Biography of Bob Vila

 He will also begin the 15th season of his nationally syndicated show, Bob Vila’s Home Again.

After 25 successful years as an on-air personality, Bob Vila is still going strong. “Bob Vila’s Home Again”, syndicated to over 200 stations nationwide by Kingworld, also airs weekly on the cable network TLC; the show is seen in over 2.6 million households weekly.

In the upcoming season of Home Again: Bob remodels a Miami Beach condo (circa 1967) into a contemporary getaway; renovates an 1890’s brownstone apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side into a bachelor pad; and creates affordable family housing on Cape Cod.

In 1999, Bob hosted his first-ever original weekly cable series, “Restore America with Bob Vila” on Home & Garden Television (HGTV). In “Restore America,” Vila brought viewers on a state-by-state tour of some of the country’s most beautifully restored historic buildings, neighborhoods and gardens. The series celebrated the people and communities working to reclaim their neighborhoods and preserve America’s culture, heritage and history. In the past, Bob has been a regular contributor on NBC’s “Today Show,” CBS News’ “This Morning” and has produced his own series of specials for A&E, “Bob Vila’s Guide to Historic Homes,” taking fans to some of the most spectacular historic homes in the US, Italy, England, and Ireland.

Bob’s reach extends beyond television. His award-winning Web site, bobvila.com, aims to assist people at every stage of the building and remodeling process and provides homeowners with end-to-end solutions for transforming their houses into dream homes via the Internet. The site ranks as one of the top five home improvement sites on the Web. Visitors to the site can also view video on demand, including clips from 14 years of informative and entertaining “Home Again” programming.
Bob is the author of eleven books, including the five-volume Bob Vila’s Guide to Historic Homes of America, and his latest, Bob Vila’s Complete Guide to Remodeling Your Home.

A Miami native, Bob graduated from The University of Florida School of Journalism. He spent time in the Peace Corps and subsequently worked and traveled in Europe for two years. Upon his return to the U.S., he settled in Boston, where he studied at the Boston Architectural Center and established his own residential remodeling and design business. It was Bob’s restoration of a Victorian Italianate house in Newton Center, MA that caught the attention of a Boston Globe reporter, who wrote a feature on the house. This article sparked the interest of a producer at WGBH, who soon after produced a pilot program on home renovation using Vila and the Newton Center home as the focal point, which led to a TV series entitled “This Old House.” In 1989, after ten years as host of the program, Vila left WGBH and founded BVTV Inc., the television production company which produces “Bob Vila’s Home Again.”

A husband to Diana Barrett, a professor at the Harvard Business School, and a father to Chris, who is following in his dad’s footsteps in television and as a real estate developer, Monica, and Susannah, a college freshman, Bob remains a family man, always finding time in his busy schedule for his wife and children. He also remains dedicated to a number of important philanthropic endeavors, including Habitat for Humanity, the Vila Family Foundation, the College Summit, a program for inner city youth, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Bob Vila has appeared on television for nearly 25 years – first on “This Old House” and, for almost 15 years, on “Bob Vila’s Home Again.” He also has been the spokesperson for Sears, through its Craftsman tools brand, for almost 15 years. Bob Vila has authored 11 books, including his most recent, “Bob Vila’s Complete Guide to Remodeling Your Home.” He offers information and advice on the Web at BobVila.com.