Leslie Segrete ( 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.
