Alumni Profile: Martin Amado ‘96

Martin Amado ‘96

For most people building wood-and-fabric wall art, painting a wall, shopping for the perfect room accents and rethinking the general layout of their living space – on a budget no less – would prove far too demanding. But for Martin Amado ‘96, the host of WSVN 7 News' home makeover segment “Room for Improvement,” it's all in a day's work – literally.

After laying out his vision for a room, Amado works for a full day, with a crew of three (his design partner, cameraperson and segment producer), transforming mediocre into marvelous.

To say that Amado is an accomplished individual would be to put it too simply. At 34, this School of Journalism and Mass Communication graduate is a modern-day Renaissance man of the broadcasting world: he is an on-air host and reporter as well as an actor and a design expert.

“I always knew that I wanted to be part of the entertainment world,” he said. Born in Miami to a Cuban family, Amado would organize talent contests with his friends and throw themed family parties for holidays such as Easter or St. Patrick's Day.

He also remembers going on weekend jobs with his contractor father and helping him paint rooms and build carpentry. Despite the fact that he didn't enjoy those tasks at the time, he now admits the work was beneficial and informed his experience as a home stylist with private clients.

Eventually, Amado combined this design know-how with his indomitable creative streak (he took photography classes in high school and actively pursued acting early on) to parlay it into career choices that would bring him closer to achieving his dream of being on television.

While at FIU, where he majored in broadcast journalism, Amado still felt a need to express himself and took some theater classes. He also worked in the Art Museum, through the College Work Study Program, which he characterized as a “great opportunity to be creative.”

Amado confessed that he sought a broadcasting degree “as a fall-back.” By the time he went to college he had already been cast in television commercials for companies like McDonald's, MCI and HBO, and done television and stage acting.

“All of this – learning the actual physical stuff, developing an eye for design, acting and interacting with an audience – kind of fused together for me as an expressive outlet,” Amado said while on location for one of his most recent projects, a home makeover segment for WSVN 7 News.

After submitting his demo tapes and getting noticed, Amado's “Room for Improvement” debuted in November 2004 and airs locally on WSVN 7's Monday night newscast. On the segment, Amado performs a home makeover on a budget in one day and gives useful tips to help people improve on what they already have.

In mid-January, he launched a Spanish spin-off, “Manos A La Obra,” which airs nationally on Fridays on TeleFutura Network's “En Vivo y Directo.”

“Doing the segment in Spanish is very exciting as something like it has never been done for the Hispanic market before. It's like a dream come true,” he said.

“I just love connecting with the viewer. The goal of the segments is to show people that if I can do it they can do it as well,” Amado explained. “I love the power of television to be able to go into someone's home and let them get to know me and, at the same time, I get to know them through their feedback. I love that privilege.”

Around the same time that he launched “Room for Improvement,” Amado established, with his design partner and fellow FIU graduate Johanna Suarez '94 MS'95, his own decorating company, appropriately called The Wow Factor! Inc., “because ‘Wow!' is the first thing people say when they see their finished rooms.”

With more than 15 years of experience working on camera, much like he wanted to all along, Amado looks back on his years at FIU with fondness. “I'm very proud to have gone there. I got a great education, which, as they say, is the key to anything.”

-- by Martin Haro

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