The Complete Transformation Of Mike Holmes

Canadian contractor Mike Holmes has been a fixture on HGTV for more than two decades, first attracting viewers' attention with "Holmes on Homes." That series, which had been airing in his native Canada for several years before making its way to American television, followed his exploits as he came to the rescue of harried homeowners, repairing the earlier botched renovations of less-meticulous contractors. Guided by his mantra —Make it Right — Holmes' dedication to keen workmanship and tough-love advice hit a chord with the network's viewers.

One of HGTV's most recognizable personalities, Holmes has become a major celebrity in both his homeland and America, the success of "Holmes on Homes" spawning more TV hits and a variety of successful business ventures. And while TV stardom may not have been something he'd ever pursued or trained for, he's certainly proven to be pretty darned good at it. 

His journey from humble Toronto contractor to canny media tycoon has played out in public, resulting in two of his kids joining him onscreen as the next Holmes generation takes the reins of his empire. To find out more, read on to experience the complete transformation of Mike Holmes.

Mike Holmes grew up in the suburbs of Toronto. As he recalled in an interview for Maclean's, he inherited his knack for home repair and construction from his father. Holmes' dad worked as a plumber, but Holmes described him as a "jack of all trades, master of none." Still, he taught his son how to do all manner of household repair jobs; at the age of 6, Holmes was already helping his dad with projects around the home. "By putting a hammer into my hands, he was getting me started on the path that would decide my entire life," Holmes wrote in a Facebook tribute to his father, who was just 55 when he died from an accidental fall. 

Holmes' family didn't have a lot of money — as he told Maclean's, they had "Kraft Dinner and hot dogs on a daily basis" — but from a young age, he learned to work hard. When he was in junior high, he refinished a basement for the first time. While he proved to be a prodigy at construction, he wasn't much of a student, and also had issues with authority. He decided to drop out of school in the 11th grade. By 19, he was running a contracting company, supervising 13 employees. Just a few years later, by 21 he'd launched his own contracting firm. 

Even back then, he was already earning a reputation for fixing the shoddy mistakes of other contractors. In fact, early on he had business cards printed out identifying him as "The F-up Fixer."

Mike Holmes was just 19 years old when he got married, tying the knot with girlfriend Alexandra Lorex in 1982. He was 21 when they welcomed their first child, daughter Amanda Holmes. Two more followed in quick succession; by the time he was 25, he was also the father of another daughter, Sherry Holmes, and a son, Mike Holmes Jr. Life was good, the young family man experiencing great success with his construction business. 

Business was booming for the ambitious young contractor — until the economy cratered in the latter part of the 1990s, which proved to be a rough decade for Mike Holmes. Suddenly, what had been a prosperous business evaporated. As budgets tightened, the construction business became dominated by cut-rate contractors willing to work for peanuts — with workmanship that reflected it. He was forced to sell the building that housed his company, and laid off all his employees. His financial situation grew so dire that he wound up selling his car. 

At the same time, the financial stress he was experiencing strained his already tenuous marriage. He and his wife separated; their divorce was finalized when he was 30. 

The crazy, true story of how Mike Holmes ended up on TV began in 2001, when he was hired to build sets for a Toronto-based TV show that would provide viewers with home-repair advice. As Holmes recalled in an interview with the Globe and Mail, his remarks about the bad home projects he'd fixed over the years happened to catch the ear of television exec Peter Michael Quast. 

Holmes told Quast that instead of launching a show encouraging amateurs to attempt DIY projects they would inevitably botch, the show should showcase all the horrible workmanship that Holmes found himself repairing on a daily basis. Quast was intrigued by Holmes. He asked him to put his idea in writing, to see if it could work as a TV show. "I said, 'You'd have to host it. With the passion I see there, I can't see anyone else doing it,'" Quast said. 

That show became "Holmes on Homes," which made its debut in 2001. The show proved to be an instant hit, and Holmes managed to capture the zeitgeist. "When you'd buy a house, there was an expectation that you'd do something to it," Toronto-based marketing guru Mark Healy told the outlet. "Holmes tapped into that sentiment in an accessible way. Consumers generally feel disenfranchised and skeptical, so there's a tremendously untapped appetite for that." By 2004, Holmes' TV show was averaging 250,000 viewers per episode in Canada. 

In 2006, executives at Nestlé Canada embarked on a new advertising campaign for its Nescafé instant coffee. The company commissioned a poll to determine which celebrities were the most trusted in Canada, and Holmes was ranked at the top of the list — even though most of those execs had no idea who he was. Holmes was approached by Nestlé about becoming the face of the campaign; being a devotee of instant coffee, he leapt on the opportunity. "When they approached me about the commercial, I said if they can relate the commercial to what I do and keep it real, I'd say yes to it, because the real truth is I drink Nescafé and have for years," he told Sudbury.com.

His partnership with Nescafé proved to be so successful that the company renewed its contract with Holmes several times. Meanwhile, plans were in the works to expand his brand and enter the U.S. television market; "Holmes on Homes" arrived in the U.S. in 2010, and resonated just as much with American viewers as it had in Canada. Holmes was suddenly fielding sponsorship offers he couldn't have possibly imagined just a few years earlier. 

Yet despite all that success and fame, he admitted he didn't really view himself any differently than he always had. "I don't feel like a celebrity," he told the Globe and Mail. "I'm a contractor."

As viewers of his television shows are well aware, Mike Holmes' catchphrase is both a philosophy that guides him and a tattoo on one of his biceps: Make it Right. Holmes was savvy enough to trademark that phrase, something that came into play when movie star Brad Pitt launched a charitable organization to help rebuild New Orleans' devastated Lower Ninth Ward in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, calling it the Make it Right Foundation. 

When Holmes found out that Pitt had inadvertently used his trademark without permission, he could have easily taken the actor to court. Instead, he reached out and proposed a partnership, offering his skills as a contractor to pitch in and assist  "He had his vision of doing it when I talked to him," Holmes explained in an interview with the Toronto Star. "But he [knew] he didn't know enough about it." 

Holmes wound up joining Pitt in New Orleans, where he rebuilt a flood-damaged home to exacting specifications. And, ever the entrepreneur, the entire process was filmed for a special TV miniseries, "Holmes in New Orleans."

In November 2009, Mike Holmes expanded his reach beyond television into the lucrative world of publishing with the launch of his own magazine, Holmes: The Magazine to Make it Right. According to a press release issued promoting the magazine's debut, the magazine offered reno advice, plus news on innovative new products and building techniques, with a focus on eco-friendly construction. "This is the magazine homeowners need to help them with their renovations," Holmes said in a statement. "It's the magazine I was searching for and couldn't find. So, I had to make my own magazine, and Make it Right."

While Holmes clearly had big plans for the magazine, the venture lasted less than two years, shutting down in October 2011 due to a dispute between Holmes' company and Dauphin Media Group, which published the magazine. Speaking with the Canadian Press, Dauphin's publisher, Mike Dunphy, confirmed that his company's vision of the magazine didn't align with that of Holmes' firm, which led the relationship to break down. However, he admitted, "we didn't think it was going to get this messy." Dunphy also confirmed that the December 2011 issue would be the final edition.

When subscribers were ultimately not reimbursed for the money they'd spent, Mike Holmes Group director of communications Liza Drozdov was quick to point out that it was Dauphin that was responsible, not Holmes' company. "Mike feels terrible about it," she told the Toronto Star. "But it's not his fault ... he didn't get any of that money."

As "Holmes on Holmes" became popular with HGTV viewers in both Canada and the U.S., Mike Holmes began to branch out into some other shows. His followup to "Holmes on Homes" arrived in 2009, "Holmes Inspection," which put a slightly different spin on the format. Running for four seasons, "Holmes Inspection" featured Holmes rescuing homeowners who were dealing with problems that weren't detected even though an inspection had been undertaken. 

Next came "Holmes Makes It Right," which premiered in 2013 and ran for two seasons. In this series, he went back to his roots as a contractor, digging in and fixing the kind of domicile disasters that would send most contractors fleeing for the door. 

In 2015, the HGTV star shifted from cable TV to network primetime with "Home Free," a reality show airing on the Fox network. Co-hosting with recently retired NFL star Tim Tebow, this series presented a competition in which nine couples renovated houses over the course of eight weeks, with the resulting homes given to needy families. The twist, however, is that all the couples live together, "Big Brother"-style, with one couple eliminated each week until just one is left. The winning couple was then presented with a dream home of their own. "A home is way more than brick and mortar. So being part of this new series and partnering with Fox is truly exciting for me," Holmes told TheWrap.

When Mike Holmes inked his first television deal, it was with a now-defunct company called Alliance Atlantis, which held the rights to HGTV in Canada. In 2007, that company was sold to another Canadian media conglomerate CanWest Global Communications Corp. CanWest was subsequently sold to another company in 2010, Shaw Communications, which was then sold to Corus Entertainment in 2016. 

Mike Sr. had been along for the ride with all those ownership changes, but made a change of his own when he jumped from Corus to its chief competitor, Bell Media, in 2019. According to a press release issued at the time, Mike Sr. signed a deal to produce content for Bell and its various TV channels, including Canadian network CTV and various cable channels. The first show to emerge from that partnership was "Holmes Family Rescue," in which Mike Sr., Sherry Holmes, and Mike Holmes Jr. transform peoples' homes and lives. 

"I'm absolutely thrilled about this new partnership with CTV," Mike Sr. said in a statement. "I look forward to bringing new content to CTV's portfolio of networks and spreading the MAKE IT RIGHT^® message with even more Canadians across the country."

While viewers of Mike Holmes' various TV projects had come to know his kids, Sherry Holmes and Mike Holmes Jr., the arrival of "Holmes Family Rescue" put his progeny front and center for the first time (oldest daughter Amanda also works with her dad's company, but has eschewed the spotlight, preferring to work behind the scenes).

As Mike Sr. explained, not only have his kids literally grown up onscreen, he'd been teaching them everything he knows about being a contractor. "They've both done so much, and they're just at the start of their careers," he told the Victoria Times-Colonist. "Sherry is already a tiling pro — she's better than other guys that have been tiling for years. And she's creative. She likes trying different colors, patterns, different types of tiles, products, and learning new tricks, different ways to make the job easier, better." Passing on his knowledge to his children, and watching them blossom from it, made him one proud pop. "I love working with my kids, watching them build on what they know and get better every day," he proclaimed. 

When Mike Holmes Sr. and kids Mike Jr. and Sherry talked about "Holmes Family Rescue" with The List, the veteran contractor explained how the new show came to be. "It actually just expanded in to having Mike and Sherry on the show because they were so good in front of the camera that they became, I guess, the entity of the Holmes family, and we, all along, rescued families," he said. "It just made sense to be 'Holmes Family Rescue.'"

For anyone wondering what really happened to Mike Holmes, in March 2021 he answered that by revealing the launch of his "Holmes on Homes Podcast." According to Holmes, the podcast was a natural extension of his work on television and the mission underlying it all. "I never planned to go into television, but I did so that I could educate people on what they need to know about their home," he wrote in an Instagram post announcing the new venture. "The episodes are raw, unscripted conversations I am having with subject matter experts, and I myself am learning a lot," he added. 

Holmes also promoted the new podcast with a trailer posted to YouTube. As he pointed out, his primary goal had always been to educate homeowners about the importance of having the job done correctly the first time. "From television to doing this, this just seems to be the next stepping stone that is necessary," he said, explaining how the podcast would allow him to speak directly to people in a way that television couldn't. "I'm able to give you key information, and talk directly to you, with nothing stopping me," he added. 

In 2022, Mike Holmes made yet another TV deal, this time with Blue Ant Media, to broadcast hundreds of hours of his programming on its free Canadian streaming channel, Homeful. The following year, the company announced plans to commission a new series from Mike Sr. Debuting in 2024, "Holmes on Homes: Building a Legacy," presented viewers with a reboot of the series that brought him to the public eye in the first place, with a generational twist: he'd be joined by daughter Sherry Holmes and son Mike Holmes Jr. to repair the nightmares inflicted on homeowners by less-competent contractors.

Airing on Blue Ant Media's Cottage Life channel, the new iteration of "Home on Homes" saw Mike Sr. revisiting his past while also looking to the future as he prepared his offspring to take over the business he'd built. "After 23 years on TV, we've received countless messages from fans to bring back 'Holmes on Homes.' So, we listened — and we've taken it to the next level," he said in a press release for the project. "In 'Building a Legacy,' you'll get a closer look at our family dynamic and see firsthand how my life's work to 'make it right' has become a shared ambition among my kids."

In 2022, Mike Holmes began appearing in television commercials for AGM Renovations, telling viewers they could be assured of solid workmanship from the company. In early 2025, however, Canada's CBC News unveiled a blistering exposé in which AGM customers complained of shoddy, third-rate work done in their homes. One of those dissatisfied customers, Eric Cartier, said it was Holmes' validation of the company that led him to hire them, only to discover the electrical work that had been done created an unsafe fire hazard. "Mike Holmes' endorsement doesn't mean much to me anymore," Cartier said. "He should be holding [AGM] to his standard that he says he has, or dropping them."

Holmes subsequently posted a statement on social media to explain that his company had a protocol in place to deal with this precise situation, which would result in Holmes' company suspending all associations with any company suspected of performing shoddy work until an investigation could be completed. Meanwhile, all the ads featuring Holmes were yanked from AGM's social media platforms, suggesting Holmes had indeed cut ties with the company. 

Shortly after the exposé and Holmes' response, AGM announced it was shutting down, blaming CBC News' investigation for cratering its business. "Due to actions taken by CBC, our company's reputation has been severely impacted, making it financially impossible for us to continue operations," AGM CEO Ivan Atanasov wrote in a letter obtained by CBC News. "Despite our relentless efforts to recover, the extent of the damage has left us with no viable path forward," he wrote. "AGM ... will be permanently closed."