1. Carol Patricia Smillie was born on 23 December 1961 and is a Scottish former television presenter, actress and model.
54 Facts About Carol Smillie
1. 2.
Carol Smillie was best known for assisting Nicky Campbell on the UK version of the game show Wheel of Fortune between 1989 and 1994.
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In 2012 Carol Smillie decided to leave mainstream TV and created a new business venture, launching a brand of leak-proof underwear for women, named DiaryDoll.
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In 2018 Carol Smillie relinquished control of her business, licensing the brand to the company High Street TV.
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Carol Smillie was born on 23 December 1961, in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Isobel and electrical engineer George Carol Smillie.
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Carol Smillie has two older sisters and one older brother.
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Carol Smillie attained seven O-grades, including a qualification in fabric and fashion.
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Carol Smillie ultimately obtained one each from Langside College and Cardonald College, thus completing the entry requirements.
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At age 18, in 1979, Carol Smillie embarked on her first year at the Glasgow School of Art, studying Art, Design, and Fashion, with the idea of becoming a fashion designer, but felt she didn't really fit in with the typical punk students sporting green hair and pink shoes.
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Carol Smillie then joined the Best Modelling Agency, run by Fiona Best.
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Carol Smillie met her future husband, former model Alex Knight, through Fiona's agency.
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Carol Smillie's presenting career launched in 1989, at age 27, when she beat 5,000 other applicants to become the hostess and puzzle board operator of Scottish Television's Wheel of Fortune game show.
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Carol Smillie co-presented the show until 1994 with Nicky Campbell.
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Fashion series presented by Carol Smillie and produced by Scottish Television.
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Carol Smillie joined the show as co-presenter with Mickey Hutton, alongside the main presenter Esther Rantzen.
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Carol Smillie continued to present holiday programmes such as Summer Holiday, Holiday Swaps, Holiday Heaven and Holiday Favourites throughout the 1990s.
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In 1996, Carol Smillie became the original presenter of BBC Two's new DIY show Changing Rooms.
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Carol Smillie remained the main presenter for 13 series, leaving in 2003.
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In 1996, Carol Smillie was selected as a presenter of the BBC The National Lottery Show.
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Carol Smillie mainly appeared on the Wednesday Midweek Draw show, but made occasional appearances on Saturday nights.
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Carol Smillie presented various incarnations of the show between 1996 and 2000.
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In 1998, Carol Smillie hosted a short mid-morning celebrity chat-show on BBC One entitled Carol Smillie's People.
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In 2003, after leaving Changing Rooms, Carol Smillie joined the Channel 5 show Dream Holiday Homes.
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In 2004, Carol Smillie was one of the celebrities to take part in Strictly Ice Dancing, a one-off ice dance version of Strictly Come Dancing.
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Carol Smillie was back working for STV Productions in 2005 as presenter of the short-lived ITV show The People's Court.
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From October to December 2006, Carol Smillie took part in Series Four of Strictly Come Dancing with dance partner Matthew Cutler.
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Carol Smillie returned to STV from November 2007 into 2008 to host the Scottish channel's new gameshow, Postcode Challenge.
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On 22 September 2009, Carol Smillie presented a 10 part series entitled Best of British Wedding Venues on Wedding TV, a woman's lifestyle channel on the Sky and Freesat platforms.
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Carol Smillie presented the 2013 and 2014 series of STV's Finding Scotland's Real Heroes.
30.
In 2001, Carol Smillie appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank and the following year appeared on The Sooty Show in the episode called "All New Sooty".
31.
Carol Smillie was allegedly one of the Tennent's Lager girls.
32.
Carol Smillie denied having had this role in The Independent newspaper on 2 October 2006.
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Carol Smillie has continued to model occasionally since her rise to fame.
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Between 2007 and 2010 Carol Smillie was the figurehead model for the Scottish company The Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
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In June 2009, Carol Smillie appeared in the BBC Radio Scotland comedy sketch show Ellis and Clarke.
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Carol Smillie appeared in a number of sketches in the 30-minute production playing herself, in which she and the members of the cast parodied her television personality.
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On Bank Holiday 31 August 2009, Carol Smillie hosted her own Radio show on 105.2 Smooth Radio, a Scottish Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Glasgow and the surrounding area.
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In 2003, Smillie joined forces with Eileen Fursland to become a best selling author with the publication of Carol Smillie's Working Mum's Handbook.
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In February 2006, Carol Smillie made her debut on the stage in the Eve Ensler play The Vagina Monologues.
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Carol Smillie completed three tours of Scotland, appearing in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth.
41.
In February to March 2010, Carol Smillie appeared on stage in Hormonal Housewives, a new comedy written by Julie Coombe and John MacIsaac.
42.
Carol Smillie takes the part of Madonna, dancing and miming to the track "Holiday", dressed in a pastiche outfit based on the Jean Paul Gaultier-designed conical bra corset, from the singer's 1990 Blond Ambition tour.
43.
Carol Smillie took the play on a three-week tour of Scotland performing at theatres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
44.
In 2008, Carol Smillie made her film debut in a short film entitled Infamy playing a television presenter named Joan.
45.
In October 2012, Carol Smillie started her own business, DiaryDoll, with business partner and friend Annabel Croft, an ex-international tennis player.
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Carol Smillie's smile was caricatured by the British impressionist Ronni Ancona in the UK television show Big Impression.
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Carol Smillie is involved with several charities, primarily ones concerned with child welfare.
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Carol Smillie became a board member and Trustee for The Riverside Museum.
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Carol Smillie is a member of the Mackintosh Conservation and Access Project team.
50.
When Carol Smillie was hosting Wheel of Fortune in the early 1990s, she was invited to take the Mensa test for high IQs by a tabloid newspaper, to prove that game show hostesses were not stupid.
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Carol Smillie said she had passed with an IQ of 148.
52.
Carol Smillie courted controversy in 2003, when she announced in an interview that she had cheated on the test.
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Carol Smillie admitted that the test was not taken under exam conditions, and she completed only two thirds of it, coming unstuck at the end.
54.
Carol Smillie had phoned a friend to complete the remainder of the test.