Debbie Travis Biography

Debbie Travis (born in 1960 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England) is a British television personality, self-taught interior decorator, and former fashion model. She is best known as the host of Debbie Travis' Facelift and Debbie Travis' Painted House. The shows were based out of Montreal, Quebec and Facelift was produced for Home & Garden Television Canada.

In 2006 Travis hosted a show called From The Ground Up with Debbie Travis on Global TV for two seasons. In 2010, she began another television show hosted on Saturday nights at 9p.m on CBC called All for One with Debbie Travis.

Travis is also known for her weekly syndicated column which appears in many newspapers and is titled Debbie Travis House to Home, to which readers often write in to have their decorating questions answered. Travis has authored 8 books on decorating and painting techniques and continues with a book this fall on juggling parenting with marriage and running a family-owned business.

In 2005, Travis launched her own paint and home products line available from Canadian Tire and continues as president of the branding company, Debbie Travis Branding, Inc., located in Toronto.

Beginnings

Travis grew up in Rochdale, Lancashire/Greater Manchester. After a 6-year adult-modelling career, she worked in television as a freelance editor and producer. Debbie met her future husband Hans Rosenstein, a television distributor, in 1985 during a visit to a television buyers' market in Cannes. They married soon after and moved to Montreal, Canada.

After redecorating her old Victorian house using paint effects, Debbie formed a small decorating business which quickly grew to include commissions from large department stores, auditoriums, theatres, and grand reception halls. Her work attracted media attention, and Debbie opened a small studio and hired a partner to teach workshops to both professional decorators and homeowners. Debbie later produced an instructional video entitled Decorative Paint Finishes Made Easy, and later produced three additional, more advanced instructional videos, available in both French and English.

Debbie Travis and Hans Rosenstein are partners in the production company Whalley-Abbey Media which has produced all the Debbie Travis-branded television shows. She is also a partner and executive producer along with Kit Redmond and Hans Rosenstein for RTR Media in Toronto.

She continues to act as an executive producer for all Whalley-Abbey and RTR Media productions, including Buy Me, Property Shop, Income Property & Maxed Out. There are numerous other series in varying stages of development at both television production companies. She also recently begun a show called "All for One with Debbie Travis" which is hosted every Sunday at 9 p.m on CBC Television.

In March 2010, CBC Television announced that a new and different venture for Debbie would premier in the fall season. This show is a celebration of community local heroes hosted by Debbie.

This December, Debbie Travis is host to a show searching for the secret to Canada's love of Coronation Street, as the longest-running drama on television celebrates its 50th anniversary. Corrie Crazy: Canada Loves Coronation Street airs December 9, 2010 at 8pm on CBC Television.