Victoria Coren Mitchell facts for kids

Victoria Elizabeth Coren Mitchell (née Coren; born August 18, 1972) is a well-known British writer, TV presenter, and professional poker player. She writes weekly columns for The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Since 2008, she has also hosted the popular BBC television quiz show Only Connect.

Early Life and Education

Victoria Coren Mitchell was born in Hammersmith, West London. Her father was Alan Coren, a famous humorist and journalist. Her mother is Anne Kasriel. Victoria grew up in Cricklewood, North London, with her older brother, Giles Coren, who is also a journalist.

She went to private schools for girls from age five to eighteen. Later, she studied English at St John's College, Oxford.

Writing Career

Victoria started writing at a young age. When she was 14, a short story she wrote was published in Just Seventeen magazine under a different name. She then won a competition in The Daily Telegraph to write a column about teenage life. She continued writing this column throughout her teenage years.

She also adapted newspaper columns by John Diamond into a play called A Lump in my Throat. This play was performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000. She later adapted it again for a BBC Two TV show in 2001.

Victoria and her brother Giles wrote an introduction for a book called Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks. This book was a collection of funny writings by their father, Alan Coren, published in 2008.

Her book about poker, For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker, was published in 2009. It received good reviews from newspapers like The Times and The Observer.

Victoria also writes questions for her TV show Only Connect. She uses the funny name "Geri Wiley" for this, which is a nod to another famous writer, Ronnie Barker, who used the name "Gerald Wiley".

The Ormerod Hoax

In 2007, after her father passed away, Victoria learned about a group of people who would crash funerals and memorial services for fun. To stop them, she came up with a clever plan. She invented a fake person named "Sir William Ormerod" and placed a death notice for him in The Times newspaper.

A week later, she placed another notice, pretending to be his "grieving boyfriend Peter," inviting people to a memorial service. The group of crashers fell for the trick and asked for tickets. Victoria then had a friend call the group's leader to let him know she knew about their plan and that he was not welcome. She allowed the others in the group to come to her father's actual service, gave them a drink, and sent them away. She later wrote articles about this experience in The Observer and The Guardian.

Poker Achievements

Victoria Coren Mitchell is a very successful professional poker player. She has achieved many "firsts" in the poker world:

• She was the first woman to win an event on the European Poker Tour (EPT).
• She was the first player to win both a televised professional tournament (EPT London 2006) and a televised celebrity tournament (Celebrity Poker Club 2005).
• She was the first player to win two European Poker Tour Main Events (EPT London 2006 and EPT Sanremo 2014).

She often plays Texas hold 'em poker at the Victoria Casino in London. She has also worked as a commentator and presenter for many poker TV shows, including Late Night Poker and The Poker Nations Cup.

In 2006, she won the main event of the European Poker Tour London, earning a prize of £500,000. In 2014, she won the main event of the European Poker Tour Sanremo, earning €476,100. As of 2021, her total winnings from live poker tournaments are over $2,500,000. This makes her one of the highest-earning female live poker players ever.

Victoria was a member of Team PokerStars Pro, a group of professional poker players sponsored by PokerStars. However, in 2014, she decided to stop her endorsement. This was because PokerStars announced they were starting an online casino. Victoria felt uncomfortable supporting a site where people could potentially become addicted, as the odds are always in favor of the operator. She did not want to be linked to such an operation.

In 2016, Victoria Coren Mitchell was honored by being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

Personal Life

On March 20, 2012, Victoria announced her engagement to the actor and comedian David Mitchell. They first met at a film premiere in 2007 and had a few dates, but they started dating seriously three years later. The couple got married in November 2012 in North London. Their first daughter was born in May 2015. In November 2023, Victoria shared on Twitter that she had given birth to their second child in late October.

Television and Radio Appearances

Victoria Coren Mitchell has appeared on many television and radio shows.