Kia Steave-Dickerson

Steave-Dickerson's early designs focused on window decorations and fabrics.[1] After graduating from college, she worked in retail for several years (including at Maen Line Fabrics). After her father's death, Steave-Dickerson used her inheritance to found the design company K.I.A. Enterprises (also known as K.I.A. Design and Construction and K.I.A. Design & Construction Enterprises).[2][3][4] The company expanded across the United States[3] and does work in interior and theatrical design and construction.[4] Critics have called Steave-Dickerson's approach simplistic yet bold.[1] According to Jennifer Baldino Bonett of the Philadelphia Business Journal, Steave-Dickerson relied on furniture and fabrics made in Philadelphia for her company's projects. In 1998 and 2003, she received awards from minority businesses in the city for her contributions.[2]

She began her career as a set designer and property master in 1993,[5] working on Men in Black (1997), Beloved (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002).[1] A property master's assistant for Beloved, Steave-Dickerson forged a slave collar for the film. As part of the production, the props crew looked for real items used during slavery in the United States to preserve historical accuracy. Steave-Dickerson kept the collar as a reminder of "black women back then and the strength they needed to persevere".[6] She also helped design commercials for Chrysler, Bisquick, and Betty Crocker, as well as for musical-theatre productions such as Grease and Cats.[1][2] Steave-Dickerson was a set decorator for the 1998 crime drama film, Gunshy,[7] and a scenic artist for the 1998 comedy-drama film Wide Awake.[2] She was an assistant property master for the 2000 films Animal Factory and Unbreakable;[2][8] the former was her third time working with Indian American film director M. Night Shyamalan.[1][2] In Unbreakable, Steave-Dickerson appeared as an extra. Shyamalan praised her designs, calling her "the funk diva".[2]

In 2002, Steave-Dickerson first appeared on the American reality television series Trading Spaces as an interior designer;[3] she was added to the program around the same time as fellow designer Edward Walker.[9] She appeared on the show from 2002 to 2004 as part of a rotating cast of designers.[10] Calling herself a "theme queen", Steave-Dickerson based a room makeover on an idea around which she accessorized.[1] The Chicago Tribune's Pamela Sherrod wrote that Steave-Dickerson had a "flair for the dramatic".[11] Steave-Dickerson appeared twice on the show's spin-off, Trading Spaces: Family, and in The Best of Trading Spaces special in 2005.[12] According to E! Online, she left the series voluntarily.[13] In addition to Trading Spaces, she participated in the game show Pyramid in 2004.[12]

Steave-Dickerson's appearances on Trading Spaces were criticized.[9][14] Kim Reed of Today disliked her work on the series, saying that a bedroom decorated with AstroTurf and artificial foliage resembled a graveyard. Reed called Steave-Dickerson "another homeowner nightmare" similar to two of the show's other designers (Douglas Wilson and Hildi Santo-Tomas), and encouraged its producers to remove her from the series.[9] Carpenter Ty Pennington did not give an opinion of the designer when he was asked about the show's cast.[14]

After Trading Spaces, Steave-Dickerson hosted the short-lived American reality television series Renovate My Place.[3] Airing from 2005 to 2006, it focused on helping African-American homeowners with renovations.[15][16] Apart from these appearances, Steave-Dickerson has largely avoided television work to focus on her career as a property master.[13]

In 2007, she gave birth to a son and took a seven-year hiatus from her career; although she was approached to help with the props for 30 Rock, she refused the offer to raise her child.[13] On October 8, 2009, Steave-Dickerson received the NBMBAA-Wells Fargo Entrepreneur Excellence Award. As part of the award, K.I.A. Design and Construction Enterprises was given $5,000.[4] Steave-Dickerson returned to work on the 2015 film Creed, and was an assistant property master for the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.[13]

In addition to her career as a property master and designer, she has established transitional housing to help people with drug and alcohol addiction and victims of domestic abuse.[4] Steave-Dickerson founded the West Philadelphia-based WEK House in 1997.[2]