The Stunning Transformation Of HGTV Star Alison Victoria

For more than a decade, Alison Victoria has been a fixture on television within the home-and-decor space. Becoming a TV personality, however, was never her original endgame — nor was it even on her radar. "Design was always what I wanted to do," she explained during an appearance on talk show "HGTV House Party." When a TV opportunity arose, however, she jumped at it — and has never looked back.

As it happened, she happened to be a natural in front of the camera, which quickly caught the attention of television viewers and HGTV executives. Since making her TV debut in a 2010 episode of "House Crashers" on the now-defunct DIY Network (which was subsequently rebranded as Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network), the charismatic interior designer has gone on to become a fan favorite on HGTV, appearing in numerous shows over the years, ranging from her Chicago-based signature show, "Windy City Flip," to competition series "Rock the Block" — and was even one of the HGTV stars tapped for the synergistic movie tie-in "Barbie's Dreamhouse Challenge."

In 2025, she made a big move and took her talents to a whole new show that provided both a fresh start and something of a full-circle moment. To find out more about her amazing journey — which is only just beginning and far from over — keep reading to experience the stunning transformation of HGTV star Alison Victoria.

Alison Victoria Gravenas (she uses her middle as her surname professionally) was born and raised in Chicago. "My passion for interior design began at a young age," she revealed in an interview with Resident, crediting that early interest in design and architecture to her father,  a former FBI agent and public defender who became a federal judge. "Growing up in Chicago, I was surrounded by remarkable architecture, and my dad took me on trips to visit historic homes," she recalled. 

Meanwhile, that curiosity about design began to manifest in some very real ways during her childhood. "I would start rearranging my bedroom with my sister," she told Authority Magazine. By the time she was 11 or 12, her design efforts grew more ambitious — exemplified by the time that she impulsively decided to completely remake her best friend's bedroom. "So we ripped up the carpet, painted the floors peach, and redesigned the whole space," she said. 

Even though she was still a kid, she realized she'd found her calling. "I was really fortunate to figure out what I loved and wanted to do at a young age," she said, explaining how that childhood realization placed her on the path that would eventually take her to HGTV.

After graduating from high school, Alison Victoria headed off to college in 1999 at age 19 — not in her native Chicago, but to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Initially studying psychology, she eventually switched to the interior design program. 

She took her time, and spent seven years at college before graduating. This, however, was not because she was a slacker — but because she wasn't. Working as an intern at a design firm while still in school, she also moonlighted as a hostess at the Venetian Hotel. As she told Authority Magazine, the experience she gained from that design job far outpaced what she was learning at school. "I learned so much about the business by working with this designer: how to work with clients, how to invoice, do purchase orders, meet with reps, and select fabrics," she recalled. "I really immersed myself fully into that role because that's exactly where I wanted to be."

After graduating, she landed a job with Vegas-based Christopher Homes, which specialized in constructing luxury houses for affluent clients. As the youngest designer working for the firm at the time, she soon become indispensible in handling jobs outside of town, particularly homes the company was building in Park City, Utah. "Because I was young, not married, and had no kids, I could travel freely. So I did," she explained.

While working for Christopher Homes, Alison Victoria read a book titled "The Six Secrets of Six-Figure Women." One chapter in particular really resonated with her, "Letting Go of the Ledge," which promoted the idea that a regular paycheck held back people from following through on their entrepreneurial instincts. She decided that the only way she would be able to take her career into her own hands was to quit the job that she loved. "I thought, OK, it's time," she told Authority Magazine. "I was 22 and decided I wanted to start my own interior design firm."

However, she didn't hand in her notice — at least not right away. She met with her boss, and informed him of her intentions. However, she also wanted to leave on good terms, and explained that she intended to stick around in order to provide the follow-through that her clients expected. She told him, "So I'm going to stay and finish my jobs no matter how long it takes. But you need to help me because I'm going to start my own business." 

And that was exactly how it worked out, with Victoria wrapping things up and then launching herself as a solo designer with the help of her boss. "He ended up getting me my very first client, which was amazing and kind of kickstarted my business," she added.

While running her own design firm, Alison Victoria received a phone call from the president of a casino in Las Vegas, seeking to interview her for a job heading up a $130M expansion. "Next thing I knew, I was moving back to Vegas, I got the job, and I was the creative director there for almost five years, when I got a random email from a production company in L.A.," she told House Beautiful. 

When those producers met her face to face, they were impressed enough to offer her a job as a "ghost designer" on a TV show. "What that meant was I do all the work, I get zero credit, and I'm not on television ... and I get paid peanuts. I was like, 'Done! I'll take it,'" she said. 

Having experienced how home-renovation TV was made from a behind-the-scenes perspective, Victoria had an epiphany when she began watching DIY's "Yard Crashers," "Bath Crashers," and other "Crashers" shows. "I was like, 'Wait, they're all dudes. There should be a woman in this space,'" she said, "Now that I had a contact, I was like, 'I'm going to pitch myself as the first female crasher and do kitchens,' and that was it." That ultimately led her to become the star of "Kitchen Crashers," which debuted in 2011 and catapulted Victoria to TV stardom during its hit nine-season run. 

After nine seasons of "Kitchen Crashers," in 2017 HGTV announced that Alison Victoria would star in "Windy City Flip," in which she and contractor Donovan Eckhardt renovated once-grand Chicago houses that had seen better days, and then flip them at a profit. When the show premiered in 2019, it had been renamed "Windy City Rehab," and proved to be an out-of-the box hit. Not only was "Windy City Rehab" HGTV's highest-rated new series in over a year, it was also the No. 1 cable series in the coveted 25-34 demographic, viewed by in excess of 9.3 million viewers. With numbers like that, HGTV quickly greenlit a second season. 

While the show was an undeniable success, the same could not be said of the flips that Victoria was undertaking. "Not all of the rehabs make money," Victoria told Parade. "Some of them, I actually have to pay our investor back at the end. So it's not about the profit." The main motivating factor, she insisted, was to beautify these architecturally stunning homes that had fallen into disrepair, and return her hometown to its former glory one renovation at a time. 

While "Windy City Rehab" soared in the ratings, behind the scenes the show was dogged by controversy. From issues with the city, to lawsuits from disgruntled homebuyercs alleging fraud, to investors' claims of being defrauded, it was inevitable that things would hit a breaking point.

In February 2020, months before the second season of "Windy City Rehab" premiered, Alison Victoria filed a lawsuit accusing a Chicago notary of forging her name on bank loans and other legal documents. While her suit didn't name the person who hired the notary, Victoria pointed out that individual was involved with her in a business capacity. 

It wasn't tough to connect the dots. When the second season arrived, viewers watched Victoria discover that her TV partner, contractor Donovan Eckhardt, had apparently been swindling her. When that relationship fractured, Eckhardt filed a defamation suit against Victoria, seeking $2.2 million in damages for impugning his reputation. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, Eckhardt alleged that Victoria characterized him as a "villain" to "Windy City Rehab viewers, with her allegations that he'd cheated her bringing him "depression, sleeplessness, loss of appetite," while also negatively impacting his business

Ultimately, Eckhardt's lawsuit crashed and burned when a judge threw it out of court. Victoria severed ties with Eckhardt, both personally and professionally, and admitted the whole experience had been brutal on her. However, she was also adamant that whatever she wound up going through be shown in the series. "There were so many times I didn't want anybody to see me crying," she told People in 2024, ultimately realizing that the entire modus operandi of "Windy City Rehab" was "to tell the truth at all costs."

While viewers of "Windy City Rehab" saw the unvarnished reality of Alison Victoria's house-flipping journey, they weren't necessarily privy to all the details of her personal life. In fact, most who watched the show likely had no idea that she was married. In a 2013 interview with A Drink With, she opened up about her then-fiancé, Chicago insurance agent Luke Harding. "We met on Match.com!" she declared, revealing she was still living in Vegas when they'd first met, while he was headquartered in Chicago. 

After communicating online for a month, they finally had a face-to-face date when she flew to her hometown to take in a Chicago Cubs game. As it happened, he also had tickets to that same game, and suggested they meet at one of the concession stands, have a beer together and see how things went. "So we did and that's really it," she added. As for what we know about Victoria's relationship with Harding, they reportedly tied the knot in late 2013, but subsequently got divorced. 

In a 2020 interview with People, Victoria discussed her then-beau, Michael Marks. That relationship also didn't stand the test of time, with the two apparently calling it quits sometime after that.

Thanks to the success of "Windy City Rehab," Alison Victoria quickly became one of HGTV's most popular and identifiable hosts. Not surprisingly, the network was eager to capitalize on that by bringing her to other shows. The first of these was HGTV's competition series "Rock the Block,"  in which she faced off against three other HGTV stars: Leanne Ford of "Restored by the Fords," Jasmine Roth of "Hidden Potential," and Mina Starsiak Hawk of "Good Bones." Victoria also appeared in an array of other HGTV series, including "Ty Breaker," "Home Town Kickstart," "Battle on the Beach," and "Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge," among others. 

Victoria returned to "Rock the Block" for the second season (partnering with "Holmes on Homes" legend Mike Holmes), again in the fourth (this time not as a competitor, but a judge), and then returned for Season 6, teaming up with Michel Smith Boyd of "Luxe for Less." That partnership proved to be successful, giving Victoria her first-ever "Rock the Block" win. 

Emerging victorious was not easy, with Victoria and her partner dogged by rumors of friction. While neither discussed those fan theories of a feud, Victoria did admit that winning the season was a struggle. "This was a tough one," she said in an interview with HGTV. "It was the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life as a designer on television."

Throughout her career as a television personality on HGTV, Alison Victoria has been mostly tight-lipped when discussing her personal life. She made a rare exception in 2022, however, when she took to Facebook to reveal that she was preparing to become a mother ... eventually. 

"My egg freezing journey has been a long one and a hard truth," she wrote of her exploits with IVF, revealing she began the process when she was just 28 years old. She laid all the groundwork, but then abandoned it when she married Luke Harding, "assuming I would start a family the natural way." When that didn't work out, four years later she was newly single, "and ready to finally freeze these bad boys." In the interim, however, her fertility level had declined. When she finally made the attempt to harvest and freeze her eggs, she wound up $30,000 poorer and with no eggs to show for it.

As she explained in her post, she continued to make further attempts. At that point, she was 41 years old, and had just completed her eighth round — and had just five eggs. However, she had no intention of throwing in the towel. "I'm not giving up until I get those 10 eggs and remember ladies....it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality!" she declared.

HGTV introduced a new series in 2022 with a unique premise, "The Ugliest House in America." The series followed comedian Retta (known for her roles in TV series "Parks and Recreation" and "Good Girls") as she toured the U.S. seeking out the nation's most unsightly home, with the displeasing domicile deemed to be the ugliest receiving a full-blown makeover courtesy of Alison Victoria. 

According to Retta, she and the "Windy City Rehab" star got on like the proverbial house on fire. "Oh my God. I love Alison. We have the best time," Retta gushed in an interview with People, crediting Victoria with doing the show's actual grunt work. "I was just there to say, 'That's cute. Oh, that works.' She put in the work when it came to the renovations." Victoria concurred, telling ClicheMag that "collaborating with Retta has been a highlight; we have developed a genuine friendship that extends beyond work ..."

In addition to that, her role on the show allowed her to utilize her design skills in some unique and imaginative ways. "'Ugliest House in America' is a tremendous source of joy for me, filled with creativity and the freedom to design," Victoria added.  

In June 2024, Alison Victoria revealed that she was in a relationship, making her romance with Brandt Andersen official in an Instagram post referring to him as her "heart" (using an emoji). Victoria opened up about her new romance even further in a September 2024 inteview with TV Insider, in which she described Andersen — a writer, producer, and director with an array of screen credits under his belt — as her "best friend and partner." According to Victoria, he was not only supportive of her career, but also understood the pressures of her job in showbiz. "Our businesses are very similar," she explained. "He's in film. I'm on television. He is on the production and director side."

In her previous relationships, Victoria's significant others were outside of the entertainment industry. The fact that Andersen is a Hollywood veteran, however, proved to help bond them together. "He is such a sounding board for me," she gushed. "To have me look at things differently and be that second set of eyes for me is great. I feel very protective and fulfilled in that area in my life too. I never knew what it felt like to have that. So, it's amazing."

Alison Victoria climbed the next rung of the TV ladder when she launched her own production company, Briefly Gorgeous, in 2024. As she said in a statement to Variety, her goal was to produce television that was as authentic as it was compelling. "We're tired of the superficial and staged," she said. "It's time to peel back the curtain and reveal the authentic, vulnerable souls behind every captivating story."

The first TV series produced by Briefly Gorgeous arrived in September 2025: "Sin City Rehab," starring Victoria herself. The series followed her on a new adventure as she relocated from Chicago to Las Vegas, which had been her home when she first began her design career all those decades ago. Preparing for the launch of "Sin City Rehab," she told Country Living just before its premiere, was giving her all the feels. "It is a feeling of excitement, a feeling of fear. It's a feeling of vulnerability. But mostly it's exciting," she said.

Speaking with Us Weekly, she promised that her new series would live up to the mission statement she set out for Briefly Gorgeous. "That's as real as reality gets," she said of the person that viewers see in "Sin City Rehab." "But that's who I am to my core. People are seeing me for me."