Coelho, Susie

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COELHO, Susie

PERSONAL:

Born December 7, in Sussex, England; daughter of a college instructor; married Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, December 31, 1981 (divorced June 1, 1984); married Robert Rounds (an investment broker); children: Hutton (son), Hailey (daughter). Education: Attended American University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Office—Susie Coelho Enterprises, Inc., 466 Foothill Blvd., No. 203, La Canada, CA 91011.

CAREER:

Decorating and lifestyle consultant and author. National Heart Institute, Bethesda, MD, secretary; model under contract with Eileen Ford Modeling Agency; Home Box Office, television news reporter; Bono Restaurants, co-founder with husband, Sonny Bono, c. 1982; A Star Is Worn (boutique), Beverly Hills, CA, founder, 1985; Susie Coelho Enterprises, Inc., founder. Host of television programs On Stage America, 1984, Surprise Gardener, 1998-2003, and Outer Spaces, HGTV, 2003. Actress in television films, including Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women, 1979, and A Perfect Match, 1980, and on television series Police Story, Six-Million-Dollar Man, and C-16: FBI.

WRITINGS:

Susie Coelho's Everyday Styling: Easy Tips for Home, Garden, and Entertaining, photography by Jennifer Cheung and Steven Nilsson, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Susie Coelho's Styling for Entertaining: Twelve One-Day Makeovers in Eight Easy Steps, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, and Home; columnist for Palm Springs Life Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Susie Coelho was born in Sussex, England of East Indian parentage, and lived in several large cities before her family moved to Washington, D.C. After she won the title of Ms. Photogenic at the Ms. D.C. Beauty Pageant, Coelho dropped out of college and moved to New York City to pursue a career in modeling. Within only a few years Coelho appeared on the covers of such magazines as Guide, Big Valley, Vive, and Vogue Mexico. Her modeling career also brought her into contact with several celebrities, including actress Rene Russo, hairdresser Jose Eber, and singer Sonny Bono, whom she married in 1981. Together, Coelho and Bono founded and ran the Bono Restaurants, and sponsored the Sonny and Susie Bono Pro-Celebrity Tennis Invitational. Meanwhile, Coelho began to establish a career as an actress in television. However, in 1984, Coelho and Bono divorced.

Mining her phone book full of celebrities, Coelho opened a boutique in Beverly Hills, California in 1985 that sold clothes and memorabilia formerly belonging to the rich and famous. The shop, called A Star Is Worn, donated a portion of its profits to charity. In 1998 she founded Susie Coelho Enterprises, Inc., a multimedia company focusing on gardening, cooking, style, and entertaining. Coelho's first gardening show on HGTV was Surprise Gardener, followed in 2003 by Outer Spaces, which focuses on creating "outdoor rooms."

Coelho's first book, Susie Coelho's Everyday Styling: Easy Tips for Home, Garden, and Entertaining, was published in 2002. The book features many of the tips presented on her television programs, taking the reader through the home-decorating process and the creative use of space, form, and function. New York Times contributor Mitchell Ownes claimed that "Coelho takes an infectious, gung-ho approach to low budget decors" that is "frolicsome, rather than egotistical," and a Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that in the book's "200 full-color photos, rooms move and change taking on new character, as do outdoor areas and entrances. And it all looks like fun." In Susie Coelho's Styling for Entertaining: Twelve One-Day Makeovers in Eight Easy Steps, the author provides advice for creating what her Web site described as "settings for casual entertaining or extraordinary parties—with minimum effort to maximum effect." In addition to her work for television, Coelho regularly contributes to lifestyle, home, and garden magazines and Internet sites.