Rachel Riley

Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is an English television presenter and mathematician. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show Countdown and its comedy spin-off 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. A mathematics graduate, her television debut came when she joined Countdown aged 22.

With an interest in popularising mathematics and the sciences, she has since co-presented The Gadget Show on Channel 5 (2013–14) and It's Not Rocket Science on ITV (2016). She was also a contestant on the BBC celebrity dance show Strictly Come Dancing in 2013.

Early life and early career

Born in Rochford, Essex, Riley was raised 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 studied mathematics at Oriel College, Oxford, gaining an upper second-class honours degree.

During a university vacation, Riley considered a career in the financial sector, and completed an internship at Deutsche Bank in the City of London. The experience put her off; although already familiar with male-dominated environments in the field of mathematics, she found the extreme behaviour of city traders wearing, and not being a "morning person" she also disliked the early morning train commute.

Television career

Riley's television debut came in January 2009, when at the age of 22 she joined the Channel 4 letters and numbers game show Countdown. Riley had received no training for working in television and had no other experience with the media industry, leading to descriptions of her landing this role as a baptism of fire, given its status as a "jewel in the broadcasting crown", according to one media commentator. While occupying the niche role, she long believed she was not a television presenter, but she came to realise that the industry has changed, so that "I don't think there's such a thing as a TV presenter any more. There are just people who go on TV".

In due course, she branched out into other roles, co-presenting 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Gadget Show, although her profile was significantly boosted by her appearance as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, which largely "catapulted [Riley] onto the A-list" and opened up the doors for new television roles, according to another commentator. In 2014, two years before her role on It's Not Rocket Science, she said, "I'd love to present a popular science programme because it's something I feel very passionate about."

Countdown

On Countdown, Riley replaced the long-serving Carol Vorderman. Like Vorderman, Riley's role is to handle the placement of tiles on the board for the letters and numbers rounds and to find an exact solution in the numbers rounds if the contestants are unable to do so.

Riley's appointment to Countdown was announced at the same time as the announcement of a new main host, Jeff Stelling, replacing Des O'Connor; the duo of Stelling and Riley were in place for the new series beginning in January 2009. Although she had no ambition to be a television presenter, she was encouraged to apply by her mother, and decided to do so because she was interested in the numbers part of the game. Having beaten 1,000 applicants for the role, she commented, "There's only one cool maths job around and I was lucky enough to get it so I'm absolutely thrilled".

Riley takes the role of solving the numbers round so seriously that if she cannot solve it on the show, she takes it away with her to finish, commenting "I'm really OCD about it. I have to get it. I like puzzles – that's what I do, that's why I applied for the job, that's why I used to watch Countdown when I was younger. I like solving stuff." She has attributed this compulsion to a nervy and flustered start in the role which resulted in her making some errors, although she says she has since got the hang of it and the task is now a matter of routine. In contrast, on account of her "really immature sense of humour" she has some difficulty in maintaining her composure during the words round whenever rude words appear.

Riley frequently encounters close media and public scrutiny of what she wears on the show, with her wardrobe choices attracting intense social media comment on Twitter and YouTube and even national headlines. Working with a wardrobe consultant, she obtains most of the clothes from High Street stores, although some are purchased from a small boutique near her home in Southend. While trying to please everybody with varied choices, she nonetheless takes a phlegmatic approach to the attention, commenting, "even with the same outfit you'll get polar-opposite views, so you can't win. You’ve just got to learn that you can't please everyone all of the time". The number of episodes means wearing some outfits more than once is inevitable—she donates items she no longer requires to charity, some being auctioned by her mother.

On 11 January 2019, Riley celebrated 10 years of being on Countdown. To mark the occasion she showcased some of the ruder words that she has come across during her time on the show.

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown

Since it was first broadcast on 2 January 2012, Riley has also performed her Countdown role on the comedy crossover spin-off version, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, alongside comedian Jimmy Carr as host. While Countdown is seen as a straight light entertainment show, in explaining the difference between the two, Riley sees Countdown as the role she is happy for her grandmother to see, while Cats Does Countdown is the more risqué, cheeky role which she shows to her friends. Some of the running gags used on the show are made by Carr at Riley's expense, aimed at her lack of dancing ability and a supposed frosty relationship with Vorderman, while in return Riley is often given jokes which mock Carr's supposed desires on herself and his tax avoidance. Due to scheduling conflicts with filming for It's Not Rocket Science, Riley was replaced by Claudia Winkleman for two episodes in series nine (broadcast 3 and 10 March 2016).

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 eliminated in week 6 of the show, on 3 November, after losing out in the dance-off against Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Škorjanec.

According to Riley she lacked a natural talent for performing, so instead sought to frame each dance as that of a character. For the first five weeks, Riley suffered from stage fright, commenting that "As soon as the music would start, I would have a fuzzy brain and it was like an out-of-body experience"; after seeing a cognitive behavioural therapist she was able to control her breathing, and so was only able to truly enjoy the show for what proved to be her final appearance.

The Gadget Show

From 2013 until 2014, Riley co-presented on the Channel 5 programme The Gadget Show with Jason Bradbury. She presented three series of the show and was later replaced by Amy Williams.

It's Not Rocket Science

In 2016, Riley was part of the three-person presenting team for ITV's six-part series, It's Not Rocket Science, billed by the network as an entertainment series celebrating science. Her co-presenters, Ben Miller and Romesh Ranganathan, similarly had a background in science and maths. Explaining the purpose of the show as popularising science and making it seem less intimidating, she said "It's showing that you can't separate the world of science from the world we live in". She added that while her background is in mathematics, "You can't separate them either. Maths is the language of science." A key part of the show was a weekly challenge where one of the presenters "risked their lives" to prove a scientific theory – in Riley's case she cycled on a tightrope and zip-lined through a ring of fire.

Sky Sports

In August 2016, it was announced that Riley would join Sky Sports to present Friday Night Football alongside her former Countdown co-presenter Jeff Stelling and Fantasy Football Club with Max Rushden and Paul Merson. She left Friday Night Football in 2017.

Personal life

Riley describes herself as a "non-religious Jew".

Riley was married for 16 months to Jamie Gilbert, whom she met while they were both studying at the University of Oxford. It was announced in November 2013 that they were separating. The split has been cited as an example of the Strictly curse.

Riley is a keen supporter of Manchester United, like her father (who was originally from Salford, Lancashire). In October 2010, Riley presented a programme on the club's television channel, MUTV, featuring a tour of their Trafford Training Centre in Carrington. She has also hosted episodes of An Audience with... on the channel. To mark her 1,000th episode of Countdown (aired on 25 June 2013), United player Ryan Giggs presented her with a signed team shirt, Giggs himself having celebrated his 1,000th game for the club the same year. In her appearance as a contestant on the BBC quiz show Celebrity Mastermind, broadcast on 4 January 2012, her specialist subject was a limited (13 year) history of the club; she eventually finished in joint second place..

Riley is an activist against antisemitisim. In 2018, Riley publicly criticised Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn regarding allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. She said she had been called "Tory, brainwashed and thick" in response, but stated she did not have "any party loyalties". In January 2019, Riley made a speech at a Westminster reception for the Holocaust Educational Trust and addressed what she described as the "hideous abuse" she had received. In February 2019, Riley and Tracy Ann Oberman instructed a lawyer to take action for libel against 70 individuals regarding abusive tweets related to their campaign.

Other work

Her mathematics background and love of football has seen Riley assist bookmakers in preparing betting odds for football tournaments; based on her analysis she predicted Chile would win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, despite appreciating fans would see it as an unlikely outcome (Chile were ultimately knocked out in the Round of 16).

Riley has visited schools to enthuse pupils on the "joys of applied maths, quantum mechanics and time travel and so on". A blog, written by University of Surrey academic Julia Percival and hosted by The Guardian, which argued that Riley's looks and figure would work against any aim to increase female participation in the sciences, was described by The Daily Telegraph as unfair and a case of Riley being damned if she did and damned if she didn't.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Channel	Role	Notes
2009–present	Countdown	Channel 4	Co-presenter	With Jeff Stelling (2009–2011) and Nick Hewer (2012–present)
2012–present	8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown		Co-presenter	With Jimmy Carr
2013–2014	The Gadget Show	Channel 5	Co-presenter	With Jason Bradbury
2013	Strictly Come Dancing	BBC One	Participant	5th celebrity to be eliminated
2014	Memory Slam	Watch	Presenter
2016	It's Not Rocket Science	ITV	Co-presenter	With Ben Miller and Romesh Ranganathan
2016–2017	Friday Night Football	Sky Sports	Co-presenter	With Jeff Stelling
	Fantasy Football Club		Co-presenter	With Max Rushden and Paul Merson

Guest appearances

• Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (22 March 2009)
• This Morning (26 March 2010)
• 8 Out of 10 Cats (17 June 2011, 12 August 2011, 21 October 2011, 23 March 2012, 11 May 2012, 15 June 2012, 29 October 2012, 1 February 2013)
• Celebrity Mastermind (4 January 2012)
• The Bank Job: Celebrity Special (16 March 2012)
• The Chase: Celebrity Special (19 August 2012, 8 June 2018)
• 12 Again (2 November 2012)
• Pointless Celebrities (17 December 2012)
• Sunday Brunch (10 February 2013)
• Five Minutes to a Fortune (21 April 2013)
• Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (9 June 2013)
• Top Gear (30 June 2013)
• I Love My Country (31 August 2013)
• Sweat the Small Stuff (12 November 2013)
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (4 February 2014)
• The Guess List (24 May 2014)
• Backchat (3 June 2014)
• TV OD (19 June 2014)
• Celebrity Fifteen to One (27 June 2014)
• Virtually Famous (21 July 2014)
• Celebrity Squares (8 October 2014)
• Text Santa (19 December 2014)
• Would I Lie to You? (22 December 2014)
• Room 101 (18 February 2015)
• Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit (26 September 2016)
• Saturday Kitchen (3 December 2016)
• Play to the Whistle (28 February 2017)
• Through the Keyhole (3 February 2018)
• The Crystal Maze (22 June 2018)

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

External links

Wikiquote: Rachel Riley – Zitate

• Vorlage:IMDb name
• Leigh Holmwood: New Countdown hosts confirmed In: The Guardian, 21 November 2008. Abgerufen im 22 May 2010 
• Matthew Moore: Oxford maths graduate replaces Carol Vorderman on Countdown In: Telegraph.co.uk, 21 November 2008. Abgerufen im 26 March 2009