Rachel Annabelle Riley is a British 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. She was also a contestant on the BBC celebrity dance show Strictly Come Dancing in 2013.
About Rachel Riley in brief
Rachel Annabelle Riley is a British 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. She was also a contestant on the BBC celebrity dance show Strictly Come Dancing in 2013. Riley was raised in the Thorpe Bay area of Southend-on-Sea and was educated at the independent Thorpe Hall School. She then completed undergraduate studies in mathematics at Oriel College, Oxford. Riley’s television debut came in January 2009, when at the age of 22 she joined the letters and numbers game show Countdown. On 11 January 2019, Riley celebrated ten 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. Since it was first broadcast on 2 January 2012, Riley has also performed her Countdown role on the comedy crossoverspin-off version, 8 Out Of 10 Cats does Countdown, alongside comedian Jimmy Carr as host. She has since co-presented The Gadget Show on Channel 5 and It’s Not Rocket Science on ITV. Riley appeared in the eleventh series of the BBC ballroom dancing programme One One One Come Dancing with professional dancing partner Pasha Kovalev in November 2013, losing out in the 6th week of the series.
For the first five weeks of the show, Riley suffered from stage fright, commenting that the music would have a fuzzy brain and it was like an out-of-body experience. She went to a cognitive therapist so that she was able to control her breathing and went on to win the series on 6 November 2013. She identifies as Jewish, saying: \”My family came over in the pogroms.\’ 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 was in place for the new series beginning in January2009. Riley replaced the long-serving Carol Vorderman. She later branched out into other roles, co- presenting 8 out of 10 cats Does Countdown and The Gadget show. In 2014, she said, ‘I’d love to present a popular science programme because it’s something I feel very passionate about’
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