Leslie Segrete

Leslie Segrete
BornFebruary 28, 1975 (1975-02-28) (age 49)
Bethpage, New York
Occupation(s)Designer, seamstress, carpenter, and television personality

Leslie Segrete (/sɛˈɡrɛti/ seg-RET-ee; born February 28, 1975) is an American designer, seamstress, carpenter, and television personality. She is best known for her work on the TLC show While You Were Out, which concluded a four-year run in 2006. She also appeared as a designer on Trading Spaces and Ugliest House on the Block. She currently co-hosts The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show with Tom Kraeutler. In 2014, she joined the television show Hotel Impossible as a designer.

Biography

Segrete was born in Bethpage, New York.[1] She grew up interested in working with her hands, as her father was an architect and her mother a sewer and crafter.[2] She studied set design at Hofstra University and graduated with a degree from the French Culinary Institute.[3]

She began her career as a stagehand and food arranger for Good Morning America and as art designer for the Ricki Lake Show.[3][4] She was the head set designer for the Oxygen Network when she joined the cast of While You Were Out after hearing from a friend that TLC was looking for a female carpenter to "fill in" on the show.[2][3]

Current projects

Segrete currently writes monthly columns for two magazines, do! and House Beautiful. She also co-hosts (with Tom Kraeutler) a syndicated call-in radio show on home improvement called The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show which, in 2013, was broadcast on 300 stations nationwide.[3] In September 2008, Segrete hosted Going Green Long Island, a PBS special about anti-global warming efforts on her native Long Island, New York, airing on WLIW Channel 21. Most recently, Segrete is co-host of the A&E show $100 Makeover, where she showcases her design expertise.[5]

Segrete joined the cast of the Travel Channel's Hotel Impossible for its fourth season in 2014, serving as one of the program's designers.

References

  1. ^ Leslie Segrete at the Internet Movie Database. Accessed April 29, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "'While You Were Out' cast member shares secrets". Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 4, 2003. Accessed April 29, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d "Ripping Out and Remodeling; for Her, a Tool Belt’s Not a Prop". The New York Times, December 23, 2007. Accessed April 29, 2011.
  4. ^ "'Ugliest House' has Leslie Segrete pretty excited." New York Daily News, January 3, 2008. Accessed April 29, 2011.
  5. ^ "$100 Makeover, A&E". Retrieved 2010-07-17.