Who is Danielle Colby?
Born on 3rd December 1975, Danielle Colby is a TV personality born in Davenport, Iowa. Following a strict upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness, the brown-eyed brunette has since dabbled in just about everything, from managing an antiques shop to performing as a burlesque dancer around the states.
In the mid-to-late ‘90s, she married Robert Strong, with whom she had two children. However, Danielle’s budding TV career led to their marriage breaking down, and she confessed in a 2012 interview that Robert found dealing with fame and some notoriety a challenge.
“American Pickers”
“American Pickers” is a reality series that premiered on the History Channel in January 2010. Produced by A&E Television Networks in collaboration with Cineflix Media, the show is still running strongly after 22 seasons and over 320 episodes, a true testimony to its successful format, and the playful on-screen banter between cast members.
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Danielle’s TV career came about thanks to her decade-long friendship with Mike Wolfe, who created the concept. Once the History Channel bought the idea, Mike asked Colby to work at the office of Antique Archaeology, the main shop featured in the series.
Travelling around the US to buy items for resale, personal collections or clients, along with his sidekick Frank Fritz, Mike’s idea proved hugely successful, and in September 2010 “American Pickers” became the top-rated non-fiction series among viewers and adults between the ages of 25 and 54.
Danielle’s role on the show, apart from managing Mike’s business, is to search for possible locations for Mike and Frank to visit, although the duo occasionally do things their own way, and stop at random locations such as people’s outbuildings, homes, sheds, and wherever they may have stored potentially valuable antiques and collections.
With help from hoarders, collectors, and others who’ve inherited items they have no idea what to do with, Frank and Mike have found thousands of rare objects over the years. A “picker” since the age of four, Mike’s interests are antique motorcycles, penny-farthings, old bicycles, and air-cooled Volkswagens, while Frank likes collecting oil cans, vintage Hondas, old toys, and peanut-related items. Some of their rarest purchases to date include film posters, a Piaggio Ape, a 15-gallon visible gasoline pump, and old advertisements.
From being the highest-rated History Channel debut since 2007’s “Ice Road Truckers”, Mike soon turned his hobby into a lucrative franchise, which has since spawned an Australian spin-off. In December 2011, “American Pickers” revealed that Mike had leased part of an abandoned 1914 car factory situated in Nashville, Tennessee, to use as a second business location. Until then, Danielle’s job was based in Le Claire, Iowa.
Fans of the show were left heartbroken following the History Channel’s announcement of Frank Fritz’s departure in July 2021. Sadly, Frank was fired after taking a lengthy hiatus from filming to recover from back surgery, which left him with two rods in his spine and 185 stitches. Although Mike has been vocal about wanting Frank back on the show, only time will tell if the duo will reunite on-screen.
Known to be a blunt speaker, Danielle admitted way back in season one of the series that she wasn’t happy about how certain things had come out. “I think sometimes they don’t have enough time to portray the relationships that Mike develops with people, and I think he appears at times to be a bit opportunistic,” she confessed.
Performance Career
In 2010, Danielle shared in an interview that she owned and performed in the Big Mouth Mickies for three years, a female roller derby team, until past injuries forced her to step back.
Nevertheless, she was inspired to become a burlesque dancer after attending a risqué show, starring the comedian Margaret Cho and Satan’s Angel, a well-known dancer.
“…The shelf life of a roller derby girl is like three to five years,” Danielle explained. “And so we really missed doing roller derby – and I’ve wanted to do burlesque for so long so I just decided f*** it – let’s start a burlesque troupe”.
After moving back with her family to Iowa from Chicago, Danielle formed Burlesque Le Moustache, a professional burlesque troupe which boasts six performers including herself, some of them from the Big Mouth Mickies. Using the stage name “Dannie Diesel”, Danielle and her troupe toured eastern Iowa and western Illinois. In October 2014, she took things a step further, and founded her own burlesque school in Chicago named “Dannie Diesel’s Bump ‘n’ Grind Academy”.
Burlesque Le Moustache have performed in illustrious venues such as Davenport’s Capitol Theatre and the Rock Island Brewing Company in Illinois, with shows being attended by up to 1,500 people. The troupe frequently travels to Chicago as well, displaying their talents at the Five Star bar and the Double Door club.
Arguably, burlesque is Danielle’s biggest interest. Describing it as “a celebration of the human form in general”, the Iowan previously said that she was looking for bigger dancers to join her troupe, adding: “They [women] leave our show feeling like you can enjoy your body and enjoy your life and not take yourself too seriously”.
Although it’s unclear if Danielle is still dancing today, there are YouTube videos of her performances dating back to August 2018, and she was slated to appear at a small burlesque event in November 2021.
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It’s also important to note the reality star’s fascination with Lorraine Gail Smith and other vintage burlesque dancers: as of March 2022, one of Danielle’s passion projects is researching Lorraine’s life.
Business Ventures
In the early 2010s, Danielle hopped onto the bandwagon of retro-inspired clothing with her company “4 Miles 2 Memphis”. A brick-and-mortar location was opened in Chicago in January 2013, but the store was closed in the same year, thus bringing an end to her short-lived career in fashion design.
With that said, Danielle is a go-getter who refuses to be hindered by life’s setbacks. Her latest project, “Stripping History”, is described as a traveling vintage striptease museum, which the Iowa native frequently promotes on social media. Providing interested individuals with information on the burlesque dancers of yesteryear, Danielle relies on Patreon donations to fund her research.
Personal Life
Since 2015, Danielle has been in a committed relationship with Jeremy Scheuch. In a heartwarming Instagram post of the pair enjoying a drink at the beach, Jeremy said: “Seven years ago today, on Valentine’s Day, I took this woman on a date to see Fleetwood Mac. We’re still going strong. Next year we’re getting married”.
According to Danielle, she had no idea that it was a date at the time. However, the attractive couple are now inseparable, and can often be seen travelling together or just spending quality time at home with their friends and loved ones. Although they have no kids for now, both believe in the “adopt, don’t shop” philosophy, and have two rescue dogs, Azrael and Muriel, as well as a cat named Clemente.
Jeremy, who was born in Puerto Rico, is an avid scuba diver, paddleboarder, and foodie. Meanwhile, Danielle is big on meditation, mysticism, and intersectional feminism.
Together, the couple complement each other well, and have often been praised for their seemingly perfect relationship. With that said, the duo prefer to keep some details private – such as the date of their wedding, and Jeremy’s profession.
As for personal interests, Danielle has varied music tastes, thanks to her Irish heritage. A fan of The Pogues, Dead Kennedys, Flaming Lips, and Guttermouth to name a few, the brunette beauty also loves attending Lollapalooza and other music festivals to see her idols in action.
Mike Wolfe
After being a professional picker for 15 years, Mike began videotaping himself in 2005, and got in touch with Crazy Eyes Production, a local team in Iowa. With their help, the future celebrity began uploading YouTube videos showcasing the personalities of people he interacted with on his journeys.
Seeing the success of his online videos gave Mike the confidence to contact cable networks, to see if they’d be interested in his idea. After being rejected a couple of times, the History Channel decided to take a chance on the unknown talent, and picked up the concept. Generally, networks only pick up six episodes at a time, however, after the first six episodes, the History Channel ordered five more, and then a 26-episode second season of “American Pickers”, thus launching Mike’s TV career.
Proving that it’s never too late to chase your dreams, Mike, who was born in June 1964, has since become an author, philanthropist, and social media influencer. His works, which include “Debt Advice, Kid Pickers: How to Turn Junk into Treasure” and “Debt Advice Handbook: 11th Edition” have been well-received by aspiring pickers and newbies in the sector.
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The Illinois native and reported millionaire was brought up in a tranquil Christian household by his mother Rita and his siblings Robbie and Beth. Although there’s virtually no online information regarding Mike’s father, it’s believed that the pair never shared a close relationship, as Mike has always praised his mother and cited her as his inspiration.
After completing his studies at Sudlow Intermediate School, Mike devoted himself to travelling the states in search of antiques. In 2012, he settled down with Jodi Faeth after a years-long relationship, having met in 1994. The former couple’s daughter, Charlie Faeth Wolfe, is believed to have been born sometime in the early 2010s.
Sadly, online reports confirmed that Jodi developed stage 2 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphona as of December 2013. In November 2019, FoxNews reported that the brunette had filed for divorce from Mike for unknown reasons, with their separation made formal in June of the following year.
Over the years, fans and casual viewers of “American Pickers” were under the impression that Mike and Danielle were in a relationship, given the discreet nature of his marriage to Jodi.
In 2021, Mike made headlines after being linked to the model Leticia Cline. Despite neither party confirming nor denying the rumors, Leticia shared romantic images of a date night with the TV star in March 2022, which some cynics claim was an effort to boost “American Pickers’” low ratings. Coincidentally, viewership figures began dropping after Frank was replaced by Mike’s younger brother Robbie.
Frank Fritz
Frank was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa and before becoming the successful actor and businessman he is today, worked as a fire inspector for over two decades. Brought up by his parents Bill Fritz and Susan Zirbes, he matriculated from Bettendorf High School in 1982, and later attended Sudlow Intermediate School, where he met and struck up a friendship with Mike.
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In 1974, Bill left his wife and pursued an affair with another woman. In the same year, Susan remarried to Richard Zirbes, who became something of a father figure for Frank and his anonymous sister. Nevertheless, Bill and his father still maintain a good relationship, and there are photos of the pair floating around on the internet.
Richard worked as a tire salesman for a local business, while Susan, who sadly passed away of unknown causes in 2003, was a longtime employee at a reputable construction company. As a teenager, Frank worked at Coast to Coast Hardware and Quad-City Automatic Sprinkler to scrape together enough money to purchase a Harley Davidson.
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Even while working as a fire inspector in Des Moines and Cedar Falls, Frank collected trinkets and memorabilia, and decided to become an antiques collector after selling a $15-find for $450, and shortly afterwards set up his business, Frank’s Finds. In 2010, he got his first taste of fame thanks to his work in “American Pickers”.
The History Channel’s decision to fire Frank led to speculations that Mike and Frank had grown apart over the years. However, in the show’s eighth and ninth seasons, Frank also had to take time off following health complications from Crohn’s disease. It’s thought that his extended hiatuses and past controversies – such as a 2017 DUI charge – were the final straw for the show’s producers. Despite having previously said that he’d like to return to the show, Frank later confirmed that it wouldn’t be happening, and is now pursuing other ventures.
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