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Laguna Beach Creator Pushes Back on Criticism the Cast Was Too Young

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Liz Gateley is coming clean about this Laguna Beach controversy.

The co-creator of the beloved reality series that followed Lauren Conrad, Kristin Cavallari, Stephen Colletti and more during their final years of high school shared her honest take on the criticism that the then-teens were too young to be starring on reality TV.

“I don’t think it was irresponsible,” Gateley said during her appearance on E!’s The Greatest Year in Pop Culture, which premiered Oct. 5 on Fandango. “All of them were 18 when we filmed, except for Kristin. We really wanted to follow this senior year and that’s why we wanted to do it responsibly of senior year and by that time you’re making life decisions on your own about college and you’re voting and you’re doing adult things.”

Gateley noted that Kristin only ended up having such a large part due to the drama surrounding the love triangle between her, Conrad and Colletti.

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As the MTV producer maintained, “We protected them,” continuing, “I think we showed a couple of kisses but it was very innocent when you look back at it, which almost made it more sensational because it was what you filled in that you thought might be happening. But it was very innocent.”

Gateley—who also produced the show’s spinoff The Hills as well as Teen Mom and Teen Wolf—also argued that part of the point of Laguna Beach was to depict real teenagers doing real things. (Though the cast were all attending Laguna Beach High School at the time, the series, which ran from 2004 to 2006, wasn’t allowed to film on campus.)

“I often said, if you are the parent of an 18-year-old and you don’t think these things are happening, this can be a show that can open up a conversation about your teenager,” she explained. “I think for many co-viewing parents, that was something that opened it up.”

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Meanwhile, Gateley also emphasized that the production made sure that the cast—which also included Lo Bosworth, Trey Phillips, Jessica Smith, Alex Hooser and Talan Torriero—prioritized their lives off camera.

“We wanted to be respectful of their schoolwork and their families,” she added, going on to explain how production circumnavigated schedules. “They understood that if the cameras weren’t there and something significant happened, that we needed them to talk about it.”

What’s more, the Laguna Beach stars might have been green to the industry, but they performed like seasoned pros—with the show ultimately running three seasons before the Conrad-centered spinoff The Hills.

“They just they were such naturals,” she continued. “That’s what was also so lucky again, is that these kids were game. They knew what they were being a part of was something special and something innovative.”

For more from Gateley’s interview, watch E!’s The Greatest Year in Pop Culture on Fandango, as well as on the E! Entertainment YouTube channel and E! Online.

To catch up on all the Laguna Beach stars, keep reading…

(E! and Fandango are both part of the Versant Media family.)

Jesse Grant/WireImage, Jennifer Graylock/Getty Images for Kohls

Lauren ConradLiteral LOL at Teen Vogue‘s Lisa Love telling Lauren, “You’ll always be known as the girl who didn’t go to Paris.” (A line actually lifted from Vogue‘s Anna Wintour, a 2019 Hills deep dive revealed.) More than a decade after that admittedly questionable decision and her subsequent split from Jason Wahler, LC has earned a few more laudatory descriptors: New York Times best-selling author; co-founder of The Little Market, with a mission to empower female artisans worldwide; and, of course, fashion designer, her Kohl’s Line LC Lauren Conrad just the start of her now wide-ranging lifestyle empire. Now long past fights outside Les Deux, she married Something Corporate rocker and law school grad William Tell in a 2014 Pinterest wedding of our dreams. In October 2019, their second son, Charlie Wolf Tell, joined older brother Liam James Tell.

Getty Images; Bravo

Kristin CavallariEveryone’s favorite bad girl went from being a (well-compensated) s–t-stirrer to full-on boss with her successful lifestyle brand, Uncommon James opening its fifth brick-and-mortar location in Austin, Tex. in 2026. Rounding out her growing empire: a Chinese Laundry shoe line and three cookbbooks. Teammates for 10 years, she and retired NFL quarterback Jay Cutler welcomed sons Camden Jack Cutler and Jaxon Wyatt Cutler and daughter Saylor James Cutler before splitting in April 2020. Now going back, back to the beginning with dating after a September 2024 split with Montana Boyz member Mark Estes, “I’ve gone on a lot of dates in the last few years,” she told E! News in 2023, “but I don’t like a lot of people and I don’t [think I’m] picky. I just think it’s because I don’t have time for bulls–t anymore.”

Evan Agostini/Getty Images, Rob Kim/Getty Images for Buzzfeed News

Jason WahlerThe resident bad boy of Laguna Beach and The Hills ran into nothing but trouble after his time on the reality series: drugs, DUIs, fights, arrests…you name it. It wasn’t until he appeared on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew Pinksy that he finally cleaned up. Jason went on to marry girlfriend Ashley Slack, a relationship he claims is his first sober one, and he and “the most beautiful, loving, kind and caring woman I know” welcomed daughter Delilah Ray in August 2017, son Wyatt Ragle in June 2021 and son August Robert in May 2025. The founder and owner of Widespread Recovery, he continues to be open about his struggles, both while he was on The Hills: New Beginnings and during his YouTube series, JAWS Diaries with Jason & Ashley Wahler. Now living in Nashville, “Kristen is somebody we’ve gotten very close to since we moved to Tennessee,” he told E! News in 2023. “We drifted apart, we were doing our own things. I got lost in my own world and she was busy having a family and kids, but she is somebody that is a dear friend who has been very supportive in this process.”

Jason Merritt/FilmMagic; Corbis via Getty Images

Stephen CollettiNow that he’s done giving us new material for our LC-Kristin-Stephen love triangle fan fic, Laguna’s resident heartthrob is focused on building a pretty solid acting career. He was a recurring castmember on the CW’s One Tree Hill for five seasons and starred as Taylor Swift‘s love interest in her “White Horse” music video. He also had a temporary gig as an MTV VJ on Total Request Live (the original, not the reboot). Among his latest: the 2018 TV movie Hometown Christmas and Hulu’s Everyone Is Doing Great, with former OTH costar James Lafferty. As for he and his Back to the Beach podcast cohost Kristin? Definitely dunzo, Stephen proposed to NASCAR Reporter Alex Weaver in November 2023. “We still need to narrow things out, so it’s a lot of enjoying our engagement, but also figuring out what exactly want to do,” he explained to E! News in 2024 of the planning process.Ultimately, they opted for simple elegance, the newlyweds sharing a glimpse of their nuptials on Instagram Oct. 3, 2025 with the caption, “Mr. & Mrs.” Next up, he captioned a Jan. 20, 2026 Instagram announcement: “Mom & Dad.” They welcomed son Rhodes August Colleti in May 2026.

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Lo BosworthFor years, LC’s BFF signaled she preferred to be excluded from this narrative. When an exec gauged her interest in returning to The Hills, “I was like, ‘F–k no!'” she recalled on a 2018 episode of her Lady Lovin’ podcast. “I don’t want any association with any of those people. The dissociation from all those people is what I’m hungry for.” Which, to be fair, sometimes that happens when you change careers. Now based in NYC, The International Culinary Center grad and The Lo-Down author founded Love Wellness, a line of personal care products for women, in 2016.Aside from Lauren, she told E! News in 2024, “I’m not in constant touch with a ton of people from the show, but it’s been 20 years. I don’t know a lot of people that are still on a day-to-day basis with people that they went to high school with. But I’m very friendly with everybody and, if I saw them, I’d run up to them and give them a big hug.”Because she’s got a lot of love to give, announcing in July 2025 that she and businessman Domenic “Dom” Natale had gotten married in an intimate Laguna Beach wedding “with our closest family members.” And they added one more to that circle, welcoming daughter Nelle in January 2026. “I have grown into the life that I always dreamed for myself,” she told E!. “I’ve achieved a lot. So, for me, it’s just about maintaining my status quo: Happy, healthy, family and great spirits, and spend a lot of time with people that I care about.”

Getty Images, Instagram

Talan TorrieroEnjoying the briefest of flings with K.Cav, the romantic exploits of Laguna‘s “ladies’ man” remained in the spotlight as he dated Kimberly Stewart and Nicole Scherzinger. But he settled down for good when he met now-wife Danielle Torriero at an L.A. bar on her 21st birthday in 2009. Decamping from Cali to her native Nebraska where they’re building “their dream home(stead)” on a 0.87-acre lot, the two wed in June 2014 and welcomed son Bronson in October 2017, daughter Hudson in December 2020 and youngest son Anderson Tito in June 2023. “I said, ‘Who the hell is that?'” Talan reflected to E! News of their first meeting. “I ended up talking to her and she said she was from Nebraska. I had no idea where the hell that was. Yet here I am, 14 years later, living in Nebraska.”

Getty Images, Instagram

Trey PhillipsTurns out that season one runway show was just his first step into the world of fashion. After leaving Laguna, Trey made the leap to New York City and Parsons School of Design. Graduating in 2010, the fashion design and renewable energy major hung around the Big Apple, scoring a job as an associate designer at Vera Wang and spent time in London. Founding Motion Illustrated in 2023 (“I’ve spent over a decade designing and illustrating for some of the biggest names in fashion. Now, I want to share my own vision of style with you,” he shared on his site), the artist keeps a relatively low-profile on social media. He has, however, shown the occasional glimpse of partner Kasumi.

Stephen Shugerman for Getty Images, Dieter Schmitz/Instagram

Dieter SchmitzLauren and Stephen’s bestie left the Beach behind for his future in hospitality and hotel management, currently working as the general manager of Sofitel New York.He’s still tight with his high school crew, though, Lauren, “proud groomsman” Stephen, Trey and Loren Polster turning out for his 2016 Monterey, Calif. wedding to Isabell Hiebl. The pair, who call Austria a “second home”, welcomed their first child, son Nico Josef Schmitz, in September 2018 and daughter Leni in March 2023.

Jemal Countess/WireImage; Instagram/@jessrevans

Jessica SmithKCav’s Laguna Beach pal has largely stayed away from reality television after her run on the MTV show ended. Following a brief return to notoriety, thanks to a 2007 DUI arrest, she settled into a quiet life in Texas with her husband, Michael Evans, “the most kind, patient, strong, amazing, loving and ridiculously handsome human I’ve ever met,” as she put it on Instagram, and their four children. Though she has her own blog and Amazon shop, mostly, as she jokes on Insta, she’s just ‘trying not to lose a kid.”

Getty Images, Instagram

Alex MurrelLong gone are the days of Alex battling Jessica for Jason’s heart. Marrying Kyle Johnson in 2014 (Morgan Olson and bridesmaids Alex H. and Taylor Cole attended), they’ve since welcomed three boys: Levi in 2016, Kase in 2018 and Rome in April 2021. Making use of her communications degree from California’s Chapman University, she co-founded MOX Agency, a social media marketing business, in 2014.

Getty Images, Instagram

Morgan OlsenWhen Morgan signed on with MTV in 2004, she had no visions of stardom: “I thought it would be a fun experience to do with friends, and also a way to capture my high school experience on film,” she told Time. And no amount of fame was going to deviate from her plan to find a nice Mormon man to settle down with. Two years after graduating from Brigham Young University in 2008, the humanities and journalism major married Joel Smith. “I did the things I think I would have wanted regardless of being on a TV show: graduate college, travel, get married, and start my career in New York and now Los Angeles,” she said of her Minnow Swim brand. Now stationed in South Carolina, where she opened a new Charleston showroom, the designer is mom to Theo, Georgia and Julian.

Getty Images; Instagram/@caseybeaubrown

Casey ReinhardtThough she wasn’t an original castmember of Laguna Beach, Casey’s arrival to the reality series was a memorable one. Since then, she’s launched a successful foray into the world of confections by opening Casey’s Cupcakes in Orange County. She even won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars in 2011. Her home life, meanwhile, is just as sweet. Wed to Sean Brown (a relative of the late Nicole Brown Simpson) since August 2015, they share daughter Kensington and sons Sean Brown Jr. and Conrad.

Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic; Instagram

Taylor ColeNot quite three years after Alex stood up in Taylor’s October 2015 wedding to real estate investor Kevin Simshauser, the friends found themselves expecting just eight weeks apart. Welcoming daughter Tatum September 2018, Taylor gave birth to son Cole in January 2020 and son Olson in August 2022. The founder of Taylor Cole Holistic Nutrition also shares picture-perfect outtakes of her life on Insta.

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