Carol Vorderman Biography

Carol Jean Vorderman, MBE also previously known by her first married name Carol Mather, was born December 24, 1960 in Bedford to a Dutch father and a Welsh mother. A British television personality and sometime author, she is best known for her work on the Channel 4 game show Countdown with the late Richard Whiteley. Vorderman was a new kind of game show hostess, not only looking attractive but revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate mathematical calculations as part of the game (her IQ has been rated at 154). Her continued success on the show saw her become one of the highest paid women in Britain, earning two million pounds a year for her work.

She grew up in Rhyl in North Wales and later graduated from Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree (Third Class honours) after reading Engineering (Cambridge awards BAs in all subjects). Incidentally, third class honours degrees are often referred to as 'Vordermans' by students in the UK. She was also a member of the "Nines club" in Cambridge, this group is named that way because members are ones that achieve a third in each of their three years of study (3+3+3=9). She was awarded an MBE in June 2000. After making her name on Countdown, she went on to present numerous other television programmes, to the point where she was regarded as being over-exposed. She has been criticised for not growing older gracefully, and was mocked for wearing a revealing dress at the BAFTAs in 2000. She presented Tomorrow's World until she was dropped due to appearing in an advertisement for washing powder.

She was once lead singer in the short-lived Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits with radio DJ Liz Kershaw. Carol was Dawn Chorus and Liz was one of the Blue Tits.

She has written books on subjects such as Detox diets and Su Doku.

In 2005, she beat off competition from other celebrities in ITV's Gameshow Marathon series, presented by Ant & Dec - to coincide with celebrations of ITV's 50th anniversary. With the help of her family, she beat Vernon Kay and his family in the final show, a recreation of Family Fortunes.