Alex Riley

Alexander John Riley (born 29 March 1968 in Sheffield, Yorkshire) is an English TV and radio presenter. Early life and education Born and brought up in Sheffield, Riley started performing with the city's Crucible Youth Theatre, during which time he originated, and appeared in, sketches and devised pieces, as well as appearing in a number of plays and farces at the Library Theatre. Career Riley had a succession of jobs, including spells managing a shopping centre and selling aerial photographs, before successfully answering an on-air appeal for researchers on BBC TV's Top Gear programme. A lifelong car enthusiast, Riley was in his element writing scripts for racing driver turned presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson and making many cameo appearances before being given the chance to present his own items. Amongst these were a 9-hour road trip from London to Brighton on the world's oldest vehicle, a challenge to build a car in 16 hours from junk bought at Europe's largest auto jumble sale and appearing as Elvis at the UK's premier American lifestyle festival. He went on to write and perform sketches for BBC One specials on the Chelsea Flower Show and Britain in Bloom, appear as a bed-hopping bigamist in a prime time BBC One documentary Bigamy and write and present Short Circuits, an innovative 10-part series for Discovery Home and Leisure which combined Scalextric with tips on making realistic scenery out of chicken wire. Moving sideways to radio, he was chosen as the voice of The Comedy Club, a nightly 2-hour comedy strand which played a significant part in BBC7 achieving the Sony Gold Award for Station Sound.