What The Cast Of Desperate Housewives Looks Like Today

In 2004, "Desperate Housewives" premiered on ABC and quickly became a monster hit for the network. The show centered around a group of women who lived on Wisteria Lane, a pleasant suburban street that concealed a number of crimes and misdemeanors. The juicy primetime soap featured more murders, betrayals, affairs, and backstabbing than anyone could hope to count, all performed by an aspirationally-attractive cast that kept viewers tuning in week after week. The show's creator Marc Cherry has since revealed the real reason "Desperate Housewives" ended after Season 8. "I was determined to end the show before America stopped caring entirely," Cherry told Fast Company. "You don't want to be one of those shows that people look at one day and go, 'Is that still on?' So I think we got out just in the nick of time."

Speaking of time, "Desperate Housewives" was a show that loved to jump around. "We occasionally do little time jumps – I think we did a six-month time jump and a one-month time jump at the beginnings of seasons," he told Assignment X. Season 5 started five years in the future. "The five-year jump, I really kind of took a risk on that and for me, artistically, it paid off beautifully and it really reinvigorated the show." In the spirit of "Desperate Housewives," which has influenced current TV dramas and loved to look at all the ways people's lives can change over a span of time, let's take a look at where the cast of "Desperate Housewives" is today.

On "Desperate Housewives," Eva Longoria played Gabrielle Solis. During the show's first season, Gaby infamously slept with her hunky, teenaged gardener, played by Jesse Metcalfe. One year, unlike several of her co-stars, Longoria was not nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on the show, which she later said hurt. "I wasn't devastated but the press made it a bigger deal than it was between the four of us actors and that did affect me a bit," she later wrote in a letter to the court in support of her co-star Felicity Huffman. In addition to comforting her after she missed out on nominations, Huffman reportedly also stopped an unnamed co-star from bullying Longoria behind the scenes.

Since the show ended, Longoria has continued acting. She starred on "Telenovela" and even played herself on both "Jane the Virgin" and "Devious Maids." She's also extended her career as a personality rather than just an actor, hosting the CNN series "Looking for Mexico."

These days, Longoria has stepped behind the camera and turned to directing. Her debut film, "Flamin' Hot," hits Hulu in June 2023. The movie, about the invention of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, was intended as a biopic; however, an LA Times investigation revealed that the subject of the film did not, in fact, invent the product. Longoria dismissed the revelation, telling the outlet, "That story never affected us. Feels like LA Times would have better resources dedicated to more important things." 

Shawn Pyfrom was 18 when he was cast on "Desperate Housewives" as Andrew Van De Kamp, Bree's troubled son. Andrew came out as gay, slept with Bree's boyfriend, was homeless for a while, joined his mother's catering company, eventually settled down, and struggled with alcoholism. Speaking with Starpulse in 2007, Pyfrom said his character represented a different view of gay people than what was usually on television. "A lot of times gay characters can be portrayed as the flamboyant and weak stereotype," he noted. "Andrew is sociopathic and narcissistic and doesn't get along with his mother, and he is also gay. Your sexual preferences doesn't define you as a person." He added, "I'm heterosexual but that doesn't define me as a person."

Pyfrom appeared less frequently in the final seasons of "Desperate Housewives." A few years later, reflecting on the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, Pyfrom wrote a blog post discussing his own experience with addiction. "I chose to share this about myself because I could not hear of another person being robbed of their life, due to addiction; knowing that I stayed quiet about mine," he wrote.

In the years since "Desperate Housewives," Pyfrom has continued to act sporadically; in 2022, he appeared on an episode of "The Rookie." In his Twitter bio, he describes himself as: "Actor. Artist. Writer. Director. Photographer. Creative Director. Fashion Designer. #NFT Collector/Enthusiast." So many accomplishments! Bree would be proud.

Doug Savant appeared on 175 episodes of "Desperate Housewives" as Tom Scavo, Lynette's workaholic husband who had a mid-life crisis and opened a pizzeria. Eventually, Tom and Lynette split, a development that bugged Savant. He told Wendy Williams (via The Huffington Post), "I hated that idea. I so adore Tom and Lynette, I'm so passionate about them as a couple, and I thought that they were a great representation of a good marriage on television."

Now that the show is over, Savant still works regularly on television, popping in for an episode here and two episodes there on a number of procedurals. He's been on "Rizzoli & Isles," "NCIS: New Orleans," "SWAT," "Dirty John," and "The Rookie," among many others. Most recently, he showed up in the first episode of an ABC spy show "The Company You Keep," playing a megachurch pastor.

Along with his wife Laura Leighton, Savant appeared on "Stars in the House" to discuss "Melrose Place," which they both starred in back in the day. Savant revealed that he got his start acting onstage in Los Angeles. "I have never worked in the New York theater," he said, "but it is certainly on my bucket list. I love the theater and I want to be there."

Marcia Cross was a primetime soap icon before she starred on "Desperate Housewives," having played Dr. Kimberly Pierce on "Melrose Place." Cross was at the center of one of the show's most iconic moments — the scene where Kimberly dramatically takes off her wig to reveal a very large scar on her head. Cross later told The Hollywood Reporter that she was acting in a Shakespearean play at the same time she was filming "Melrose Place," and she didn't quite understand the soap's hype. "After that twist, and seeing how people went a kooky for it, I realized, 'Oh god, this is real!'" she recalled. "I didn't really understand what was going on for a long while until then."

On "Desperate Housewives," Cross played Bree Van De Kamp, a neurotic housewife obsessed with keeping up appearances. In recent years, the actor had an arc on the Netflix hit "You" and appeared on several episodes of FOX's country music soap "Monarch." She told Variety that she is still waiting for her "third act," and that her post-"Desperate Housewives" career hasn't taken off the way she hoped. "That's the double-edged sword of being an 'icon,'" she said. "Everybody thinks you are that character and by the time they forget about it, you are not on anybody's list anymore."

In the fifth season of "Desperate Housewives," the show jumped forward five years. This meant Lynette and Tom's troublesome young twins were suddenly teenagers, presenting their harried parents with a whole new host of antics. From Season 5 onward, Preston and Porter were played by real-life twins Charlie and Max Carver. Charlie later told Collider that the brothers enjoyed their time on the ABC soap, giving a particular shout-out to the actors who played their parents. "It was such a good experience there, having such good mentors on set, with Doug Savant and Felicity Huffman, who we worked with the most," he recalled.

After "Desperate Housewives," the Carver twins found roles on "Teen Wolf" together, playing alpha werewolves Ethan and Aiden. They were on "The Leftovers" together and have also worked separately. Charlie came out as gay in a 2016 Instagram post, writing, "So now, let the record show this- I self-identify as gay. And does that really matter anymore? As a young man, I needed a young man in Hollywood to say that- and without being a d*ck about it, I owe it to myself, more than anything, to be who I needed when I was younger." He later starred as the love interest in Ben Platt's music video for "Ease My Mind."

In 2022, the Carver twins played villains in "The Batman," the Robert Pattinson film about the caped crusader. Clearly, the Scavo boys are all grown up!

For eight seasons of "Desperate Housewives," Ricardo Chavira played Carlos Solis, Gaby's husband. His character went to jail, committed some hate crimes, slept with the maid, was blinded by a bump to the head during a tornado, and more. Again ... what a show! Chavira told "Good Morning America" that he was newly out of grad school when he signed on, and he initially wasn't sure whether it was going to be a hit. "I was just thankful to have a job," he reflected. "I'm like, the show's either gonna do really, really well, or it's gonna tank really bad."

Luckily for Chavira, the show did not tank. After it ended, he went on to appear on many other hit shows. He played Frankie Vargas on 15 episodes of "Scandal," starred as Bruce on "Jane the Virgin," showed up on Apple TV+ drama "Truth Be Told," and played Dan Palmer on cult Netflix fave "Santa Clarita Diet."

Perhaps most notably, Chavira played Abraham, the father of iconic pop star Selena Quintanilla, on Netflix's "Selena: The Series." He told TV Insider that the role was close to home, and he tried to find inspiration in similar people he knew in his own life, like his father and uncles. "What does it mean to be a Mexican American patriarch of the family that you are trying to provide for in South Texas?" he asked himself.

Any good friend group needs people to exclude, and on "Desperate Housewives," the woman on the outs was the mischievous Edie Britt, played by Nicollette Sheridan. Edie was overly flirtatious with everyone's husbands, eventually sleeping with a few men she wasn't supposed to. Ultimately, the character was electrocuted after one of the show's many car crashes. Sheridan was over it by the end of her character's run, telling TV Guide (via Today) that she thought the show had gotten "complacent" and that she wasn't too upset. Recalling her reaction to receiving the script, Sheridan related, "I said, 'OK, sayonara.'"

However, Sheridan later sued the show, claiming she was wrongfully dismissed after complaining about an alleged incident where creator Marc Cherry hit her in the head. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Most recently, Sheridan played Alexis Carrington — an iconic soap character originated by Joan Collins — on 22 episodes of the "Dynasty" reboot. Sheridan told Entertainment Weekly, "I have always been attracted to playing the naughty girl. And for some reason, my audience loves seeing me in that role." Soon, Sheridan may have the chance to play a naughty "Housewife" of a different stripe. In early 2023, she tweeted that producers of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" were the ones acting "Desperate," trying to get her to sign up for the Bravo hit. No word on whether she's considering!