Today we’d like to introduce you to Shay Holland.
Hi Shay, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve loved both making things and storytelling for as long as I can remember. Still, growing up on Army bases and in small towns, I never could have imagined myself in Hollywood. From an early age, my dad taught me how to work with tools and restore vintage furniture that we found at antique shops and barn sales. That led me to become a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity where I learned how to build houses. While creating things was in my DNA, my career led me down a different path after journalism school. A TV news director saw that I had a knack for investigative reporting and offered me a job covering the crime beat. While I loved the part of my work that helped bring justice to victims’ families, being bombarded by tragedy and the worst of humanity took a toll. I eventually headed to Los Angeles for what I thought was going to be a summer at the beach. I never left. So while I didn’t plan to be in LA, this is where I discovered my creative calling. In the midst of the pandemic, I answered a blind casting for a home renovation show. Within days, I was hired to be a Co-Host and Interior Designer on a new HGTV series. With the first season of our show completed, it feels surreal to be taking meetings with my agent, Babette Perry of Innovative Artists, and pitching my own shows.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Soon after I moved to LA, the writer’s strike hit and the country plunged into an economic recession. I survived by taking a marketing job at an investment firm. While I hated sitting at a desk all day, that job provided the resources that allowed me to transition from my old life in TV news to more creative work in media. I used all my vacation time taking hosting classes at Marki Costello’s Become A Host studios. She helped me shed the broadcast delivery style that had limited my on-camera opportunities. I was finally breaking into hosting work when the 2020 pandemic hit. Suddenly, those opportunities shut down as productions went dark. While trying to figure things out, I started virtually coaching TV hosts and interviewing media experts through a group called “Hosts in LA.” I happened to mention something about using power tools to one of those experts, Barbara Barna Abel. She remarked that my building skills could be my “superpower.” A few days later, someone tagged me in a Facebook post seeking talent for a new home renovation show. I submitted my materials and the Casting Director called the next day with the news that I’d been chosen to be one of the co-hosts of HGTV’s “Unfinished Business.”
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I got my big break as a TV Host and Interior Designer on HGTV. Our show was a newer format for the network where the families worked side-by-side with us from start to finish to repair their botched home renovations. Against all odds, we pulled off four home renovations in just three months at the height of a global pandemic! I really wanted my work to be life-changing for the families—to give them homes where they could thrive in their new season despite adverse circumstances. When I was working in TV news, I got to help families find justice through my investigating reporting. Now I still get to help families but there’s the reward of pulling off those mind-blowing “reveals.”
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
When I was a kid, my parents would take us to this Black Southern Baptist Church across the railroad tracks from where we lived. It was always ridiculously hot in the tiny white chapel, making it hard to pay attention—my mother recalls one Sunday I even brought a roly poly bug in my purse to play with during the sermon. Still, my parents were giving me an anchor that I didn’t understand at the time. I’m grateful that they wanted us to learn to trust God. That anchor has held through some major transitions. I credited a few others earlier and I also want to thank Lou Prato, my journalism professor. In his course, we filed real stories for TV stations. One day after returning from the field, he took away our notes and said we were still required to complete our assignments. “Some day you’re going to find yourself in a situation like a hurricane where you won’t be able to count on notes,” he said. “All you’ll have is the story that comes from inside you.” That lesson still echoes in my mind. I don’t want to just be another voice in a crowded landscape. I want to tap into stories with uncommon power. I’m not sure exactly what that looks like but thanks to the HGTV team, I’m sure it will be with a drill in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/shayhollandofficial
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/groups/hostsinla
