Carol Smillie's Biography

Who is Carol Smillie?

Carol Smillie was born in Glasgow on 23 December 1961 and went to Hutchesons' Grammar School and the Glasgow School of Art. Carol Smillie's father was an electrical engineer and her mother worked in a shop.

When Carol Smillie's Working Mum's Handbook was published, The Telegraph had an extraordinary interview with Carol Smillie, whom they dubbed a Mum of Steel, that dealt in large part with her transition from model to hostess on Nicky Campbell's Wheel of Fortune, in which she says:

"I am the kind of woman who always gets my revenge. I insist upon it. It is a bad trait, I must admit, but I am fairly nasty and vindictive."

After Wheel of Fortune, Carol Smillie reported on The Travel Show and Holiday, but got her big break in 1996 when she began presenting Changing Rooms.

Changing Rooms propelled Carol as well as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Linda Barker and Anna Ryder Richardson, and "Handy" Andy Kane into the public's consciousness.

Carol Smillie left Changing Rooms after twelve series to host Channel 5's Dream Holiday Homes.

Smillie's other credits include ITV's A Brush With Fame, the BBC's Star Secrets and Holiday Swaps as well as celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Strictly Ice Dancing.

Lord Taylor of Warwick on Radio 4's Today once described Carol Smillie as "a monster" created by the BBC.

In the BBC article Manager Defends Loved Smillie, it explains that Lord Taylor's comments were not a personal attack on Smillie but on the Today programme, he said:

"The BBC creates these monsters, in inverted commas, and she is everywhere."

In Strictly Come Dancing 2006, Carol Smillie danced with Matthew Cutler. In the ninth show, they received their best scores from the judges, but were voted off.

In 2010 Carol Smillie was one of the celebrities in Marco's Kitchen Burnout.

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