Angelo Surmelis From Summer Showdown

Angelo Surmelis, designer on Summer Showdown, and host of 24 Hour Design, and Rate My Space.

Since the age of 6, Angelo Surmelis (sir-meh-LEASE) knew he had a gift for creating and designing innovative spaces. It was at this early age that he started dragging furniture around his parents' Chicago apartment. They tried to stop him, but quickly realized their apartment looked much better after he got his hands on it, and a career was born.

Always fascinated with design and motion pictures, he studied architecture, fine art and theater at Chicago's Columbia College. He designed and built sets for plays in Chicago and New York as well as designing and constructing window displays at major department stores. Surmelis later moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to freelance in design and event planning for clients in the film and TV industry before opening his own firm called Swell Space.

He helped launch two design shows in 2003, TLC's Clean Sweep and Lifetime's Merge, before signing on to be the head designer of HGTV's 24 Hour Design.

Surmelis also hosts HGTV's Rate My Space show, a TV spinoff from HGTV.com's popular Rate My Space community.

Find out more about Angelo at his website: www.swell-space.com