Rachel Riley
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Rachel Annabelle Riley
Born 11 January 1986 (1986-01-11) (age 24)
Paddington, London
Nationality British
Alma mater Oriel College, Oxford
Occupation Television presenter
Rachel Annabelle Riley[1] (born 11 January 1986 in Paddington, London) is an English television presenter. Since 12 January 2009 she has been the co-host of Countdown. She replaced Carol Vorderman (whose twenty-six years on Countdown began just over three years before Riley was born) from the 60th series onwards. Jeff Stelling is the chief presenter and Riley does the letters and numbers.[2]
[edit] Early life and career
Riley was educated at Southend High School for Girls, and went on to study mathematics at Oriel College, Oxford, gaining an upper second-class honours degree.[3]
After graduating she began work as a data analyst for a website company in London. She was encouraged to apply for the Countdown position by her mother, a charity fundraiser married to a City auditor, and also by her boyfriend's 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.[4] Riley was chosen from more than a thousand applicants despite having no television experience. In an article for the BBC news, she stated, "There's only one cool maths job around and I was lucky enough to get it so I'm absolutely thrilled".[5] 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 been criticised by some of Countdown's viewers for getting some of the maths puzzles wrong.
On 26 June 2009 it was reported that Riley had been recruited by the Post Office 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 budget.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Riley
And with that out of the way, 'Here... We... Go!'
Unsurprisingly, it's hard to find pics of her that aren't HD and enormous
PS. OK, my apologies if some of the pics aren't showing, one minute they are, then they aren't
