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Rachel Riley

From Countdown
Revision as of 16:26, 13 May 2011 by Mglovesfun (talk | contribs) (Criticism: if you're gonna write a load of waffle, at least spell it right)
Arithmetician
First appearance 12 January 2009
Last appearance Still going
Appearances 500 (as of 24 March 2011)
Episodes with Rachel Riley
Rachel Riley. Publicity photo taken on the old striped set, which was replaced with the blue one on her debut.

Rachel Annabelle Riley, born January 11, 1986 in Paddington, London, is a hostess on Countdown. She took over from Carol Vorderman at the start of Championship of Champions XIII in January 2009, prior to Series 60.

Born in Southend, Rachel graduated with an upper second class Master's Degree in Mathematics from Oriel College, Oxford, the Alma mater of such people as Jon Bentley and Sir Walter Raleigh. She was chosen from around 1,000 applicants when it was decided to cast a previously unknown arithmetician to replace Carol Vorderman. Countdown is her first television experience.

Her role is to put the letters and numbers up on the board, and also to work out any numbers solutions not solved by the contestants.

Before Countdown

She was born on 11 January 1986, approximately 3 years and 3 months after the show was first broadcast (during the time of Series 8). She was brought up in Essex and attended Southend High School for Girls. She attended Oriel College at Oxford University where she received an upper second-class honours degree in mathematics. After graduation she started work as a data analyst for a London web design company.

Rise to fame

Rachel was chosen from a large pool of over 1,000 applicants for the job of hostess. The first stage was writing a 50-word paragraph on why she wanted the job, which according to an interview of August 2009 was centred mainly on her interest in the numbers game, and starting with 'I am one from the top'. The second part of the auditioning process was reportedly a screen test. She bought a short purple dress and recorded the clock music on her phone so she could practise. The news that she had passed came a few days later.

Outside Countdown

Rachel Riley before the start of the final of COC13

Outside Countdown she has been known to have presented at least one other television show, as in October 2010 she presented a tour of the Manchester United Carrington training ground on MUTV, as she is a keen supporter of Manchester United. She has reportedly been watching games at Old Trafford since the age of 10. In 2009 she was rated 95th on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll.

Relationship with James Gilbert

Rachel met James when they were studying together at Oriel College. They were dating four roughly four-and-a-half years before they split for nine months between December 2009 and August 2010. James proposed to her on her 25th birthday (11th January 2011) and her engagement was announced on the February 14th 2011 show.

See also