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Rachel Riley

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This article is about the British television presenter. For the American reality show contestant, see Rachel Reilly. For the Canadian artistic gymnast, see Rachael Riley.

Rachel Riley
MBE
Riley in 2011
Born
Rachel Annabelle Riley

(1986-01-11) 11 January 1986 (age 38)
Rochford, England
EducationOriel College, Oxford (MA)
OccupationTelevision presenter
Years active2009–present
Employer(s)Channel 4, Sky Sports
Spouses
Jamie Gilbert
​
​
(m. 2012; div. 2013)​
​
(m. 2019)​
Children2

Rachel Annabelle Riley MBE (born 11 January 1986) is an English television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show Countdown and its comedy spin-off 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. She is 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.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to Holocaust education and antisemitism awareness.[1][2]

Early life and early career

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Riley was born in Rochford.[3][4] Her mother is Jewish, and she has stated that her "family came over in the pogroms" from Tsarist Russia.[5] 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,[6] a grammar school, where she passed four A-Levels at grade A, after which she obtained a second-class degree in applied maths at Oriel College, Oxford.[7][8]

During a university holiday, 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: she found the extreme behaviour of City traders wearing, and she disliked the early-morning train commute.[9]

Television career

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Countdown

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On Countdown, Riley replaced the long-serving Carol Vorderman. Like Vorderman, Riley's role is to place tiles on the board for the letters and numbers rounds and to find a solution in the numbers rounds if the contestants are unable to do so.[10] 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 January 2009.[10] 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."[10] Since its 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.[11][12][13]

Strictly Come Dancing

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From September 2013, Riley appeared in the eleventh series of the BBC One ballroom dancing programme Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancing partner and future husband Pasha Kovalev. She was eliminated in week six of the show, on 3 November 2013, after losing out in the dance-off against Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Škorjanec, who went on to win the series. According to Riley, she lacked a natural talent for performing, so instead sought to frame each dance as that of a character.[9] For the first five weeks, Riley suffered from stage fright, commenting, "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.[14]

Other work

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From 2013 to 2014, Riley co-presented the Channel 5 programme The Gadget Show with Jason Bradbury.[15] She worked on three series of the show and was later replaced by Amy Williams.[16] 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.[17] In August 2016, it was announced that Riley had joined 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.[18] She left Friday Night Football in 2017.[19]

Personal life

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In August 2012, Riley married Jamie Gilbert, whom she had met while they were both studying at the University of Oxford. It was announced in November 2013 that they were separating.[20] The split has been cited as an example of the Strictly curse.[21] She began dating her Strictly dance partner, Pasha Kovalev, soon after the show ended in December 2013. On 28 June 2019,[22] Riley and Kovalev married in Las Vegas.[23] On 15 December 2019, Riley gave birth to a girl, the couple's first child.[24] On 5 November 2021, Riley gave birth to their second daughter.[25]

Riley is a keen supporter of Manchester United, like her father, who was originally from Salford;[26][27] in October 2010, Riley presented a programme on the club's television channel MUTV which featured 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.[27][28] 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.[29][30]

In 2017, Riley was the co-winner with Idris Elba of the Rear of the Year award.[31] She and her husband became vegan in 2018.[32][33] She is an atheist who identifies as Jewish through her mother.[5][34]

Politics

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In 2018, Riley began a campaign against the way the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn had handled allegations of antisemitism. She said she decided to speak out after seeing "Israel is a racist endeavour" posters on London bus stops.[5][35][36] In September 2018, after criticising Corbyn over the ongoing antisemitism allegations, she stated she did not have "any party loyalties".[37]

In February 2019, according to The Times and i, Riley had been involved in talks to set up a centrist breakaway party from Labour.[38][39] According to Jewish News in April 2019, Riley backed the Stop Funding Fake News campaign.[40] In November 2019, Riley posted an image on Twitter of herself wearing a shirt with an edited image of Corbyn carrying a sign bearing the caption "Jeremy Corbyn is a racist endeavour". The tweet was condemned by some for erasing the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa, the original subject of the sign, to make a political point, with some users calling for Riley to be fired.[41] The professional photographer who took the original shot, Rob Scott, also declared his displeasure, claiming she had "illegally manipulated and printed" the picture to "cynically promote her agenda", adding: "I am appalled by the abuse of property, moral rights and change of anti-racist message to anti-Corbyn one."[42][43]

In February 2019, Riley and fellow campaigner Tracy-Ann Oberman instructed a lawyer to take action against 70 individuals who had posted tweets which Riley and Oberman regarded as either libellous or harassment.[44] As a result, Riley and Oberman sued one person who had retweeted a link to an article which had accused Oberman and Riley of harassing a young Labour activist who had commented on antisemitism in the Labour Party. In May 2019, a High Court judge ruled that the article that was linked in the tweet was defamatory. In July 2020, Riley and Oberman dropped their joint libel suit and contributed towards the defendant's legal costs.[45][46]

In 2021, Riley was awarded £10,000 damages by a High Court judge after suing Laura Murray, then an aide of Corbyn, over comments made on Twitter that included "This woman [Riley] is as dangerous as she is stupid."[47] On 16 November 2022, Riley was awarded £50,000 in damages after a libel action against Michael Sivier, a blogger who had accused Riley of abusing a teenager during a 2019 Twitter discussion. Sivier had previously been found liable for three of the four claims against him before the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ordered a review of the exclusion of a public interest defense. The High Court's subsequent decision reaffirmed the judgment against Sivier and the damages awarded to Riley.[48][49]

Riley was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to Holocaust education and antisemitism awareness.[1][2]

In March 2024, Riley appeared on a panel the Swipe-Up Rise-Up conference to call on Jewish students to "be courageous" in calling out antisemitism.[50]

In April 2024, during the Israel–Hamas war, Riley accused Apple of antisemitism when an iPhone update displayed the Palestinian flag as a suggested emoji when users type in the word "Jerusalem".[51] After the 2024 Bondi Junction stabbings, and before the facts of the incident emerged, Riley linked the attack to support for Palestine and the "global intifada", stating: "If you want to know what 'globalise the intifada' looks like, see the Sydney mall."[52] The post was "heavily accused of perpetuating Islamophobia", and there were calls for Channel 4 to terminate her employment.[52] Riley subsequently deleted her post and said she was "sorry if this message was misunderstood". Riley stated that her comments were not meant to imply a link to Islamic extremism.[53] The perpetrator was later identified as Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old mentally ill man from Toowoomba.[54][55][56] Channel 4 stated: "We have reminded Rachel of her obligations as a contributor to Channel 4 programming."[52]

Other work

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Riley has visited schools to enthuse pupils on the "joys of applied maths, quantum mechanics and time travel and so on".[9][14] In June 2019, Riley was criticised by environmental groups and accused of greenwashing for her promotion of the "future energy solutions" of Shell, an oil and gas company.[57] She participated in an April 2022 study by Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that Instagram failed to act on 90% of abusive direct messages sent to high-profile women.[58][59] In October 2021, Riley published her first book, At Sixes and Sevens: How to Understand Numbers and Make Maths Easy.[60]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Channel Role Notes
2009–present Countdown Channel 4 Co-presenter With Jeff Stelling (2009–2011), Nick Hewer (2012–2021), Anne Robinson (2021–2022) and Colin Murray (2022–present)
2010 The IT Crowd Herself Cameo as herself on Countdown
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
2019 Celebrity Countdown More4 Co-presenter With Nick Hewer

Guest appearances

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She has also made brief appearances in Dispatches, Britain's Brightest and 1001 Things You Should Know.

Recognition

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N23.
  2. ^ a b Stedman, Harry (11 July 2023). "Rachel Riley to receive royal honour for Holocaust and antisemitism awareness". The Independent. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  3. ^ Worsdale, Jim (27 July 2011). "I really love Countdown... trust me, it is not being axed". www.echo-news.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  4. ^ Geoghegan, John (5 August 2009). "Campaign can count on Rachel Riley's support". The Echo. Archived from the original on 1 September 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Sylvester, Rachel; Thomson, Alice (26 January 2019). "Rachel Riley of Countdown finds her Jewish roots to take on the Corbynistas". The Times. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  6. ^ "More Success for Rachel Riley". Thorpe Hall School. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Rachel Riley - Biography". Hello!. 8 October 2013. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  8. ^ Lewis, Tim (12 October 2014). "Rachel Riley: 'Stop saying that girls aren't as good at maths'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Woods, Judith (18 June 2014). "Rachel Riley: 'Strictly magnified the fault lines in my marriage'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. ^ a b c "Sky host Stelling joins Countdown". BBC News. 21 November 2008. Archived from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  11. ^ Williams, Mike P. (12 February 2018). "Rachel Riley says edited out 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown jokes would 'end careers'". Yahoo News. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  12. ^ McVay, Ben (20 June 2019). "Countdown co-host Rachel Riley brands Derbyshire borough councillor a 'holocaust revisionist' in Twitter row". Derbyshire Times. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  13. ^ Bray, Abbie (19 March 2020). "Countdown axes studio audience for first time in 38 years as production continues despite coronavirus outbreak". Metro. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  14. ^ a b Jarvis, Alice Azania (7 March 2015). "Rachel Riley returns to the dancefloor". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  15. ^ "The Gadget Show | Meet The Gadget Show's new presenter: Rachel Riley! by The Gadget Show". Channel 5. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  16. ^ "The Gadget Show's new presenter is an Olympic champion!". Channel 5. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014.
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  22. ^ "DocDetails". clerk.clarkcountynv.gov. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
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  25. ^ Petter, Olivia (8 November 2021). "Rachel Riley gives birth to daughter and reveals unusual name". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
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  29. ^ Walker-Arnott, Ellie (2 September 2013). "Strictly Come Dancing 2013: Rachel Riley". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  30. ^ "Episode 7, 2011/2012, Celebrity Mastermind – BBC One". BBC. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  31. ^ Kale, Sirin (20 August 2019). "Behind the times? The strange, sad story of rear of the year". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  32. ^ Hall, Tasha (15 June 2023). "Countdown's Rachel Riley was 'ill for 10 years' as she blasts 'useless doctors' for oversight". Daily Record. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  33. ^ Shahid, Sharnaz (16 June 2023). "Rachel Riley shares debilitating struggle after 'being ill for 10 years'". Hello!. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  34. ^ "Rachel Riley: People are grateful I've spoken out about antisemitism". Jewish News. 16 March 2019. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  35. ^ Dimmock, Joel. "The Rachel Riley Twitter row over antisemitism is just another glimpse of Team Corbyn's flawed and fatal logic". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  36. ^ Rachel Riley on combating antisemitism, 10 years on Countdown and getting girls into maths. Channel 4 News. 9 January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2021 – via YouTube.
  37. ^ "Rachel Riley called 'thick' for criticising Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism row". The Telegraph. 12 September 2018. Archived from the original on 10 January 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  38. ^ Devlin, Kate (11 February 2019). "Countdown star Rachel Riley attended breakaway Labour party meeting". The Times. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  39. ^ Clinton, Jane (11 February 2019). "Rachel Riley among backers looking to launch centrist breakaway party from Labour". i. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  40. ^ Frot, Mathilde (3 April 2019). "How a group of friends are fighting fake news – with a hand from Rachel Riley". Jewish News. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  41. ^ Embury-Dennis, Tom (21 November 2019). "Rachel Riley edits out anti-apartheid message in attack on Jeremy Corbyn". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 November 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  42. ^ Speare-Cole, Rebecca (26 November 2019). "Photographer hits out at Rachel Riley for wearing t-shirt with 'illegal' version of his picture of Jeremy Corbyn". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  43. ^ Heffer, Greg (22 November 2019). "Rachel Riley facing calls to be sacked over edited Jeremy Corbyn image". Sky News. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  44. ^ Waterson, Jim (21 February 2019). "Rachel Riley and Tracy Ann Oberman to take legal action after Twitter abuse". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  45. ^ Waterson, Jim (29 July 2020). "Rachel Riley and Tracy-Ann Oberman drop libel claim over retweet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  46. ^ Judah, Jacob (29 July 2020). "Tracy-Ann Oberman and Rachel Riley drop defamation case". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  47. ^ "Rachel Riley wins £10,000 damages over Nazi tweet". BBC News. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  48. ^ "Countdown star Rachel Riley awarded £50,000 damages over blogger's 'wholly unbalanced' article". Yahoo. 16 November 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  49. ^ "Riley v Sivier [2022] EWHC 2891 (KB) (16 November 2022)". Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  50. ^ Ben-David, Daniel. "Be courageous and speak out against hate, Rachel Riley tells Jewish pupils". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  51. ^ "Apple sparks Palestinian flag emoji controversy". 10 April 2024. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  52. ^ a b c Stolworthy, jJacob (15 April 2024). "Rachel Riley says she's 'sorry' if racist post was 'misunderstood'". The Independent.
  53. ^ Lawes, Ruth (14 April 2024). "Channel 4 responds after calls to sack Rachel Riley for 'Islamophobic' remark". Metro. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  54. ^ White, Josefine Ganko, Sarah McPhee, Daniella (14 April 2024). "Bondi Junction stabbing live updates: NSW Police identify Joel Cauchi as attacker; John Singleton's daughter among multiple dead in Sydney's eastern suburbs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 13 April 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  55. ^ "Joel Cauchi was a 'tormented soul' says his tearful father Andrew after Bondi Junction stabbing". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 15 April 2024. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  56. ^ Loftus, Tobi; Black, Jessica (14 April 2024). "Police have identified the Westfield Bondi Junction attacker. Here's what we know". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 14 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  57. ^ Snaith, Emma (28 June 2019). "Rachel Riley accused of 'greenwashing' for promoting oil company Shell". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  58. ^ Sung, Morgan (7 April 2022). "Instagram 'systemically fails' to protect high-profile women from abuse, study finds". NBC News. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  59. ^ Paul, Kari (6 April 2022). "High-profile women on Instagram face 'epidemic of misogynist abuse', study finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  60. ^ Howarth, Alice (29 October 2021). "Rachel Riley shows off baby bump as she announces her new book is out". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  61. ^ "Celebrity Fifteen to One: Series 1 - Episode 4". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014.
  62. ^ "Celebrity Squares". ITV. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
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  65. ^ "Saturday Kitchen". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  66. ^ "Beat The Chasers - Celebrity Special". itv.com/presscentre. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  67. ^ "The Great Pottery Throw Down Christmas special has a release date". prima.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  68. ^ O'Connor, Roisin (31 December 2022). "Rachel Riley awarded MBE in New Year Honours for work combatting antisemitism". The Independent. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  69. ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 30 December 2022. p. N23.
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