars’ in 2016 and ‘Holiday Wars’ in 2019, and finishing runner-up on ‘Halloween Wars’ Season 11. She also painted eight and a half of 60 fiberglass doves for Sullivan County’s Woodstock anniversary project. Her beloved dog Ozzy is the most precious part of her family life and always features in her holiday photos.
David “Pablo” Smith is the owner of Frost Lion Ice Plus. He is also a culinary arts graduate with honors. He is best known as a world champion ice sculptor, having earned a medal in 25 of the 28 NICA (National Ice Carving Association) competitions he has entered. A longtime contributor to Ice Alaska, which organizes the BP World Ice Art Championship in Fairbanks, he has worked in marketing, administration, and building competition park features. His artistic work spans pen, paintbrush, chisel, and chainsaw. His longtime carving partner and best friend is Brian “Tater” Edwards of Columbus, Ohio. The pair have competed at the Fairbanks Ice Carving competition and Crystal Classic Winter Festival and have appeared as an all-star duo on Food Network’s ‘Outrageous Pumpkins.’
Team Wicked Sculptors Are Continuing to Create and Inspire
Rebecca DeGroot is originally from Hesperia, Michigan, and now lives in the Houston/Spring, Texas area. She holds dual BFAs in Sculpture and Functional Art and Art Education from Kendall College of Art and Design at Ferris State University, graduating in 2014. She worked as a visual arts teacher and is currently employed at MacArthur Douglas Senior High School in Houston. She is simultaneously building careers as a professional woodturner and tattoo artist at Noble Street Tattoo. In 2023, she won first prize in the Young Wood Pro competition for her whimsical pieces ‘Steep and Cauldron.’ She also sells woodwork through Etsy and Wood Symphony. She has been in a loving relationship with Peter Kramer since 2023, and friends have remarked that they see the happiness on her face.
Sarina is a self-taught Manhattan-based cake artist specializing in intricate 3D sculpted cakes. She began baking and decorating seriously in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also competed in local New York cake competitions, including the Museum of the City of New York’s Gingerbread NYC event. These days, she has chosen to keep a low profile. Emerlie Ann Miller is a Utah-based sugar artist and the owner of Neo Sugar Rush. She began decorating cakes in 2010. She gained experience 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 in 2015. She specializes in wedding cakes, 3D and gravity-defying structures, isomalt, chocolate sculpting, and sugar flowers. Living with more than 60 food allergies and intolerances, she often relies on outside taste-testers. She also hosts the ‘Haute Sugar Collective’ podcast and runs Neo Sugar Academy. Emerlie is a three-time ‘Halloween Wars’ competitor and a Food Network champion.
Team Graveyard Shift is Focusing on Their Work and Families
Willy Tuz owns Colorado Fruit Designs, also known as Willy’s Wild Carvings, in Grand Junction, Colorado. He works there as a pumpkin, fruit, and ice carver. Inspired by his father, who was also a chef, Willy discovered his artistic talent as a young boy. He is the founder of two local seasonal events, Fall at the Gardens: Harvest Illuminated and the Great West Ice Fest. Willy has also become a Food Network regular, appearing as a finalist on ‘Outrageous Pumpkins’ in 2020, competing on ‘Halloween Wars’ Season 12 with Team Lollipop Lunatics, and returning for the ‘Outrageous Pumpkins’ all-star season in 2024. He is a religious family man, but has chosen to keep only his professional work in the forefront.
Cat Campbell is the Ottawa, Canada-based owner of The Cake Whisperer. It is a custom cake business with more than 150,000 followers on Instagram. She is known for her detailed buttercream work, including Swiss meringue buttercream techniques, as well as custom celebration cakes. Outside of her baking work, she is a mother to three children, Everly, Finn, and Bodhi. She continues to manage her growing cake business with family life in Ottawa.
Kimberly Rivers is based in Farmington, Utah. She owns Cakes in the City, Utah, a custom cake business she started from her home kitchen in 2019. Her baking journey began as a stay-at-home mom, when she started making birthday cakes for her children as a creative outlet. Her first 3D train cake was, in her words, “a crumbly hot mess,” but it sparked a passion that led her to teach herself from-scratch cakes and buttercream. She later won ‘Holiday Wars’ in 2022 with Team Rebels Without a Claus. Her role as a mother was the common thread connecting all three members of the team.
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