Nate Berkus
Encyclopedia
Nathan Jay "Nate" Berkus (born September 17, 1971) is an American
interior designer and daytime television host. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and has been a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show
, offering design advice to viewers. May 25, 2010, was his last day on The Oprah Winfrey Show
. His own show, The Nate Berkus Show
, debuted in broadcast syndication September 13, 2010. It is co-produced by Harpo Productions
and Sony Pictures Television
.
, and grew up mainly in suburban Minneapolis. He is Jewish
and openly gay
. He attended Cushing Academy
, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts
. He started working in design immediately after leaving high school and interned at Dominique Aurientis
in Paris
and Sotheby's
in Chicago. Berkus graduated from Lake Forest College
near Chicago in 1994 with degrees in French and Sociology. Berkus founded the company, Nate Berkus Associates, in Chicago in 1995.
Berkus is related to the venture capitalist David Berkus, architect
Barry Berkus, musician
/artist
Gunther Berkus, Josh Berkus of Software in the Public Interest
, casino
manager /author
Eric David Berkus, and western states lawyer
Matt Berkus. Designer
Nancy Golden from HGTV and DIY networks is his mother.
In December 2004 Berkus and his partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea
, were vacationing at a beach resort in Sri Lanka
when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
hit. While Berkus survived, Bengoechea is missing and presumed dead. Berkus appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on January 17, 2005, to talk about his ordeal and the loss of his love.
In 2005 Nate Berkus began selling his merchandise at Linens 'n Things
stores throughout North America
.
Berkus was the host of the short-lived reality show Oprah's Big Give
, which premiered March 2, 2008, but the series ended on April 20 that same year. On May 13, 2008, it was announced by ABC
that it would not be renewed for a second season.
On September 13, 2010, he debuted as the host of his own syndicated daily show, The Nate Berkus Show
, which is co-produced by Harpo Productions
and Sony Pictures Television
. It is recorded at the CBS Broadcast Center
in New York, but airs in the nation's largest markets on the ten NBC Owned and Operated stations.
Nate Berkus is also an executive producer of the 2011 film "The Help."
He appeared as himself on the October 12, 2011 and October 13, 2011 episodes of Days of Our Lives
, a United States daytime television soap opera
, designing the offices of MadWorld Cosmetics for Madison James.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
interior designer and daytime television host. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and has been a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, offering design advice to viewers. May 25, 2010, was his last day on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
. His own show, The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show, commonly referred to as The Nate Show, is a syndicated talk show hosted by interior designer Nate Berkus, which premiered on September 13, 2010....
, debuted in broadcast syndication September 13, 2010. It is co-produced by Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions, Inc. is an incorporated US-based multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey . It also includes Harpo Films & Harpo Radio, Inc....
and Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
.
Personal life
Berkus was born in Orange County, CaliforniaOrange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, and grew up mainly in suburban Minneapolis. He is Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
. He attended Cushing Academy
Cushing Academy
Cushing Academy is a coeducational college preparatory boarding school for grades 9 through 12 plus an optional postgraduate year located in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1865 in fulfilment of a bequest by Thomas Parkman Cushing and opened in 1875, and is sometimes cited as the...
, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,546 people, 1,929 households, and 1,541 families residing in the town. The population density was 143.4 people per square mile . There were 2,204 housing units at an average density of 57.0 per square mile...
. He started working in design immediately after leaving high school and interned at Dominique Aurientis
Dominique Aurientis
Dominique Aurientis is a French fashion designer. In 1986, she founded Dominique Aurientis, an accessories and fashion jewelry brand...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
in Chicago. Berkus graduated from Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. The college has 1,500 students representing 47 states and 78 countries....
near Chicago in 1994 with degrees in French and Sociology. Berkus founded the company, Nate Berkus Associates, in Chicago in 1995.
Berkus is related to the venture capitalist David Berkus, architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Barry Berkus, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
/artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Gunther Berkus, Josh Berkus of Software in the Public Interest
Software in the Public Interest
Software in the Public Interest, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to help other organizations create and distribute free/open-source software and open-source hardware...
, casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
manager /author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Eric David Berkus, and western states lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
Matt Berkus. 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...
Nancy Golden from HGTV and DIY networks is his mother.
In December 2004 Berkus and his partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea
Fernando Bengoechea
Fernando Bengoechea was a New York City-based Argentine photographer who specialized in interiors.He was born in August 1965 in Buenos Aires and grew up mostly in Brazil. Fluent in five languages, he arrived in New York to study cinematography and photography.Bengoechea and his partner, interior...
, were vacationing at a beach resort in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
hit. While Berkus survived, Bengoechea is missing and presumed dead. Berkus appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on January 17, 2005, to talk about his ordeal and the loss of his love.
Career
In November 2005 Hyperion Books published Berkus's book Home Rules: Transform the Place You Live into a Place You'll Love (ISBN 1-4013-0137-1), a step-by-step guide to home design and decoration.In 2005 Nate Berkus began selling his merchandise at Linens 'n Things
Linens 'n Things
Linens 'n Things is an online retailer of home textiles, housewares and decorative home accessories. Until 2008, the company also did business as a big box retailer under the name Linens 'n Things, Inc., headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey, United States, and did business across the United States...
stores throughout North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Berkus was the host of the short-lived reality show Oprah's Big Give
Oprah's Big Give
Oprah's Big Give is a reality television series that aired Sunday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on ABC, and is hosted by Nate Berkus. The Big Give is produced by Harpo Productions, and created and produced by Oprah Winfrey, and also produced by Bert Van Munster and Elise Doganieri...
, which premiered March 2, 2008, but the series ended on April 20 that same year. On May 13, 2008, it was announced by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
that it would not be renewed for a second season.
On September 13, 2010, he debuted as the host of his own syndicated daily show, The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show, commonly referred to as The Nate Show, is a syndicated talk show hosted by interior designer Nate Berkus, which premiered on September 13, 2010....
, which is co-produced by Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions, Inc. is an incorporated US-based multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey . It also includes Harpo Films & Harpo Radio, Inc....
and Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
. It is recorded at the CBS Broadcast Center
CBS Broadcast Center
The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located in New York City, New York. It is CBS's main East Coast production center, much as Television City in Los Angeles is the West Coast hub.-Overview:...
in New York, but airs in the nation's largest markets on the ten NBC Owned and Operated stations.
Nate Berkus is also an executive producer of the 2011 film "The Help."
He appeared as himself on the October 12, 2011 and October 13, 2011 episodes of Days of Our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, a United States daytime television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, designing the offices of MadWorld Cosmetics for Madison James.
External links
- The Nate Berkus Show
- Who is Nate Berkus? Your Life, The Boston GlobeThe Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
March 23, 2006 - "Gay designer returns home from tsunami-ravaged region" - article from Advocate.com