Drew Scott

Early life

Andrew Alfred Scott was born on April 28, 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of brothers James Daniel (by two years) and his identical twin brother, Jonathan (by four minutes). His birth was a surprise to his parents—Jim and Joanne Scott—who had thought she was giving birth to a single child. Prior to his birth, Joanne had worked as a paralegal in downtown Vancouver. James, having emigrated from Scotland as a teenager, had fulfilled his dreams of being a cowboy as he had seen on television by working in the film industry as an actor, stuntman, and assistant director until the late 1970s. It was around that time when he decided to focus on raising his family, and they moved to a horse farm in the nearby town of Maple Ridge. On their seventh birthday, their father encouraged the twins to get jobs, and Scott an brother Jonathan started their first business (called JAM), making nylon covered hangers. According to them, they sold them from door to door, until a woman who sold American paraphernalia in Japan ordered thousands.

James would commonly renovate their properties, and would pay the boys from as young as eight years old to build and repair fences, decks, and barns. Even as kids, the twins would often rearrange the furniture in their family home. When the twins were 14 years old, James took Jonathan with him to begin work on a new house in Alberta. Jonathan moved back to Maple Ridge to complete high school. The boys attended Thomas Haney Secondary School, and Drew excelled in sports, both coaching and playing on the basketball and volleyball teams. After graduation, the family moved into their new home, just as the twins were leaving for Calgary to go to university.

At a young age, Scott began acting in theater, improv, and sketch comedy. His acting gigs have included roles on Smallville, Breaker High, and Madison. During his time at University of Calgary, long-time athlete Scott studied kinesiology. Despite planning to be actors, the twins didn't want to be "starving artists," and—after watching an informercial by Carleton Sheets—they felt real estate investment would "ease the financial purgatory of being out-of-work actors." After researching the topic,—and during their first semester in college—they assumed the lease of a seven-bedroom rental property across the street from their university. They then cleaned and repaired it, sublet the remaining five rooms for $800 a month, and used the remaining money to bid on their first home. Using a vendor take-back mortgage, they assumed the mortgage with a $250 down payment, made conservative renovations using the rental money, and sold the house a year later for a $50,000 profit. They continued to purchase and "flip" homes at wide profit margins, only making modest repairs that they completed themselves. While his brothers made broader repairs, Drew's labor was mostly limited to installing siding and tile. After several negative experiences with realtors, however, he enrolled in a real estate program to get his license, and his focus shifted to the real estate transactions. Meanwhile, Jonathan switched majors to construction and design, eventually becoming licensed as a contractor. In those roles, the brothers renovated and sold properties for the next 15 years. Always planning careers in entertainment, however, the twins—along with their older brother—co-founded Dividian Production Group in 2002, an independent film production company, and Drew continued acting, directing, and producing on the side.

In 2004, the twins founded Scott Real Estate Inc., a company designed to provide clients, in their words, a "one stop shop" for services in buying, selling, renovating, design consulting, and open house staging. They eventually expanded to have offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Las Vegas, with dozens of employees. Drew was becoming increasingly dismayed that the real estate business was overtaking his true passion: acting. In 2005, he decided to move to Vancouver to pursue his acting career in earnest; Jonathan remained in Calgary to run the business.

Back in Vancouver, Drew begin pitching shows with real estate themes, but was mostly being offered (oftentimes with Jonathan) hosting gigs. Eventually, he was offered to host a show called Realtor Idol, based on the American Idol format. The show never materialized, but producers wanted Drew for a show tentatively called My Dream Home, with the intention of having a male and female host. When they learned he had a brother who was also in real estate, they developed a show around the pair; that company would later film their pilot for Property Brothers. The show was then picked up by HGTV.

When Jonathan moved to Las Vegas in 2007, Scott Real Estate expanded to have an office there. With Jonathan's direction, the company purchased and renovated homes for to use as rentals, leasing them for only 80 percent of the market rates to help renters who were recovering from the ongoing recession. Scott relocated to Las Vegas in 2010, following his brothers who already lived there, and purchased a condo on "The Strip," a highly concentrated urban area just south of Las Vegas.

In 2010 the brother expanded Dividian Production Group into a TV, film, and digital production company, and changed the name to Scott Brothers Entertainment. The company expanded to have offices in the US and Canada.

Career

In Vancouver, begin pitching shows with real estate themes, was mostly being offered (oftentimes with Jonathan) hosting gigs. Drew co-hosts the hit shows Property Brothers (2011–present), Buying and Selling (2012–present), and Brother vs. Brother (2013–present) with his twin, Jonathan. As of 2017, it was HGTV's highest rated show.

In 2013, Drew, Jonathan and J.D. hosted the radio show Off Topic with the Scott Brothers for Canada's Corus Entertainment.

In 2015, Drew and Jonathan launched their first outdoor furniture line, Scott Living, on QVC. and by the end of 2016, the line had crossed 100 million in revenue. Dream Homes (an extension of the brand), provides high-end, customized architecture and home elements for homeowners with budgets in the millions of dollars. Every aspect can be customized, and design ideas are provided by a team of designers based out of Las Vegas. They also hosted a Scott Brothers-themed cruise, Sailing with the Scotts. His first book with Jonathan—titled Dream Home—was released April 4, 2016. It debuted at ninth on The New York Times best sellers list for advice/how-to, and third on The Wall Street Journal best sellers list for nonfiction. On Amazon.com, the book was a number one best seller in the site's Home Design & Construction category. The brothers are currently writing a second book, a memoir, with a tentative release date of September 2017.

The twins’ fourth TV series, Property Brothers: At Home (2014) aired on HGTV in the United States, as well as on the W Network in Canada. The series was the highest rated HGTV series premiere since 2009. After the success of Property Brothers at Home, Scott Brothers Entertainment went on to create another spin-off series called Property Brothers: At Home on the Ranch, where the brothers went back to their old stomping grounds of Alberta, Canada to accomplish a 10-week renovation for a family friend’s Rocky Mountain estate. As part of the show, Drew and Jonathan wrote and recorded two country singles that premiered during the third and fourth episode of the series. The singles “Hold On” and “Let the Night Shine In” were released on various music platforms, including iTunes, Amazon.com and Google Play. Both songs were co-written by the brothers along with Nashville songwriters Victoria Shaw and Chad Carlson. "Hold On" hit #38 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and was accompanied by a popular music video that has more than three million Vevo views. The Scott Brothers released a third song, "My House," featuring Eric Paslay, on January 12, 2017. Filmed at the brothers' Las Vegas home, the song's music video depicts a crazy house party and includes cameos by Carrot Top, RaeLynn and Lindsay Ell. All proceeds from "My House" single sales will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

They were invited to be guest judges on Hell's Kitchen and design a house for the models on America's Next Top Model. On March 29, 2016, Drew and Jonathan were guest presenters at the Grand Ole Opry.

Other projects

Great American Country’s end-of-the-year Top 50 Country Countdown reached out to the brothers to host the annual program on December 22, 2013.

Acting

He has continued to pursue his passion of acting; both he and his twin played themselves in the USA Network comedy Playing House in 2015. He and Jonathan appeared in the first five episodes of the webseries "Tiny House Arrest," which debuted on January 1, 2016, and was produced by their production company.

Directing

Scott has directed several episodes of Property Brothers and Buying and Selling, as well as the Scott Brothers Entertainment-produced web series, Toddler Vs. Toddler. He is currently working on his first directorial feature film.

Television producing

In 2010, Drew and Jonathan created Scott Brothers Entertainment, an independent production company. In 2013, they shifted the focus from film to creating original content for television and digital platforms.

Their web series Toddler vs. Toddler was produced in 2013 and aired on HGTV and W Network.com. The short Makeover Manor was produced for Funny or Die and also starred several reality stars famous in improvement:—Love it or List It” stars David Visentin and Hilary Farr, Scott McGillivray, Ty Pennington, Bryan Baeumler, Candice Olson, and Sandra Rinomato—plus Jersey Shore stars, Sammi Giancola and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro.

Scott Brothers Entertainment also produced seasons 3 and 4 of Brother Vs. Brother, and the series Half Price Paradise for HGTV and HGTV Canada, as well as Property Brothers: At Home, the highest rated series premiere since 2009 on HGTV, which followed the brothers as they renovated their Las Vegas residence.

Public image

Unlike Jonathan, who dresses casually for his contract work, real estate agent Drew is known for wearing suits. Even so, both brothers have many female fans. The basic cable network has said: "We know that twin brothers and HGTV fan favorites Drew and Jonathan Scott are good-looking, talented and ever-so-popular with the ladies." After the debut of Brother VS Brother, Glamour magazine wrote: "Yes, we've all always harbored massive crushes on the twins, but let's just say they are taking their sex appeal to all new levels—ripped-shirts, greased-muscles, water-sprayed levels of hotness." They garnered the second-largest crowd ever at Mall of America because of their female fans, second only to the British boy band One Direction.

Drew Scott and his twin brother Jonathan made People’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue in both 2013 and 2014, and the magazine's list of Men of the Year in 2014. Both brothers stand 6'4" tall. They use their goofy senses of humor to rib each other on air and during public appearances. They credit this rapport to the years they spent doing improv and sketch comedy.

Scott loves social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Periscope. Mashable even called him a "master" at it. This is due in part to the brothers' willing to go all out to choreograph Vine videos. People magazine named one of his Vines, of him and Jonathan doing pull-ups, a "Vine of the Day."

Personal life

Scott met his fiancee, Linda Phan, at a Toronto Fashion Week event in 2010. The couple had been together about six years when they became engaged on December 13, 2016. They live together in Las Vegas in the home that Drew owns with Jonathan. They are rarely there, however, as Phan travels with Drew as Creative Director of Scott Brothers Entertainment, "overseeing their digital content, product and merchandise lines, and marketing campaigns." In 2014, he estimated they only were home about twice a year. Scott has called them "workaholics," saying, "getting out of the home office is step one for a great date."

Scott, along with his brothers, grew up playing basketball, but in a GQ interview, explained that he was the more enthusiastic—sometimes practicing four or five hours a day. He played in both high school and college, and reportedly had a 43-inch vertical jump. Scott has played in various celebrity sport charity games, including Josh Hutcherson’s Nike 3-on-3 Basketball at L.A. Live/Staples Center. He has twice played in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. In the 2012 All-Star Jam Session, he won the award "Best of Sport." Scott leads a healthy lifestyle, monitoring his diet and regularly exercising. He has a black belt in karate. He is a fan of the show The Walking Dead, and was invited to an episode of the aftershow Talking Dead to give his insights on the show and "zombie property values."

Philanthropy

Scott is active in various philanthropic projects, from working with children's hospitals to coordinating initiatives to help underprivileged youth. He has collaborated with the network of artists involved in Paul Haggis’ Artists for Peace and Justice, a non-profit organization that supports communities in Haiti through programs in education and health. He also serves as a global ambassador for World Vision and, in April 2013, travelled to New Delhi, India with his brothers on a campaign to bring awareness to concerns regarding child labor and trafficking.

With his brother Jonathan, he worked with Michelle Obama’s initiative, “Let’s Read Let’s Move,” educating and encouraging students to live healthy and active lifestyles. As part of the “Let’s Move!” project, the brothers also hosted an event for kids at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. with US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. The event saw hundreds of students participate in activities led by the brothers and Duncan, helping the kids get active and excited about reading through storytelling and hands on games that taught them about building environmentally friendly homes. They partnered with Target for a school library makeover, equipping students with a brand new library space, new books, equipment and healthy meals for their families.

Awards

With brother Jonathan, Scott won the 2012 Leo Award, the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry, for “Best Host (s) in an Information or Lifestyle Series” for Property Brothers. In 2012, they were nominated for a Rose D’or Award. Property Brothers was nominated for Outstanding Structured Reality Program at the 2015 Emmy Awards.

Filmography

Discography

Publications