Kia Steave-Dickerson

Kia Steave-Dickerson is an American interior designer and property master known for her work on the American reality television series, Trading Spaces. Raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she studied textile management and marketing at the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science. Steave-Dickerson started K.I.A. Enterprises, which focuses primarily on interior and scenic design and construction. In 1993, she starting working as a set designer and property master on films, commercials, and musical theatre productions, frequently working on M. Night Shyamalan's films.

From 2002 to 2004, she appeared on Trading Spaces as part of a revolving cast of interior designers. While planning and decorating rooms for the participants, Steave-Dickerson said that she created specific themes for each participant. Her designs were criticized by Kim Reed of the Today show and others. After Trading Spaces, Steave-Dickerson hosted the short-lived American reality television series Renovate My Place. The show, which aired from 2005 to 2006, focused on renovations for African-American homeowners. After the 2007 birth of her son, she took a seven-year hiatus from work before returning as a property master for Creed (2015) and the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. A recipient of the NBMBAA-Wells Fargo Entrepreneur Excellence Award, Steave-Dickerson has worked with transitional housing.

Early life Kia Steave-Dickerson was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father worked with a theatre company, As a child, Steave-Dickerson worked with him and learned about scenic design. Critics have called Steave-Dickerson's approach simplistic yet bold. working on Men in Black (1997), Beloved (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002). She also helped design commercials for Chrysler, Bisquick, and Betty Crocker, as well as for musical-theatre productions such as Grease and Cats. and a scenic artist for the 1998 comedy-drama film Wide Awake. the former was her third time working with Indian American film director M. Night Shyamalan. She appeared on the show from 2002 to 2004 as part of a rotating cast of designers. Calling herself a "theme queen", Steave-Dickerson based a room makeover on an idea around which she accessorized. Steave-Dickerson appeared twice on the show's spin-off, Trading Spaces: Family, and in The Best of Trading Spaces special in 2005.

Steave-Dickerson's appearances on Trading Spaces were criticized. Kim Reed of Today disliked her work on the series, saying that a bedroom decorated with AstroTurf and artificial foliage resembled a graveyard. Reed called Steave-Dickerson "another homeowner nightmare" similar to two of the show's other designers (Douglas Wilson and Hildi Santo-Tomas), and encouraged its producers to remove her from the series. Apart from these appearances, Steave-Dickerson has largely avoided television work to focus on her career as a property master.

In addition to her career as a property master and designer, she has established transitional housing to help people with drug and alcohol addiction and victims of domestic abuse. Steave-Dickerson founded the West Philadelphia-based WEK House in 1997.