Anneka Rice (born
Anne Rice, 4 October 1958 in
CowbridgeCowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
,
Vale of GlamorganThe Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in in the southern part of Glamorgan, south Wales...
) is a British television
presenterA presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
.
She changed her name to Anneka when she joined the British actors' union
EquityEquity is the trade union for actors, stage managers and models in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers....
, as her birth-name had already been registered with that organisation.
Born in
CowbridgeCowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
,
Vale of GlamorganThe Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in in the southern part of Glamorgan, south Wales...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
, she was educated at three independent schools: at Dunrobin School, in Limpsfield, Surrey; St Michael's in Surrey;
Croydon High SchoolCroydon High School GDST is a non-denominational independent school for girls, located near Croydon, Greater London, England. It is one of the schools in the Girls' Day School Trust....
in
CroydonCroydon is a major commercial centre in Greater London and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. It is south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
,
South LondonSouth London is the southern part of London, England. The area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes.-Boundary Commission:...
.
Rice began her TV career as a trainee for the
BBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is one of the most widely-recognised international broadcasters, currently broadcasting in 32 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays. It is politically independent, non-profit and...
.
Anneka Rice (born
Anne Rice, 4 October 1958 in
CowbridgeCowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
,
Vale of GlamorganThe Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in in the southern part of Glamorgan, south Wales...
) is a British television
presenterA presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
.
She changed her name to Anneka when she joined the British actors' union
EquityEquity is the trade union for actors, stage managers and models in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers....
, as her birth-name had already been registered with that organisation.
Biography
Born in
CowbridgeCowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
,
Vale of GlamorganThe Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in in the southern part of Glamorgan, south Wales...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
, she was educated at three independent schools: at Dunrobin School, in Limpsfield, Surrey; St Michael's in Surrey;
Croydon High SchoolCroydon High School GDST is a non-denominational independent school for girls, located near Croydon, Greater London, England. It is one of the schools in the Girls' Day School Trust....
in
CroydonCroydon is a major commercial centre in Greater London and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. It is south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
,
South LondonSouth London is the southern part of London, England. The area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes.-Boundary Commission:...
.
Career
Rice began her TV career as a trainee for the
BBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is one of the most widely-recognised international broadcasters, currently broadcasting in 32 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays. It is politically independent, non-profit and...
. At the age of 19 she moved to
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, where she presented the news on English language television station
TVB PearlTVB Pearl is one of the two free television services in Hong Kong that mainly broadcast in the English language, the other being ATV World. It is owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited, and together with its sister Cantonese-language station TVB Jade, is broadcast from TVB City at 77...
. Upon returning to the UK three years later, she worked as a secretary in the BBC Children's department.
In 1983, she landed her first major TV job as the
jump-suitedJumpsuit originally referred to the utilitarian one-piece garments used by parachuters and skydivers, but has come to be used as a common term for any one-piece garment with sleeves and legs.-Use:...
"skyrunnner" of
Channel 4Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...
's
Treasure HuntTreasure Hunt was a popular UK game show, based on the format of the French show La Chasse au Trésor, created by Jacques Antoine. It appeared on Channel 4 between 28 December 1982 and 18 May 1989 and was revived by BBC Two between 16 December 2002 and 2 August 2003.-The game:A team of two...
, which was hosted by former BBC newsman
Kenneth KendallKenneth Kendall is a retired British broadcaster. He was a contemporary of Richard Baker and Robert Dougall...
. The show proved one of Channel 4's most popular programmes, and was nominated for a BAFTA in 1986, in the category "Best Light Entertainment Programme". In the same year, Rice was given the "
Rear of the YearRear of the Year is a British award for people with a notable posterior. It was created by publicity consultant Anthony Edwards and is organised by Rear of the Year Limited.-History:...
" award. Rice left
Treasure Hunt when she became pregnant in 1988, being replaced by former tennis player
Annabel CroftAnnabel Croft is a former professional tennis player and current television presenter.Since retiring from tennis, she has turned to television presenting, with such shows as Treasure Hunt and Interceptor...
.
Rice hosted the BBC's
Children in NeedBBC Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million.-Overview:Each year since 1980, the BBC has set aside one evening of programming on its flagship television channel, BBC One, to show events aimed at raising money exclusively...
appeal in 1987, and tested an early version of her next project,
Challenge AnnekaChallenge Anneka is a British television programme, produced by the independent production company Mentorn for the BBC, which aired on Friday, later Saturday evenings on BBC One between 8 September, 1989 and 15 October, 1995. It was announced in 2006 that the series is returning, but this time on...
. This had been devised by Rice herself, and was launched in 1989, on BBC 1. It ran for a further five years, and was revived by ITV as part of their Christmas 2006 schedule.
Career break and personal life
Rice was married to theatre boss Nicholas Allott, with whom she has two sons: Thomas (born 1989) and Josh (born 1990). Allott and Rice split in 1992, after she started an affair with TV executive Tom Gutteridge. They parted six months after her third son, Sam, was born in 1997. In 1994 Rice presented
Capital Woman, a weekly women's magazine programme for
Carlton TelevisionCarlton Television was the ITV franchisee for London and parts of the surrounding counties from 9:25am every Monday to 5:15pm every Friday . The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity , but the two companies are still separately licensed...
(ITV), which, like
Challenge Anneka, was produced by Gutteridge's company Mentorn. Later she also presented
HolidayHoliday was a long-running UK television programme on BBC One, and was the oldest travel review show on UK television. It was aired on the channel from 1969 until 2007.-Overview:...
for
BBC One
. In 1995
Challenge Anneka was axed by the BBC.
Rice decided to quit television to spend time with her two children, and spent five years studying painting at Chelsea College of Art. So total was Rice's disappearance from the public eye that Madame Tussaud's even melted down her waxwork. In 2005 she was linked to writer Simon Bell.
Return to TV
As a result of her owning the rights to
Challenge Anneka, Rice returned to TV in a co-producer role in September 2001 when she was approached by the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
network in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to produce a new series based on the same format, where it was branded
Challenge America hosted by
Erin BrockovichErin Brockovich-Ellis is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993...
.
After finishing her art degree, in 2003 Rice returned to presenting on the Five show
Dinner Doctors alongside the relationship advisor
Jenni Trent HughesJenni Trent Hughes is an American life strategist, coach and agony aunt, who specialises in relationships and family issues. She is also a successful TV and radio broadcaster, author and magazine columnist. Although born in Jamaica, Hughes now lives and works mainly in the UK.Her career began, and...
.
Rice has written books on skiing and scuba-diving. In 2005, she endorsed a line of anti-aging products.
Returning to the limelight, Rice had a lead role in
The Vagina MonologuesThe Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the off-Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at HERE Arts Center in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production; when she left the play it was recast with three celebrity monologists...
which played at
Birmingham HippodromeThe Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End...
from 31 January to 4 February 2006.
Rice returned to
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
in June 2006 to co-host the new Sunday morning cookery show,
Sunday FeastSunday Feast is a cookery show on British television channel ITV. The show's hosts are Andi Peters and Anneka Rice. Their two resident chefs, who alternate week by week, are Ed Baines and Paul Merrett....
. She also took part in the ITV programme
Extinct presented by Sir
Trevor McDonaldSir Trevor McDonald OBE is a Trinidadian-born British newsreader and journalist. He is a news presenter with ITN, notable for having been the first black news reader in the UK...
and
Zoe BallZoë Louise Ball is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and for her earlier work presenting 1990s kids show Live & Kicking.-TV career:The daughter of children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, Zoë Ball grew up in...
which saw Rice and seven other well known celebrities visit endangered animals in their natural
habitatThe term habitat has a number of meanings:* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows** Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
and try and plead their case so that the viewers would pick up the phone and vote for their animal to receive a large sum of money to try and save them from extinction. Rice's chosen animal was the
polar bearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
. Rice did not win as the money went to the Bengal tigers and their celebrity,
Pauline CollinsPauline Collins, OBE is an English actress who is known for playing Sarah in Upstairs, Downstairs and for playing the title role in Shirley Valentine.-Early life and career:...
.
On 9 June 2006 it was announced that
Challenge Anneka would return, but this time on ITV. The first of three specials was broadcast on Boxing Day 2006. A further episode was aired on 6 June 2007. In September 2007, she appeared in the third series of
Hell's KitchenHell's Kitchen is a British cookery reality show airing on ITV which features prospective chefs competing with each other for a final prize. Four series have aired since 2004, three presented by Angus Deayton and the latest by Claudia Winkleman....
.
Shows
- Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt was a popular UK game show, based on the format of the French show La Chasse au Trésor, created by Jacques Antoine. It appeared on Channel 4 between 28 December 1982 and 18 May 1989 and was revived by BBC Two between 16 December 2002 and 2 August 2003.-The game:A team of two...
(1982–89)
- Wish You Were Here...?
Wish You Were Here...? is a British television show that was first broadcast in 1974 on ITV. It was a series of 30 minute shows about travel and holidays. The show was broadcast during peak viewing hours and had gained a significant viewing audience in the UK...
(presenter)
- Good Morning Britain
Good Morning Britain was TV-am's flagship breakfast television show, which broadcast from 7am until 9am five days a week between 1983 and 1992. It had many different presenters throughout its run, but eventually settled in 1990 with sports reporter Mike Morris, and regional reporter Lorraine Kelly....
(presenter)
- Aspel & Company (guest - March 1986)
- The Grand Knockout Tournament
- Challenge Anneka
Challenge Anneka is a British television programme, produced by the independent production company Mentorn for the BBC, which aired on Friday, later Saturday evenings on BBC One between 8 September, 1989 and 15 October, 1995. It was announced in 2006 that the series is returning, but this time on...
(presenter 1989–95, 2006/7) nominated for two technical BAFTAs in 1991
- KYTV (guest - June 1990)
- 2Point4 Children
2point4 children is a British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; a normal family faced with abnormal situations....
(guest appearance - September 1992)
- So Graham Norton
So Graham Norton is a British television programme, hosted by Irish personality Graham Norton. It ran from 3 July 1998 to 1 March 2002.-Theme:...
(guest appearance - February 2001)
- I Love 1980s (guest appearance - March 2001)
- Ready, Steady, Cook (guest - June 2001)
- A Question of TV (guest appearances - August 2001)
- Remotely Funny (guest - July 2002)
- RI:SE
RI:SE was a breakfast television show made by Princess Productions in collaboration with BSkyB for Channel 4 in the UK. It was scheduled to replace The Big Breakfast after declining ratings. It launched on 29 April 2002...
(breakfast show guest, February 2003)
- Dinner Doctors (presenter)
- Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy is a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
(June 2003)
- Absolute Power (November 2003)
- Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen is a British cookery reality show airing on ITV which features prospective chefs competing with each other for a final prize. Four series have aired since 2004, three presented by Angus Deayton and the latest by Claudia Winkleman....
(May 2004)
- QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Until late 2008 it was first shown on BBC Two and repeated on BBC Four, with syndicated episodes of previous series shown on Dave...
(aka Quite Interesting) (November 2004)
- Have I Been Here Before?
Have I Been Here Before? is an ITV daytime programme, presented by Phillip Schofield, made by ITV Productions. The programme offers celebrity guests the chance to see if they have lived before, in a past life...
(May 2005)
- Our Survey Says: The Ultimate Game Show Moments
- The Big Call
The Big Call is an ITV quiz show created by Kevin Ball and Mast Media. It was made by Granada Productions and presented by Neil Fox with support from Big Call Professor Geoffrey Grimmett and announcer Peter Dickson...
(guest - June 2005)
- The Wright Stuff
The Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, andcurrently airing on Five each weekday at 9:15am. It is repeated later on at 11:00am on Fiver....
(guest panellist - September 2005)
- Holiday
Holiday was a long-running UK television programme on BBC One, and was the oldest travel review show on UK television. It was aired on the channel from 1969 until 2007.-Overview:...
(presenter)
- Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth...
- Sporting Chance
Sporting Chance is a science fiction novel, written by Elizabeth Moon. Published in 1994, it is the second novel in the Familias Regnant fictional universe, and the second in the Heris Serrano trilogy...
- Driving Force
Driving Force was an American reality television program which premiered July 17, 2006, on A&E, ending on May 15, 2007. It was centered around John Force, a drag racer, and his drag racing daughters.- About the show :...
- Capital Woman
- Combat
Combat, or fighting, is purposeful violent conflict intended to establish dominance over the opposition.The term "combat" typically refers to armed conflict between military forces in warfare, whereas the more general term "fighting" can refer to any violent conflict...
- Come Dine With Me
Come Dine With Me is a Channel 4 television programme shown in the United Kingdom, first broadcast in January 2005. The show has five amateur chefs competing against each other hosting a dinner party for the other contestants. Each competitor then rates the host's performance with the winner...
(Celebrity Special - July 2006)
- Hell's Kitchen (Contestant - September 2007)