Many of us remember Ananda Lewis from her days as a TV host. We were first introduced to her by BET, as the co-host of “Teen Summit.” Then she made the switch to MTV’s “TRL” music video show. Following that, she moved to her own daytime talk show, “The Ananda Lewis Show.” Then all of a sudden, she pulled the disappearing act on us, never to be seen, nor heard for many years. We previously told y’all that we discovered who Ananda’s husband is and his very famous, rich brother. Well ILOSM fam,’ she’s now resurfaced to let folks know what she does for a living now and what she revealed is what most fans least expected.
Ananda Lewis’ New Career
Ananda Lewis (45) has proven that she is not the type of chick who’s afraid of getting her hands dirty. In fact, she’s swapped the glam, stilettos, ad designer dresses of entertainment, for a hard hat and hammer instead. Yep, you guessed it, she’s a carpenter now, with her very own renovation company and she is extremely happy with her career in the construction biz.’
In a recent interview with ShondaLand, Ananda explained what made her decide to pick up the power drill and nails:
Ananda Lewis: “For me, this is the only work I’ll ever do in my life,” said Ananda. My grandmother was the first person to put a drill in my hand. It was because she said, ‘When you broke something in the house, then you fix it.’ There wasn’t some man fixing stuff, it was my mom and grandmother. When I saw things fixed, I saw things fixed by women, and that was the norm. These women of that generation were badasses, and that’s who raised me.
After my grandma passed, I came back to work because I needed to. I was trying to build a shoe rack and I just could not get this board to fit. I was so frustrated, so I said, “I need to take a class.” I started to search and I ended up on Los Angeles Trade Technical College’s website and felt this swelling in my heart. I don’t know how to describe it, my heart filled up with gold. I started registering for classes and before I knew it, I was on my way to getting a degree in carpentry. I graduated two years later with an Associate in Science degree with a 4.0 GPA.”
(Video) She’s Back On TV With Construction Renovation Show
In February 2018, Ananda announced that she is “Thrilled to be coming back to tv doing what I love on a network YOU love” as a carpenter on her new HGTV show, “Change My Space,” Watch her do her thing in the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/HGTV/videos/10155709394394213/
Her Most Fulfilling Projects For Lewis
In that same interview, Ananda stated that the construction projects she gets the most fulfillment out of are the ones that help those in need in some way.
Ananda Lewis: “My number one favorite project [was] doing a small kitchen renovation with my grandmother, because it felt so good. She laid on her back at 85 years old and held up the sink while I caulked around underneath. She couldn’t even walk, but she sat in a chair and painted. Since then, my favorite is my mom’s house, because I had to do the entire thing. It was a labor of love and I was partially raised in this house. The scale of the job was pretty big. I’m so proud of it.
I’m in the middle of getting my nonprofit off the ground. It’s a nonprofit that does renovations for free for single moms and the elderly. Single moms need help — and there is a lot of help out there for single moms in many ways, but when it comes to the place where they come home with their kids, that’s where I want to have the biggest impact. When your environment is beautiful, it’s like you can thrive in your environment. When moms are better, kids benefit.” -via SL
I tell ya,’ we learn something new everyday ’round these parts!
