Media Man

Jamie Durie

Jamie Durie (born 3 June 1970) is an Australian landscaper and television personality. Formerly a prominent personality for the Nine Network, Durie has hosted a variety of programs for them, mostly "lifestyle" shows such as Backyard Blitz, Renovation Rescue and The Block.

Jamie is currently the host of the Seven Network's The Outdoor Room and PBS's The Victory Garden.

Jaime Durie is one of the most iconic television personalities in Australia. The former Channel Nine, now Channel Seven star has hosted a variety of programs, majority lifestyle including Channel Nine's Backyard Blitz, Renovation Rescue & The Block. Jamie is now the host of Channel Seven's up and coming show Australia's Best Backyards. Seven has also given the green light for one of his own projects to air in the second half of 2007.

Passions & life before television

Prior to his television presenting career, Durie was a member of Manpower Australia, a highly popular touring male striptease act similar to the Chippendales. In 1994 he posed nude for the art magazine Black+White alongside former fiancée Terasa Livingstone. On a special presentation for Cirque du Soleil's Australian tour of Alegría for the Nine Network, he revealed that he previously auditioned for the troupe but did not get in.

Jamie Durie is also a passionate humanitarian and is the ambassador for Plan (aid organisation) Australia. A television special was screened with Durie in this role as he visited families in Uganda affected by HIV. Durie has also become a passionate horticulturist, thus beginning his own award winning landscape company PATIO.

Television career
Jamie Durie hosted a variety of programs on Channel Nine including those mentioned above before his move to Channel Seven. Durie also hosted the ill-fated multi-million dollar Nine program Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice and was involved with many other Nine programs.

In November 2006, it was announced live on Oprah that Durie would become the new landscaper. During that first show he and designer Nate Berkus helped a woman and her family freshen up their home for an upcoming sale, due to the family suffering from financial problems and medical issues.

On 17 January 2007, the Nine Network parted company with Durie. Nation-wide newspapers reported Durie asked for a pay rise of $2 million which Nine declined to give. The next day, it was announced Durie would move to the Seven Network. Today Tonight did an interview with Durie in which he stated that Nine offered the $2 million which he declined, not the other way round. He resigned and came to Seven because the network was moving in a direction, in which he thought was right. The interview also announced Durie would be hosting the up and coming Australia's Best Backyard's and that he would appear in the next season of Dancing with the Stars on Channel 7.

Trivia
He made his TV debut as a gardening expert on Australian Foxtel gardening show Dig This.
Landscape Designer, James Durie has been designing landscapes and water features, both in Australia and overseas since 1996
Resides in Sydney, Australia
Began his rather unconventional career working as a founding member of the Gold Coast male dance cabaret show Manpower.
Dated Australian TV presenter, Teresa Livingstone.
Skills include water skiing, scuba diving, surfing, acrobatics, trapeze, landscape design/horticulture, volleyball, snowboarding, dance, rollerblading, tennis, soccer and abseiling.
Appeared in Black+White magazine in the buff.
A day after leaving Nine, Durie signed with Seven and recorded a Seven promo saying (Part 1)"Thanks for watching Seven, (Part 2)You gotta love that" which was shown that same day after Today Tonight. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Bio

Jamie Durie is a qualified horticulturist and landscape designer and founder of the international award-winning design company PATIO Landscape Architecture and Design. He has authored five books, PATIO—Garden Design and Inspiration, The Outdoor Room, The Source Book, Outdoor Kids, and Inspired. Two of these titles are released under his own publishing company, Jamie Durie Publishing.

Jamie is undoubtedly one of Australia's most recognizable talents, having hosted many of Australia's top-rated programs including Backyard Blitz, The Block, Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice, and Skating on Thin Ice. However, it was in his role as host of the television series Backyard Blitz where he first captured and inspired the imagination of the Australian public, making gardening "hip" again. The successful garden makeover show received six consecutive Logie Awards for Most Popular Lifestyle Program.

Born in Manly, North Sydney, Jamie spent most of his childhood in the Western Australian outback mining town of Tom Price. With his mother and grandmother both Sri Lankan (born in Galle and Kandy respectively), he has inherited a love of the Sri Lankan culture and lifestyle. Like his father, and all Australians, he loves the outdoors and is passionate about nature and creating the ultimate outdoor living space. His inspiration comes from the vast natural beauty of the Australian landscape, years of extensive international travel, and his passion for protecting the environment. He successfully combines these raw elements to create his own unique style in his garden designs and has truly pioneered the concept of "The Outdoor Room."

A best-selling author, publisher, and television host, Jamie also designs his own successful line of innovative and fashionable gardening and outdoor living merchandised product, PATIO by Jamie Durie. This product line is available exclusively through Australia and New Zealand retailing giant Kmart.

An advocate for preserving our natural surroundings and environmental future, Jamie is an ambassador for Planet Ark's National Tree Day and sits on the board of the Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation in Sydney.

2007 News - January - Jamie Durie signed on with Channel Seven.

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Environmentalists and the environment

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