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.