Bio
Paul DiMeo while best known as the carpenter with attitude on ABC Television’s two-time Emmy winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, is also an established actor, a man’s man and the first to cry on his hit show. Think of a man, raised by Italian parents who loves building the kitchen table as much as what goes on around it and you have a true sense of the essence that is Paul DiMeo.
Continually recalled as the show’s favorite – second to host Ty Pennington – DiMeo was on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for all 9 seasons renowned for his imaginative work on children’s bedrooms. With boundless warmth and genuine nature, DiMeo remembers his early Pennsylvania roots and in particular how at aged five, he began his affair with home renovation after the family home burned to the ground. “My father and I embarked upon our own extreme makeover to reconstruct the family home”. Indeed, Paul’s hallmark is his deep understanding of family hardship that shines through as the show’s rugged carpenter with a heart of gold.
In addition to EM:HE, Major League Baseball asked Paul in March of 2011, to be the lead designer and to build the MLB Fan Cave in New York City. The Fan Cave is the first-of-its-kind immersive fan experience. One super fan and one wing man will inhabit the Fan Cave, located on 4th and Broadway in Manhattan, every day for the entire 2011 MLB season and watch all 2,430 regular season games plus every Post season game while sharing their viewpoints on Facebook, Twitter, MLBFanCave.com and regular appearances on MLB Network.
Paul is originally from Media, Pennsylvania, the youngest son of five children, Paul attended Point Park College in Pittsburgh and majored in Theater Arts. He began perfecting his skill of set building for the Pittsburgh Playhouse, while also developing his other big love: acting. While serving as stage manager for the American Dance Ensemble, DiMeo started to build his own resume. A move to New York proved lucrative. Continuing to build a reputation for appearing both on and off the stage and while living in the East Village, DiMeo befriended the owners of the Open Space Theater on St. Mark’s Place, built sets, learned the art of dumpster diving and went on to freelance for the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Yiddish Theater, Carnegie Hall and numerous off-Broadway and Broadway venues. He also pioneered the “Loft Living” project, working on the renovation of lofts and brownstones, and as master carpenter, renovated the Landmark Brownstone of Aaron Burr.
Off-Broadway, Paul played the lead in director Al Carmines’ In Circles and was stage manager for On 2nd Avenue and The Golden Boy. As a resident actor, he played Hamlet at King’s County Shakespeare, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing as well as lead roles in The Bull and Wisdom’s Age at the New York One Act Festival, winning first place for his performance. He has also appeared off-off Broadway in numerous roles, in particular at the 29th Street Playhouse and the Actors Repertory Theater. On screen he has costarred with John Lithgow on sitcom Third Rock From The Sun and on Dick Wolf’s New York Under Cover while in film, he demonstrated his great love for kids, as Sparky in a children’s feature video, Sparky Moves To Manhattan.
After 17 years in New York, DiMeo decided to move to Los Angeles. Once again he continued the “Loft Living” movement by moving into an old firehouse in downtown L.A. He excelled in his field, renovating the homes and businesses of Hollywood’s movers and shakers. His client list includes the Beverly Hills Ralph Lauren Polo store, the William Morris Agency, Glenn Close, Joan and Marty Ransholff, Arnold Rifkin, David Niven Jr., Ann Archer, Marjorie Lord, Angelo DeSapio and — his most memorable client — George Hamilton.
For DiMeo, life is all about finding humor in the little things you do, while keeping a smile and making a joke here and there. Something he takes very seriously.