Alexis Neiers, who now goes by Alexis Haines, is a TV personality and a member of the Bling Ring – a group of teenagers and young adults who stole approximately $3m (£2.4m) in cash, jewellery and belongings from the homes of celebrities between 2008 and 2009.

The daughter of Mikel Neiers, director of photography for the NBC sitcom Friends, and former Playboy model Andrea, Alexis Neiers was homeschooled alongside her sister Gabby and her unofficially adopted sister Tess Taylor after her parents divorced.

Neiers began pursuing a career in acting and modelling alongside Tess Taylor at the age of 16, telling Vice that this was to “sustain [her] drug habit”. She then met producer Dan Levy (unrelated to Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy), who made her the star of her own reality TV show on E! in 2010 – Pretty Wild – which followed her family as they navigated the Hollywood social scene.

In July 2009, Neiers was arrested for her connection to the Bling Ring burglaries, which included the homes of Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge and Paris Hilton. One of the Bling Ring members – Nick Prugo – confessed to the crimes, having been arrested after an anonymous tipster told police that he was responsible for the Lindsay Lohan burglary, with police capturing his face on CCTV in the home.

Neiers’ arrest was documented in the first episode of Pretty Wild and in November 2009, she pleaded no contest to the burglary of Bloom’s house but claimed in an interview with Vanity Fair that she was drunk and “not sure what was going on” during the burglary.

In May 2010, Neiers was sentenced to 180 days in prison with three years of probation and ordered to pay $600,000 to Bloom. She served her time at Century Regional Detention Facility, where she stayed in the same cellblock as Bling Ring victim Lohan, but Neiers told Vice that she “saw her very few times” and “never spoke to her”.

Where is Alexis Neiers now? 

Alexis Neiers served just one month of her six-month sentence, however in December 2010, she was arrested again at the age of 19 for possession of black tar heroin and a fake ID, according to Us Weekly. She avoided prison and was allowed to live at the SOBA Recover Centre in Malibu, where she stayed for a year.

While in the rehabilitation centre, Neiers obtained her Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor certification and became a drug and alcohol counsellor.

In 2012, she married Canadian businessman Evan Haines, with whom she has two children, and has since written a memoir titled Recovering from Reality, hosted an accompanying podcast and runs courses with her mother.

Neiers has been portrayed in two films about the Bling Ring burglaries. In 2011, her character in TV film The Bling Ring was renamed Maddie Bishop and played by Spencer Locke, while in Sofia Coppola’s feature film The Bling Ring, her character was named Nicki Moore and played by Emma Watson.

Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist begins tonight at 10pm on Channel 4, and continues next Monday. Check out more of our Entertainment and Factual coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.