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Lou Santiago is known best for his two years as the Host of MuscleCar during the Power Block segment on SPIKE. Lou was the colorful host teaching millions how to custom build some of the best Muscle Cars on the planet. Many consider Lou one of the top five Muscle Car builders in the United States.
Lou has traveled the world and has worked on and built just about everything in between, from Muscle Cars to Earth Movers. There isn't anywhere that Lou can hide without car fans knowing who he is.
Lou was born in the Bronx. His mother was an aspiring school teacher and inspired Lou to fulfill his desire for a college education. His father, a hardcore iron worker, taught him to work hard and helped to fuel his inner fabricator at a young age.
His parents and two siblings later moved to Hempstead, Long Island hoping to achieve the American dream of suburbia. In Long Island, he graduated from Uniondale High School where he attended two-year trade program in diesel mechanics with the Board of Cooperative Education Services, better known as "B.O.C.E.S."
While B.O.C.E.S. only added to his knowledge of car building, Lou had already begun his lust for car building at the tender age of 13 with his longtime friend and MOPAR fanatic, Wayne Swanson. Their love for street racing with Wayne's 68' Dart with a 340 and later 383 with a 4-speed involved budget car building and creative fabrication at its best. Lou joined the United States Navy in 1981 where he lead a colorful career as a Seabee mechanic and traveled extensively. He spent many of his years supporting the U.S. Navy Seal Teams. Lou found himself consistently in harms way. Lou's Navy career only increased his desire for building really cool cars. His work required that he maintain heavy equipment and when overseas with parts sparse, the need for creative fabrication he became invaluable for the safety of his Navy Seal Team.
After retiring, he attended Central Piedmont Community College earning an associate's degree in Human Behavior and began working as a Behavior Management Technician at a school for children who had behavior challenges. To supplement his income, he began to teach himself how to build transmissions, brackets, roll cages and chassis.
Lou's passion for car building again took the forefront in his life when Lou landed a job in 2006 on Spike TV's Muscle Car. His time spent on MuscleCar only proved to the world that his love for his art was limitless. He spent many hours of blood, sweat and tears in front of the camera showing the viewers the "How To's" of car building. Lou hosted a total of 44 episodes of MuscleCar.
Since the show, Lou has been working on his shop and building unique one of a kind cars for a host of celebrity clientèle. Since picking up CMM to manage his career, they have been working on putting Lou back on television. Lou's manager Ryan Johnston signed him to a new show titled Ultimate Car Build Off on Discovery Channel. In Ultimate Car Build-Off, top auto shops in LA, Detroit and Atlanta competed for a chance at glory and a $100,000 grand prize. Each week the teams transformed trucks into tanks and Firebirds into fliers in an attempt to make it to the finals and win the cash. Lou Santiago hosted alongside Andrew Comrie-Picard ("ACP") and legendary designer Chip Foose as the judge.
Lou is great with his fans. He is always willing to sign an autograph or take a picture whether he is taking a stroll through the park with his family in North Carolina, or eating at a restaurant for business in Los Angeles. He is always asked car building question of what products to best utilize on their build at home, and how to do it. Lou is great with children and is a great educator to all demographics.
Lou has worked with most every model car since the 30's and has extensive knowledge on heavy equipment due to his experience in the Navy. Lou has extensive knowledge of Theory, Stationary Power Plants, Hydraulics, and Electrical systems. Lou's knowledge is vast and diversified which makes him a great addition to any television production.
