Leslie Segrete
Encyclopedia
Leslie Segrete 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 began her career as a stagehand and food arranger for Good Morning America
and as art designer for the Ricki Lake Show. 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.
She also co-hosts (with Tom Kraeutler
) a syndicated call-in radio
show on home improvement called "The Money Pit" which in 2007 was broadcast on 220 stations nationwide. 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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
, seamstress, carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
personality. She is best known for her work on the TLC
TLC (TV channel)
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
show While You Were Out
While You Were Out
While You Were Out was an hour-long American television reality program that aired episodes on the cable channel TLC. The format of the show is similar to TLC's Trading Spaces...
, which concluded a four-year run in 2006, She also appeared as a designer on Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons....
and Ugliest House on the Block.
Biography
Segrete was born in Bethpage, New York. She grew up interested in working with her hands, as her father was an architect and her mother a sewer and crafter. She studied set design at Hofstra University and graduated with a degree from the French Culinary Institute.She began her career as a stagehand and food arranger for Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
and as art designer for the Ricki Lake Show. 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.
Current projects
Segrete currently writes monthly columns for two magazines, do! and House BeautifulHouse Beautiful
House Beautiful is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who purchased it in 1934...
She also co-hosts (with Tom Kraeutler
Tom Kraeutler
Tom Kraeutler is a home improvement broadcast journalist and author.Kraeutler co-hosts the nationally syndicated “Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show” broadcast on more than 265 stations every weekend, with an audience of more than 4 million listeners. His home improvement tips are also...
) a syndicated call-in radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
show on home improvement called "The Money Pit" which in 2007 was broadcast on 220 stations nationwide. In September, 2008, Segrete hosted Going Green Long Island, a PBS special about anti-global warming efforts on her native Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
airing on WLIW
WLIW
WLIW, channel 21, is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Garden City, New York; which serves as a secondary Public Broadcasting Service member station for the New York City television market...
Channel 21. Most recently, Segrete is co-host of the A&E show, "$100 Makeover", where she showcases her design expertise.