- Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American news anchor, commentator and radio sportscaster. He currently hosts "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC, an hour-long nightly newscast that reviews the top news stories of the day along with political commentary by Olbermann. He also appears on "The Dan Patrick Show" on ESPN radio during the 2-3 PM EST hour. - Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman MBE (born 24 December 1960 in Bedford) is an English television personality and mathematician best known for being a long-standing co-presenter of Channel 4 game show "Countdown". She was awarded an MBE in June 2000. - Des O'Connor
Desmond Bernard O'Connor (born January 12, 1932) is a veteran English television personality and singer. - William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was the stage name of Australian singer born Johnny Cabe (also known as John Cave). He had two big Australian hits: "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" in 1974 and " My Little Angel", which made number one on the Australian charts in 1975 for 3 weeks. In 1974, in the planning stages for the ABC TV Series Countdown, it was suggested that William Shakespeare host the show. - Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley, OBE, DL (28 December 1943 - 26 June 2005) was an English television presenter and journalist. He was most famous for his 23-year stint as presenter of "Countdown", a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast daily on Channel 4. An edition of "Countdown" was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel, discounting a programme montage. - Sean McKeever
Sean Kelley McKeever (born 1972) is an American comic book writer born in Appleton, Wisconsin. Since the end of his creator-owned teen drama series "The Waiting Place", which was published from 1997 to 2002, he has written several series for Marvel Comics, including "The Incredible Hulk", "Sentinel", "Mary Jane", "Inhumans" and "Gravity". In 2005, he won an Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition. - Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman (born May 18, 1949 in Perivale, London) is an English keyboard player best known as the keyboardist for progressive rock group Yes. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards and in the use of a rock band in combination with orchestra and choir. He is now a popular member of the Planet Rock (radio station) family and is regularly on air. - Des Lynam
Desmond Michael Lynam (born 17 September, 1942) is an Irish-born British sports presenter and game show host on British television and radio, born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. He is one of the best known sports broadcasters in the United Kingdom, having hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years. He has presented the popular shows, "Grandstand", "Match of the Day", "Holiday", "How Do They Do That?" and "Countdown". - Susie Dent
Susie Dent is an English lexicographer, best known as the resident expert and adjudicator on Channel 4’s long-running game show "Countdown". Dent studied Modern Languages at the University of Oxford and German at Princeton University, USA, after which she worked as a language teacher in the United States and for a German publisher before going to work for the Oxford University Press (OUP). - Monica Novotny
Monica Novotny joined MSNBC after four years working at the Channel One network as a reporter and anchor, where her work was seen daily by some 8 million teenagers and their teachers. Novotny joined MSNBC as an Internet reporter for "HomePage". She is now a reporter and anchor with the network. She has covered major stories both in the U.S. and internationally, including the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the conflict in Kosovo, … - Alan Carr
Alan Carr (born 14 June, 1976) is an openly gay English stand-up comedian and TV presenter, renowned for his camp demeanour and saucy innuendo-based jokes. He won the New Comedian Of The Year Award at the 2001 BBC New Comedy Awards and in 2005 was named Best Stand up comedian in the North West at the North West Comedy Awards. He has also featured in three Edinburgh shows and appeared at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, Yet more recently, Latitude Festival, in Suffolk. - Amy Robach
Amy Robach (born 1973 in Michigan) is an anchor at MSNBC. She joined the network in 2003 from WTTG-TV in Washington D.C.. In addition to her hosting duties as the 9am ET. anchor for MSNBC Live, Robach fills in as host of Weekend Today and is an alternating News Anchor on NBC News's "Weekend Today" and Weekend Nightly News. - Ben Mikaelsen
Ben Mikaelsen (b. 1952, Bolivia) is a writer of children's literature. Mikaelsen grew up in Bolivia where he was teased and bullied because of his skin color; later he and his parents moved to the United States. He had difficulty in school, especially as his first language was Spanish. In college, he was encouraged to write, despite his difficulties with spelling and grammar, by a professor who recognized his story-telling gifts. Mikaelsen started writing full time in 1984. - Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English musical theatre lyricist, author, radio presenter, television gameshow panelist. - Linda Smith
Linda Smith (29 January 1958-27 February 2006) was a British stand-up comic and comedy writer. She was born in Erith, south-east London, but had no particular fondness for her home town, once joking, "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham". - Armand Jammot
Armand Jammot was a French television producer. He produced a number of shows, most notably "Les Dossiers de l'Écran", and in 1965, he created "Des chiffres et des lettres". In 1982, Yorkshire Television was given permission to produce "Countdown", a British version of "Des chiffres et des lettres". This show continues to the present day. - Ben Wilson
Ben Wilson (born 22 March 1983) is the 46th Champion of Countdown and an ABSP rated British Scrabble Player. - John Burns
John Burns (sometimes John M. Burns) is a British comics artist, with a career stretching back to the mid-1960's. - Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British Conservative Party politician. She is the Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald and a Privy Counsellor. She is a prominent member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and an outspoken supporter of traditional family values. The daughter of a senior Ministry of Defence Civil Servant, she attended a Convent School in Bath, read Latin at Birmingham University and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, … - Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth (born March 8 1948 at a British Forces Hospital in Germany) is a celebrity, author and former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. - Gloria Hunniford
Gloria Hunniford (born 10 April 1940, Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland) is TV and radio presenter, and the mother of the late Caron Keating. - Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh (born 1956 in Calcutta), is an Indian-Bengali author known for his work in the English language. He was educated at the Doon School (where he was a younger contemporary of Vikram Seth), St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Delhi University and Oxford University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in social anthropology. Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker, author of "In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding" (1993) and a senior editor at Little, … - Shawn Desman
Shawn Desman (born Shawn Bosco Fernandes on 12 January 1982 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian R&B singer of Portuguese descent. According to his own account, in his youth his friends referred to him as "Dez, man" - thus creating his artistic pseudonym Desman. His self-titled breakthrough album in 2002 featured three top ten singles ("Shook", "Spread My Wings" and "Get Ready") on the Canadian charts. - Paul Burrell
Paul Burrell, RVM (born June 6 1958, Grassmoor, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire) was the footman for Queen Elizabeth II and then butler for Diana, Princess of Wales. He was tried for theft in 2002 but the trial collapsed after evidence was given that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken with him regarding the disputed events. - Richard Digance
Richard Digance (born 24 February 1949, in Plaistow, East London) is a comedian and folk singer. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Reid Kerr College Glasgow, during which time he was inspired by Billy Connolly. In the 1970's he toured The United States, though failing to make much of a name for himself, he ended up a support act for Steve Martin. - Kathryn Apanowicz
Kathryn Apanowicz (born 1960) is a British actress best known for her 1980s television appearances in the BBC soap operas, "Angels" and "EastEnders", where she played the caterer, Magda Czajkowski. She has also had minor roles in "Emmerdale" and "Coronation Street". Before being cast in these shows, Apanowicz had worked in children's programmes for Yorkshire Television with Mark Curry. - Richard Stilgoe
Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe OBE (b. 28 March 1943) is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician. He is noted for clever wordplay as much as for his music. Stilgoe was born in Camberley, Surrey but brought up in Liverpool where he performed at the Cavern Club. He was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset and at Clare College, Cambridge where he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights. - Angela Rippon
Angela Rippon, OBE (born October 12, 1944) is a well-known British television journalist. She is often erroneously stated to have been the first female newsreader on prime-time television news, on BBC2 in 1974 (later presenting the BBC's "Nine O'clock News"). However, Barbara Mandell predates her, having first appeared on the second night of ITV in 1955. However, she was the first female newsreader to hold the job on a regular basis. - Michael Aspel
Michael Terence Aspel, OBE (born 12 January 1933) is an English journalist and television presenter. He has been a high-profile TV personality in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, presenting programmes such as "Crackerjack", "Aspel and Company", "This is Your Life" and "Antiques Roadshow". In 2007 he announced his effective retirement, saying he had no further TV projects planned. Aspel was once married to the actress Elizabeth Power, … - Christie Allen
Christie Allen (born 1954 in England) is a pop singer who had a successful career as a recording artist in her adopted homeland of Australia. She has also been on the Oprah Show. Allen was performing with a band in Perth when she came to the attention of songwriter and record producer Terry Britten after virtually knocking on his door according to a Christie interview on Sounds. - Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE (born 23 March 1935 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England) was educated in Leeds Grammar School and is a writer and comedian. He started at the Windmill Theatre in London, a club which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows. Cryer has written for a long list of people, including: :Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, … - Keith Barron
Keith Barron (born August 8 1936) is a British actor, well-known from several roles on British television from the 1960s to the present day. Born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, his major breakthrough was as Nigel Barton, an avatar of the writer Dennis Potter in his plays "Stand Up, Nigel Barton" and "Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton" in BBC1's "The Wednesday Play" anthology strand. - Mark Nyman
Mark Nyman (born 14 October 1967) is a Scrabble player from Leeds, England. As of July 2005, he is rated as the second-best player in the UK. He is most widely known as the first, and to date only, British player to win the World Scrabble Championship, which he accomplished in 1993. He married in 2004 and has two children, Max and Kizzy. Nyman played Canadian Joel Wapnick in the 1993 WSC final, in which he came back from 2-1 behind to win 3-2, … - Wendi Peters
Wendi Louise Peters (born February 29, 1968 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English actress who is best known for playing the infamous Cilla in the hit TV soap opera "Coronation Street". In 2006, she finished runner-up to Paul Ross in a celebrity edition of the BBC's "Mastermind". Wendi has also played character 'Podger' Pam Jolly in the hit ITV series "Bad Girls". She also appeared in ITV's "Soapstar Superstar". - Alan Hawkshaw
Alan Hawkshaw is a composer and performer, particularly of themes for movies and television programmes. He is also the father of dance artist Kirsty Hawkshaw. In the 1960s, he was a member of rock and roll group Emile Ford and the Checkmates. He also formed the Mohawks band with some session musicians. In the 1970s, he played in The Shadows; he worked for Olivia Newton-John, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg as a musical director, … - Nigel Rees
Nigel Rees is a British author and presenter, best known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 long running panel game "Quote... Unquote" (since 1976) and as the author of more than fifty books – reference, humour and fiction. Widely-recognized as host and participant in quizzes and panel games, Nigel has been chairman of TV’s Cabbages and Kings (quotations), Challenge of the South (general knowledge), … - Brad Wilk
Brad Wilk (born September 5, 1968 in Portland, Oregon) is an American drummer, famous for being the drummer in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. - Phil Hammond
Dr Phil Hammond is a medical doctor who has become noted as a comedian and commentator on health issues in the United Kingdom. Although he still works part time as a GP he is best known for his humorous commentary on the National Health Service. He first came into the public spotlight writing a column for "The Independent" newspaper, where he wrote with a strong pro-patient-rights line. - Geoffrey Durham
Geoffrey Durham (born 22 July 1949 in Surrey) is a British comedy magician who was known for many years as "The Great Soprendo". Durham was born in East Molesey, Surrey, England. He presented a magic act as an outrageous Spanish magician for at least 15 years before performing as himself. His catchphrase was "Piff Paff Poof!". As "The Great Soprendo", Durham appeared in many children's TV shows, including "Crackerjack", … - Jan Ravens
Jan Ravens (born May 14, 1958 in Bebington, Wirral) is an English actress and impressionist, famous for her voices on "Spitting Image" and "Dead Ringers". She was the first female President of Cambridge University Footlights Club in 1979-1980. She has also appeared on Just A Minute on Radio 4, and Dictionary Corner on Channel 4's "Countdown", even though "Dead Ringers" parodies that same show.
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