Tall, sleek and unconventionally handsome, Alex Riley is not from Wigan. A naturally funny and highly individual presenter/performer, Alex has an exceptional talent for improvisation on both television and radio.
Born and brought up in Sheffield, Alex was a member of the Crucible Youth Theatre for several years, devising and appearing in dozens of sketches and devised pieces. He also appeared in a number of plays and farces at Sheffield's Library Theatre.
Following a succession of jobs including manager of an alternative shopping centre, aerial photograph salesman and car counter, he secured a ride on the Euro Gravy Train as a funding quangocrat. Answering an on-air appeal for researchers on BBC Top Gear, life-long car enthusiast Alex gave up the glamour of the public sector to work on his favourite programme.
At Top Gear he wrote scripts for the presenters and made the first of many cameo appearances, before being given the chance to present his own items. These included a 9hr odyssey from London to Brighton on the World's oldest vehicle; building a car in 16 hours from junk bought at Europe's largest auto jumble sale and appearing as Elvis in front of a tough crowd at Britain's number one American lifestyle festival.
From there he went on to write and perform sketches for the Chelsea Flower Show and Britain in Bloom specials on BBC1; appear as a bed-hopping bigamist in a prime time BBC1 documentary Bigamy and write and present Short Circuits a witty and innovative ten part series for Discovery Home and Leisure which combined the excitement of a Scalextric racing competition with tips on making realistic scenery out of chicken wire.
On radio, he is the voice of The Comedy Club, a five nights a week compilation show on BBC7 which played a significant part in the network achieving the Sony Gold Award for Station Sound.
Alex's recent work includes two series of Boys Toys, an action-packed entertainment series (ITV1 West Country / West), the highly successful Caravan Show (Discovery Real Time); the tongue in cheek active sports series You Know You Want To (ITV1 Westcountry) and following the purchase of a Triumph TR7, Classic Car Club (Discovery Real Time) to be aired later in the year.
Also completed recently are Making Money From Antiques (Discovery Real
Time) a hit 10part series in which he learns the reality of dealing in quality 20th Century art and design from a canny mentor; and an hour long documentary for BBC3 in the Mischief series, to be aired this Summer, which uses dramatic stunts to confront those responsible for our miserable transport network.
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Biography 
