Danielle Colby was born December 3, 1975 in Davenport, Iowa. She is known as an American reality television personality for her work on the show American Pickers.
She was raised by her parents as a Jehovah's Witness in what she described as a "very loving but very strict household." In 2004, at 29, she was married to Aleandre DeMeyer with two children. However ultimately, her television career led to divorce. "Fame and notoriety are not easy for him to deal with at all", she told WQAD-TV in May 2012. "So the relationship ended up not working out." 

How She Got "Picked"

Colby and Mike Wolfe were close friends for over ten years before the idea of American Pickers had been formed. Wolfe officially asked her to work at the office of the famous Antique Archaeology shop after the History Channel bought the rights to the show. It premiered on January 18, 2010 and was ranked as the number one top-rated non-fiction series among total viewers and adults 25-54 in September of that year. "I didn't have any trepidation at all", she said in a Yuppie Punk interview. "I just figured if Mike's on board, I'm on board." "People think that Mike and I are dating", she adds later, "which isn't true at all."

The Other Side

In addition to her sucess with American Pickers, Colby owned and participated in a female roller derby team called The Big Mouth Mickies for three years before injuries forced her to retire. "After three years of roller derby I pretty much tore my body up", she explained. "[the Big Mouth Mickies] was just a bunch of Irish girls that got together because we wanted to do roller derby. But I think the shelf life of a roller derby girl is like three to five years."

After roller derby Colby created a professional burlesque troupe named Burlesque Le Moustache with eight other performers. She performed herself under the stage name Dannie Diesel. The troupe toured eastern Iowa and western Illinois. Colby later purchased a burlesque academy that she named Dannie Disels Bump 'n' Grind Academy that is located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Colby has said that a burlesque performance by comedian Margaret Cho and dancer Satan's Angel was what initially sparked her interest in the genre. "Growing up in a strict household, I think I went into that evening thinking that burlesque was taboo and wrong and bad", she said in an interview. "But what I realized after I left was that how absolutely liberating it was, to be in a room with women on stage who were ranging from a size zero to a size of, easily, 28-- all different types of women with all different strengths. I left thinking, 'Who cares if I have stretch marks? Who cares if I'm a size 14 or 12 or 10? It doesn't matter. What matters is that I like myself.' Thats the feeling I left with, and it was life-changing, and at that point I knew I really wanted to do it."

When asked what the History Channel and American Pickers had to say about her burlesque career, Colby responded "History Channel has been very supportive of what I do. I think they appreciate that I have a dynamic personality. I made it clear upon starting the show exactly what I do. I used to do modeling for artists as well, but I thinka s long as everything stays tasteful and it doesn't get weird in any way, I think they're okay with it."