Victoria Coren Mitchell

Victoria Elizabeth Coren Mitchell (née Coren;[3] born 18 August 1972) is an English writer, presenter and professional poker player. Coren Mitchell writes weekly columns for The Observer and has hosted the BBC television quiz show Only Connect since 2008.

This British surname is barrelled, being made up of multiple names. It should be written as Coren Mitchell, not Mitchell.

Victoria Coren Mitchell
Born
Victoria Elizabeth Coren

(1972-08-18) 18 August 1972[1]
Hammersmith, London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materSt John's College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist, television presenter,
poker player, writer
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 2012)
Children1
Parents
  • Alan Coren (deceased) (father)
  • Anne Kasriel (mother)
RelativesGiles Coren (brother)
Michael Coren (cousin)
Nickname(s)Teacup[2]
ResidenceLondon, United Kingdom
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)None
Money finish(es)2
Highest ITM
Main Event finish		None
European Poker Tour
Title(s)2
Final table(s)2
Money finish(es)6
Websitevictoriacoren.com

Early life

Victoria Elizabeth Coren was born in Hammersmith, west London, grew up in Cricklewood,[4] north London, and is the only daughter of the humourist and journalist Alan Coren and his wife, Anne Kasriel. Her brother is journalist Giles Coren.[5] She is related to Canadian journalist Michael Coren.[6]

She attended independent girls' schools between the ages of five and 18,[7] including St Paul's Girls' School,[8] and read English at St John's College, Oxford.[9]

Writing

When aged 14 she had a short story published under a pseudonym in Just Seventeen magazine[10] and then won a competition in The Daily Telegraph to write a column about teenage life for their "Weekend" section, which she continued writing for several years.

Her books include Love 16[11] and Once More, with Feeling, about her attempt (with co-author Charlie Skelton) to make "the greatest porn film ever".[12] Their jobs reviewing porn films for the Erotic Review led them to believe that most of what they were watching was terrible and that they could make better films themselves.[1][13]

She adapted the newspaper columns of John Diamond into a play called A Lump in my Throat, which was performed during the 2000 Edinburgh Festival at the Assembly Rooms,[14] the Grace Theatre and the New End Theatre in London, before she adapted it again for a BBC Two docudrama with Neil Pearson, broadcast in 2001.

Victoria and Giles Coren wrote an introduction to Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks,[15] an anthology of the best comic writing by their father Alan, published by Canongate in October 2008.

Her poker memoir For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker[16] (the subtitle changed to Confessions of a Player when released in paperback in 2011)[17] was published in September 2009, and was well reviewed in The Times[18] and The Observer.[19]

Ormerod hoax

In 2007, after the death of her father, having put a notice in The Times inviting those who knew him to attend a service, she was warned by a friend that a "gang of serial funeral crashers" based in the south of England were checking death notices to find funerals and memorial services to crash for their own enjoyment. After receiving some suspicious email replies to her notice, she instigated a hoax to trap the group. She created "Sir William Ormerod", along with an online encyclopaedia entry and placed a death notice. A week later, she placed another notice in The Times "in the guise of his grieving boyfriend Peter" for his memorial service "followed by a drinks reception".[20] She reported that the group duly claimed to have known Ormerod and applied for tickets.[21]

After first suggesting holding the memorial service and putting laxative in the canapés, she got a friend to telephone the ringleader (a serial fraudster and ex-magistrate)[22] to let it be known that she knew who they were and that he was not welcome, but she let the others in the gang come to her father's service, "gave them a drink and sent them on their way".[23] She has written articles in The Observer about her experience.

Poker

Coren Mitchell was the first woman to win an event on the European Poker Tour, the first player to win both a televised professional tournament (EPT London 2006) and a televised celebrity tournament (Celebrity Poker Club 2005), and the first player to win two European Poker Tour Main Events (EPT London 2006 and EPT Sanremo 2014). She frequently plays Texas hold 'em at the Victoria Casino in London's Edgware Road. As a commentator/presenter, she has presented Late Night Poker and The Poker Nations Cup for Channel 4, and World Poker Tour for ITV2; and commentated on The Monte Carlo EPT, Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (Channel 4), Ultimate Poker Challenge (Channel 5) and William Hill Poker Grand Prix 2 (Sky Sports).

During her poker career, she has become a close friend of The Hendon Mob and mixes weekly home games with frequent visits to two regular casinos. She appeared in five episodes of Late Night Poker, although she never made it to a series grand final. However, in Late Night Poker's spin-off Celebrity Poker Club, she defeated Willie Thorne to win the series two grand final before joining Jesse May as the commentator in series three. In the 2003 Hold-Em 100 tournament in London, she was a guest dealer for the final table.

On 24 September 2006 she won the main event of the European Poker Tour London, earning a prize of £500,000 and defeating Australian professional Emad Tahtouh.[24] On 20 November 2011 she finished second in the International Federation of Poker's inaugural The Table World Championship, eventually losing heads-up with 29-year-old Spaniard Raul Mestre. She received $100,000 for second place, $10,000 of which she donated to Age UK. In April 2014 she won the main event of the European Poker Tour San Remo, earning €476,100 and becoming the first player to have won two EPT titles.[25][26] As of 2018 her total live tournament winnings exceed $2,470,000.[27]

She has been a member of Team PokerStars Pro,[28] but in November 2014 she removed her endorsement a few hours after PokerStars had announced they were starting an online casino. She said she was uncomfortable about potential addiction by vulnerable people to a site where the odds are in favour of the operator, and did not want to be associated with such an operation.[29]

She has said that she regularly stays up until 6 am, "Smoking and drinking and gambling. But I like cooking and gardening too, which makes me sound like a very strange mix of an old lady and teenage boy." When asked about this in 2012, she stated: "It is still true. I'll grow up one day, but not quite yet."[30]

Coren Mitchell was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame in 2016.[31]

Personal life

On 20 March 2012, Coren announced her engagement to actor and comedian David Mitchell.[32][33] According to Mitchell, they first met at a film premiere in 2007, but only began dating three years later.[34] The couple married in November 2012, in north London,[34] and their daughter was born in May 2015.[35][36]

Television and radio credits
Show Role From To
BBC The One Show Guest 7 Nov 2019 7 Nov 2019
Off the Page: Radio 4presenter
Fourth Column: Radio 4presenter
100%performer19921992[37]
The Pedants' Revoltguest20042004
I Love the 80sguest20012001
Double Entryjudge20032003
Balderdash and Pifflepresenter20062007
Only Connecthost2008present
Heresypresenter2008present
You Have Been Watchingguest20092010
The Wright Stuffguest panellist20092010
The Bubbleguest panellist20102010
Question Timeguest panellist20102010
20132013
20152015
Have I Got News for Youguest panellist20102014
guest host20142020
My Teenage Diary: Radio 4guest20102010
Frank Skinner's Opinionatedguest20112011
Would I Lie to You?guest20112019
QIguest2012present
Room 101guest20132013
8 Out of 10 Catsguest20132013
Goodbye Television Centrepresenter20132013
The Secret Life of Mary Poppins: A Culture Show Specialpresenter20132013
The Unbelievable Truthguest20142014
How To Be Bohemian With Victoria Coren Mitchell (3 episodes): BBC Four[38]presenter20152015
The Great Sport Relief Bake Offcelebrity contestant20162016
Chain Reaction: Radio 4interviewer/guest20162016
Women Talking About Cars: Radio 4[39] host 2016present
Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrierguest panellist20182018
Hypotheticalguest panellist20192019

References
  1. Coren, Victoria (19 August 2002). "I made a porn film for my 30th". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  2. "Victoria Coren: Life as I know it". Daily Express. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  3. "Victoria Coren's new moniker unveiled". London Evening Standard. 14 May 2013. Archived from the original on 19 June 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  4. Ross, Deborah (17 August 2019). "Victoria Coren Mitchell: smart, sharp, witty. Just like her quiz show, Only Connect". The Times. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  5. "Giles Coren: I married my wife for Christmas". Archived from the original on 16 May 2016.
  6. Coren, Michael (5 December 2013). "Canada: A rogue state? Hardly". Ottawa Sun.
  7. "Interview: Victoria Coren". The Jewish Chronicle. 17 September 2009. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  8. Waugh, Paul (13 November 2017). "Exclusive: St Paul's Girls' School Reveals Former Pupils Have Alleged 'Sexual Abuse'". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  9. "Interview: Victoria Coren". The Cambridge Student. 13 November 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  10. Coren, Victoria (19 March 2012). "Girls' mags are not sexy, but sweet". The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  11. Coren, Victoria (1989). Love 16. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0712-63012-2.
  12. Coren, Victoria; Skelton, Charlie (2010). Once More, with Feeling. Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-1841-15437-4.
  13. Carpenter, Louise (10 August 2002). "Proud to be pornographers". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  14. Sands, Sarah (25 August 2000). "You've got to laugh – haven't you?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  15. Coren, Alan; Coren, Giles; Coren, Victoria (2009). Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks. Canongate. ISBN 978-1847-67320-6.
  16. Coren, Victoria (2009). For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker. Canongate.
  17. Coren, Victoria. "Twitter status, 31 January 2013". Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  18. "Times Review". The Times. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  19. Docx, Edward (27 September 2009). "For Richer, for Poorer by Victoria Coren". The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  20. "Obituary & Guest Book Preview for William Ormerod". The Times. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  21. Coren, Victoria (12 December 2008). "Victoria Coren: My dad's memorial service was going so well. Then the ghouls turned up". The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  22. Coren, Victoria (21 March 2010). "Return of the Jolley gang". Victoria Coren. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  23. Chain Reaction, Series 11, Ian Hislop interviews Victoria Coren-Mitchell
  24. "The European Poker Championships, Main Event – No Limit Hold'em: Hendon Mob Poker Database". Pokerdb.thehendonmob.com. 24 September 2006. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  25. "Vicky Coren-Mitchell Wins Sanremo Main Event To Become First Two-Time EPT Champion". www.pokernews.com.
  26. Halliday, Josh (21 April 2014). "Victoria Coren Mitchell makes poker history with San Remo victory". The Guardian.
  27. "Victoria Coren Mitchell's profile on The Hendon Mob". The Hendon Mob Poker Database. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  28. "Victoria Coren". Team PokerStars Pro. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  29. Coren Mitchell, Victoria. "Goodbye Team Pro". Coren Mitchell's blog. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  30. "Vicky Coren, the Royal wedding and cucumber sandwiches". PokerStarsBlog.com. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  31. "Victoria Coren-Mitchell, Debbie Burkhead Earn 2016 Induction into Women in Poker Hall of Fame – Poker News Daily". 21 May 2016. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017.
  32. "David Mitchell and Victoria Coren: Engagement Announcement". The Times. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  33. "David Mitchell and Victoria Coren announce engagement". BBC News. 20 March 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  34. Freeman, Hadley (19 October 2012). "David Mitchell: goodbye lonely nerd". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  35. Eames, Tom (22 May 2015). "David Mitchell and Victoria Coren have a baby girl: 'We're extremely happy and sleepy'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  36. Hodges, Michael (19 September 2018). "Upstart Crow's David Mitchell on Shakespeare – and watching Only Connect with his wife". Radio Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  37. The Video Shelf (2 August 2014). "A 19-year-old Victoria Coren doing stand-up comedy". Archived from the original on 11 February 2017 – via YouTube.
  38. "How To Be Bohemian With Victoria Coren Mitchell". BBC Four. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  39. "Women Talking About Cars". BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
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