Background and career
Laurence Roderick Llewelyn-Bowen (born 11 March 1965) is an English interior designer and television personality best known for appearing on the BBC programme Changing Rooms.
He is sometimes credited as "Laurence Llewellyn", and the components of his name are sometimes misspelled as "Lawrence". On Changing Rooms, he is occasionally jocularly styled "Lord Laurence", a play on Laurence Olivier and Llewellyn-Bowen's flamboyance.
Laurence Roderick Bowen was born in 1965 in Kensington, London, to parents Trefor Llewellyn Bowen and Patricia (née Wilks). His father, an orthopaedic surgeon at Harley Street and, under the NHS, at St James' Hospital, Balham, South London, died of leukaemia in 1974, aged 42, when Laurence was nine. He went to primary school at Julians, in Leigham Court Road, Streatham, where his favourite subject was art, especially needlework. His mother, a teacher, died in 2002. He is of Welsh descent. According to his website, Llewelyn-Bowen was educated at Alleyn's School in Dulwich and later graduated from the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (which became a constituent college of the University of the Arts London) in 1986 with an unspecified Fine Art degree.
After graduating, Llewelyn-Bowen worked for the Harefield Group of Companies and the interior design firm Peter Leonard Associates. In 1989 he started his own design consultancy.
Llewelyn-Bowen presented the BBC and Channel 4 television series Changing Rooms. On 14 April 2009 he presented a documentary on BBC One in the West region in which he went In Search of England's Green & Pleasant Land. The programme explored the threats to the rural way of life from urban creep and the loss of local services. A study of Llewelyn-Bowen's family tree featured in the BBC One show Who Do You Think You Are?, which was first aired on 29 September 2008. It showed that Llewelyn-Bowen's mother's family had a seafaring history. Between 2009 and 2011 Llewelyn-Bowen appeared on every episode of the ITV show House Gift. Llewelyn-Bowen appeared as a judge on the 2010 series of the ITV reality talent show Popstar to Operastar as a critic alongside Meat Loaf, and classically trained mentors Katherine Jenkins and Rolando Villazón. The series was hosted by Myleene Klass and Alan Titchmarsh. Between 2010 and 2011, Llewelyn-Bowen presented the daytime ITV show Auction Party. Llewelyn-Bowen appeared as a judge on the series of the reality show The Apartment from 2012 to 2019. The BBC One series, Hidden Houses of Wales, featured Llewelyn-Bowen as tour guide of historical houses throughout Wales. The programme premiered on 4 January 2010 and ran for two series. The series was licensed to streaming service, Netflix, in the U.S. and rebranded as Hidden Houses, premiering on the service on 31 December 2016. He features frequently in the BBC programme, DIY SOS: The Big Build as a designer. In 2017, he joined Australia's Seven Network reality renovation series House Rules as a new judge. In 2024, Llewelyn-Bowen presented the four-part series titled Outrageous Homes with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. In 2025, Llewelyn-Bowen was a contestant on Netflix's reality competition television series, Celebrity Bear Hunt.
Llewelyn-Bowen participated in the first series of the ITV entertainment series Stepping Out with his wife, Jackie. They were eliminated on 21 September 2013, claiming third place. Note: In Week 4, The week's challenge was for each celebrity to dance with someone else's partner in the "Wife Swap" challenge. Llewelyn-Bowen danced once with Jackie and the second time with Oritsé Williams' partner AJ Azari.
