Nathan Jay Berkus (born September 17, 1971) is an American

interior designer Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordi ...

, author, and television personality. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and was a regularly featured guest on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'', offering design advice to viewers as well as coordinating surprise make-overs for people's homes. He has released numerous lines of products and authored several books. His talk show, '' The Nate Berkus Show'', debuted in

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

September 13, 2010, featuring make-overs, culture, design, and personal advice. It was co-produced by

Harpo Productions Harpo Productions (or Harpo Studios) is an American multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. It is the sole subsidiary of her media and entertainment company Harpo, Inc. The name "Harpo" is ...

and

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainme ...

, and was cancelled in 2012 after two seasons. Since 2017, Berkus has co-hosted the TLC reality design series ''

Nate & Jeremiah by Design ''Nate & Jeremiah By Design'' is an American reality television series on TLC. It stars Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent and premiered on April 8, 2017. Premise ''Nate & Jeremiah By Design'' follows husbands Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent as ...

'', alongside his husband

Jeremiah Brent Jeremiah Brent (born Jeremy Clevenger Johnson; November 24, 1984) is an American interior designer and television personality. He founded his design firm Jeremiah Brent Design (JBD) in 2011, a full service interior design firm based in Los Angel ...

Early life and education

Berkus was born on September 17, 1971, in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

. Designer Nancy Golden, from multiple series on

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, app ...

and

DIY Network Magnolia Network is an American basic cable network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines. It broadcasts personality-based lifestyle programs related to topics such as home construction, renovation, and cuisine. The channe ...

, is his mother. His father, Michael A. Berkus, co-founded the National Sports Collectors Convention. His parents divorced in 1973. Berkus grew up in a Jewish family mainly in

Hopkins, Minnesota Hopkins is a small suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, located west of Minneapolis. Hopkins was the headquarters of Minneapolis-Moline, which was a large manufacturer of tractors and agricultural equipment in the United ...

. He attended

Cushing Academy Cushing Academy is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, United States. It serves approximately 400 students in grades 9–12 and a postgraduate year. History Cushing Aca ...

, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Berkus started working in design immediately after leaving high school and interned at Dominique Aurientis in Paris and Leslie Hindman in Chicago. Berkus graduated from

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts in ...

in 1994, with B.A. degrees in French and Sociology. He founded the company, Nate Berkus Associates, in Chicago in 1995. Berkus is related to the

venture capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

Dave Berkus, architect

Barry Berkus Barry Berkus (November 25, 1935 – November 30, 2012) was an American architect, author and art collector. He designed more than 600,000 houses. He also helped write building codes and develop new towns in Japan. Early life Berkus was born on No ...

, musician/artist

Günther Berkus Günther Werner Berkus was an artist, musician and film director from Cork, Ireland. He was born on 20 April 1951 in Münchberg, Germany. As a teenager, he studied pharmacology at the University of Münster but rapidly switched to music and ...

, Josh Berkus of Software in the Public Interest,

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

manager/author Eric David Berkus, and lawyer Matt Berkus.

Career

In November 2005, Hyperion Books published Berkus's book ''Home Rules: Transform the Place You Live into a Place You'll Love'' (), a step-by-step guide to home design and decoration. In 2005, Berkus began selling his merchandise at

Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things was a Clifton, New Jersey-based big-box retailer specializing in home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories. The chain operated 571 stores in 47 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and had 7,300 employees as o ...

stores throughout North America. Berkus was the host of the short-lived reality show ''

Oprah's Big Give ''Oprah's Big Give'' (also referred to as ''The 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 cre ...

'', 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 was co-produced by

and

. It was recorded in Studio 42 at the

CBS Broadcast Center The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located in New York City. It is CBS's main East Coast production hub, similar to CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles as the West Coast hub. The Broadcast Center is one of t ...

in New York, but aired in the nation's largest markets on the ten NBC-owned-and-operated stations. His guests included sex therapist

Dr. Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer ( Siegel; born June 4, 1928), better known as Dr. Ruth, is a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish fam ...

, whose living room and dining room he redecorated, after 50 years. In December 2011, Sony Pictures decided not to renew ''The Nate Berkus Show'' for a third season. 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'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...

'', a United States daytime television soap opera, designing the offices of MadWorld Cosmetics for

Madison James Madison James is a fictional character from the ''Days of Our Lives'', an American soap opera on the NBC network. Created by head writers Marlene Clark Poulter and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jr., she was portrayed by Daytime Emmy Award winning actress ...

. Berkus's book ''The Things That Matter'' was published October 16, 2012 by Spiegel & Grau. It became a ''New York Times'' Best Seller and was named "One of the Best Interior Design Books of the Year" by the ''Washington Post''. Also in October 2012, Berkus collaborated with Target stores to launch his Target Home collection, a 150-piece line that includes bedding, bath, accessories, lighting, rugs, and window treatments. Since then he has released many different collections for season changes as well as holidays. He recently released a line of stationery and office essentials alongside his 2015 Cali-inspired spring collection. In January 2013, Berkus introduced his own fabric collection at Calico Corners. In March 2013, television journalists noted Berkus began working on a primetime series with NBC, initially titled ''Renovation Nation''. By May 2013 the title was changed to ''American Dream Builders''. Berkus was the host and one of the producers of the show in which, according to NBC, "American top designers, builders, architects and landscapers go head-to-head each week, putting their talents to the test on extreme home renovations." The show was not renewed after its first season. Alongside his husband, fellow interior designer

, he launched in 2017 the TV show ''

'' broadcast on TLC network. On August 30, 2017 it was announced that ''Nate & Jeremiah by Design'' had been picked up for a second season. In 2020, Berkus helped rebuild

Ellicott City, Maryland Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in, and the county seat of, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, its population was 65,834 at the 2010 census, making it the m ...

in Gordon Ramsay's untimed special.

Personal life

In December 2004, Berkus and his then-partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea, were vacationing at a beach resort in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

when the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

hit. While Berkus survived, Bengoechea was missing and presumed dead. Berkus appeared on ''

'' on January 17, 2005, to talk about the ordeal and the loss of his partner. After nearly a year of dating, Berkus became engaged to fellow

in April 2013. They were married on May 4, 2014, in Manhattan. They have two children born via surrogates: a daughter, Poppy Brent-Berkus, born on March 23, 2015, and a son, Oskar Michael Brent-Berkus, born on March 26, 2018. Berkus and his family currently live in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. In early 2014, they were featured in clothier

Banana Republic In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighboring c ...

's "True Outfitters" ads in ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' was an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only f ...

'' and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'', among other magazines. ''The New York Times'' noted they were the first same-sex couple to be featured in ads for the magazines. Their Manhattan apartment was featured in the September 2015 issue of ''

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes internati ...

'' magazine, where Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent appeared on the cover with their daughter Poppy.

References

External links

*
The Nate Berkus Show
*
Nick Berkus' Facebook Page

Nate Berkus' (Fanmade) Latest Updates Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkus, Nate 1971 births American interior designers 20th-century American Jews Gay men Lake Forest College alumni American LGBT broadcasters LGBT Jews LGBT people from California LGBT producers Living people LGBT people from Minnesota People from Orange County, California American LGBT writers Artists from Minneapolis 21st-century American Jews

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

Further reading

See also

References

External links