Rachel Riley

Rachel Riley
Born	Rachel Annabelle Riley (1986-01-11) 11 January 1986 Rochford, Essex, England, UK[1]
Residence	Thorpe Bay, Southend-on-Sea
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford
Occupation	Television presenter
Spouse(s)	Jamie Gilbert (2012-13)

Rachel Annabelle Riley^[2] (born 11 January 1986^[3]) is an English television presenter. She co-presents Countdown on Channel 4 and The Gadget Show on Channel 5.

In January 2009, she replaced Carol Vorderman as the co-host of Countdown doing the letters and numbers selection and mathematics solutions. She hosts the show alongside Nick Hewer.^[4] Riley has co-presented over 1,000 episodes of Countdown.

She was also a participant in the eleventh series of Strictly Come Dancing, but she was the 5th contestant to be eliminated from the show on 3 November 2013.

Early life

Born in Rochford, Essex,^[5] to an accountant father Christopher ^[6] (who was originally from Salford, Lancashire) ^[7] and his wife Celia, Riley was brought up in the Thorpe Bay area of Southend-on-Sea and was educated at the independent Thorpe Hall School, and Southend High School for Girls, a grammar school, where she obtained four As at A-Level. She then read mathematics at Oriel College, Oxford, gaining an upper second-class honours degree.^[8][9] Before she appeared on Countdown, she did an internship in The City during a university vacation, but did not apparently like the experience,^[10] and after university worked as an analyst for a price-comparison website.^[11]

Television

Countdown

Riley was encouraged to apply for the Countdown position by her mother. She did not have an ambition to be a television presenter, but decided to apply because she was interested in the numbers part of the game.^[12] Riley was chosen from more than a thousand applicants despite having no television experience. In an article for BBC News, she said, "There's only one cool maths job around and I was lucky enough to get it so I'm absolutely thrilled".^[13] She began presenting Countdown alongside Jeff Stelling from 12 January 2009.

In an interview in August 2009 she revealed that it had been difficult for her to step into Vorderman's shoes, and that she had even been criticised by certain Countdown viewers for getting some of the maths puzzles wrong.^[12] Since January 2012, she has presented the programme alongside Nick Hewer, with whom she has reportedly had problems in getting on with,^[14] stating on one occasion that they were "chalk and cheese".^[15] Her 1,000th episode was shown on 25 June 2013, where she was presented with a signed shirt and a bunch of flowers by Manchester United player Ryan Giggs^[16][17] who had celebrated his 1,000th football pitch appearance the same year.

Riley also does the letters and numbers rounds on the 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown series.

The Gadget Show

Since June 2013, Riley has been a presenter on the Channel 5 programme The Gadget Show. She co-hosts the programme with Jason Bradbury.^[18] Her first series (series 19), was shown for nine episodes from 3 June 2013. Her second series (series 20) began on 14 October 2013 and will continue for 22 episodes.

Strictly Come Dancing

From September 2013, Riley appeared in the eleventh series of the BBC One ballroom dancing programme Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancing partner Pasha Kovalev. She was eventually eliminated on 3 November, after losing out in the dance-off against Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Skorjanec.

Guest appearances

• Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (22 March 2009) - Panellist
• This Morning (26 March 2010) - Guest
• 8 Out of 10 Cats (17 June, 12 August, 21 October 2011, 23 March, 11 May, 15 June, 29 October 2012, 1 February 2013) - Panellist
• Celebrity Mastermind (4 January 2012) - Contestant, Manchester United as her chosen topic
• The Bank Job: Celebrity Special (16 March 2012) - Contestant, won £36,000 for charity.
• The Chase: Celebrity Special (19 August 2012) - Contestant, won £22,000 for The Angus Lawson Memorial Trust
• 12 Again (2 November 2012) - Guest
• Pointless Celebrities (17 December 2012) - Contestant, alongside Mark Durden-Smith, Won
• Sunday Brunch (10 February 2013) - Guest
• Five Minutes to a Fortune (21 April 2013) - Contestant, won £18,020 for charity
• Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (9 June 2013) - Contestant, won £2,600 for The Angus Lawson Memorial Trust.
• Top Gear (30 June 2013) - Star in a reasonably priced car
• I Love My Country (31 August 2013) - Panellist
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (4 February 2014) - Contestant, for The Angus Lawson Memorial Trust

She has also made brief appearances in such shows as The IT Crowd, Dispatches, Britain's Brightest and 1001 Things You Should Know.

Other

On 26 June 2009, it was reported that Riley had been recruited by Royal Mail to employ her mathematical skills to help advise holidaymakers on how to make the most of their holiday currency, after a report by the Post Office revealed that a significant number of holidaymakers fail to calculate the actual cost of goods and services when travelling abroad and often overspend their holiday budgets.^[19]

In October 2010, she presented a programme on MUTV featuring a tour of Manchester United's training ground at Carrington. She has also hosted episodes of An Audience with... on MUTV.

Personal life

Riley is a keen supporter of Manchester United.^[16]

Riley describes herself as a "non-religious" Jew and an atheist.^[20]

She met her husband, Jamie Gilbert, while they were both studying at Oxford University. The couple split up at the end of 2009 after four and a half years together.^[21] They later got back together and became engaged after he proposed to her on her 25th birthday on 11 January 2011.^[22] She told viewers about the engagement on the 25 February edition of Countdown and their wedding was on 11 August 2012.^[23] It was announced on 29 November 2013 that she was splitting with her husband after 16 months of marriage.^[24][25][26]

Riley was ranked No. 95 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2009, No. 84 in 2012 and No. 90 in 2013.^[27]

References

External links

• Rachel Riley at the Internet Movie Database
• Holmwood, Leigh (21 November 2008). "New Countdown hosts confirmed". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 22 May 2010. 
• Matthew Moore (21 November 2008). "Oxford maths graduate replaces Carol Vorderman on Countdown". Telegraph.co.uk (London). Retrieved 26 March 2009.