Designer Eduardo Xol

As a first generation Mexican-American growing up in East Los Angeles, Eduardo Xol spent much of his childhood shuttling between California and Mexico. A trained musician and actor, Eduardo spent nearly a decade as a Spanish-speaking soap opera star and Latin American recording artist. Nate talks with Eduardo about parlaying his background in the arts into a dream career as a designer on ABC's hit TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Becoming one of the designers on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition wasn't something Eduardo says he sought out. In fact, Eduardo says designing is something he fell into in the months following a failed business. "I started doing more gardening and then some friends and family started to ask for advice for their gardens," Eduardo says. "Before I knew it, in about a year and a half, I had a landscape and interior design company that was doing really, really well."

When producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition approached him to join their team, Eduardo says he was hesitant because he had never seen the show. After watching just one episode, Eduardo says he was hooked by the show's premise of giving families in need a dream home. "It is about good people who need a break," Eduardo says. "It is about our everyday American who has been stuck in really bad situation, and we are able to come and make a wish come true."

Eduardo says the many careers he has had over the years were all experiences that helped shape him into the designer he is today. "I feel like I'm one of the lucky people that really get to live out their dreams," Eduardo says. "I've had many careers in this lifetime, but it seems like now it is all making sense for me."

Since joining the show, Eduardo says he has written his first book, Home Sense: Simple Solutions to Enhance Where and How You Live. Eduardo says the goal of his book is to help people make their home a place to gather and a place to relax. "Home is the most important place for us," he says. "I think we get carried away, especially in this country and this day and age, with working and working and moving really fast and not stopping to smell the flowers."