Paige Hemmis was probably the most easily recognizable host from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She frequently was the only one wearing a pink shirt, highlighting her role as the only woman involved in the remodeling aspect of the show. (Tracy Hutson only did interior design.) Her participation in the show wasn’t tokenism, though. She took the lead on some of the more ambitious projects on the show, including the few times they built new homes from scratch.
Since the end of Extreme Home Makeover, Harris has moved over the Hallmark Channel, and gone back into doing real estate. What else has she been doing these past few years?
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Paige Hemmis neé Huff was born on March 17, 1972, in Wisconsin. She moved to Lancaster, a suburb of Los Angeles, when she was a kid, and attended UC Santa Barbara. Hemmis graduated in 1994 with a BA in Pyschology and Theology. She married Russ Hemmis sometime in the 90s, and began working as a real estate agent and wedding planner.
Before Extreme Home Makeover premiered, Hemmis was in an episode of Monster House. The Discovery Channel reality show documented the themed remodeling of a house in five days. Her role there inspired her to audition for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and she was given a role as part of the remodeling team, working mostly with Paul DiMeo.
Hemmis was on ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover for the entirety of its ten season run, from 2003 until 2012. During that time, she appeared in several other shows, most notably in ABC’s The Superstars. The show paired her with athlete Bode Miller as they competed against other teams. She and Bode took second place.
Outside of television, Hemmis worked with the Starkey Hearing Foundation, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, and Habitat for Humanity. She also created Tuff Chix, Inc. She noticed there weren’t any lines producing tools and products for women, so decided to fill that gap. Tuff Chix released several lines of pink, lightweight, small tools, which continue to be marketed and sold. In 2005 she divorced her husband. The next year she published The Tuff Chix Guide to Easy Home Improvement.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was dogged by controversy through its run, but was a very successful show. ABC created multiple spin-offs, and most of the tenured hosts were able to go on to work on other TV shows. For Hemmis, this meant moving to the Hallmark Channel.
What’s Paige Hemmis Doing Now in 2018 – Recent Updates
Since the end of Extreme Home Makeover, Paige Hemmis has become a regular on the Hallmark Channel. Mostly, she shows up on their Home & Family program, where she discusses the latest trends in home design. Specifically, she talks about the changing trends in how new homes are built, such as how the “living room” has changed through the years.
Last spring, she got married to Jason Short, a singer in the Australian popera group ARIA. Their wedding was turned into a two hour special for Hallmark. Most recently, Hemmis was in the news for selling her home in Lancaster, California. The sale was newsworthy not just because Hemmis had remodeled the home in 2014 after water damage from a utility leak, but because she used the property to house her grandmother, who moved from Florida to be nearer Hemmis’ aunt.
Now, Hemmis lives near Universal Studios, where her segments for Hallmark are filmed. When she isn’t on Hallmark (which is almost daily,) she’s working to promote her Tuff Chix brand, and other efforts to demonstrate women can be just as involved in remodeling as men.
