David Walliams - born David Williams on 20th August 1971. The slightly camp David Walliams stars in Little Britain with Matt Lucas and went to Reigate Grammar School where he first started acting. One of Walliams's earliest television jobs was in BTV, which was part of 'Gamesworld' on Sky One (broadcast at 6pm sometime around '94-95) where he appeared in various roles each week. He used to present a children's programme called 'Incredible Games' (BBC 2, 1995) and one of David's claims to fame was that he was a scriptwriter for 'Ant and Dec' and 'Run the Risk', but he was too ashamed to tell anyone. David revisited Reigate Grammar School in 2005 with his co-star Matt Lucas to talk to the pupils about his work in comedy where they were well recieved.

Clips of some of David's funniest moments: Clip One, Clip Two

Ray Mears - born 1964, the man that everyone wants to be on a deserted island with - catching the dinner and making the bed out of palm leaves - bushman, survivor and local hero, Ray grew up in the Reigate area and learnt his tracking and survival skills on the North Downs.
After attending Reigate Grammar school of which Ray says his chemistry teacher 'wrote the most boring textbook ever', he established a local bushcraft and woodlore business at just 19. Learning from his Judo teacher at school, using his mantra, ‘Maximum efficiency from minimum effort,’ Ray honed his skills to survive just with the nature around him and is the most recognised expert in the bushcraft field today. Ray still runs his bushcraft business, holds survival holidays in remote places such as the Rainforests and encourages everyone to see that the worlds resources are all we need and cannot be wasted, even teaching indigenous people how to use their environment more effectively. A Reigateandredhill.co.uk favourite! www.raymears.com

In case you get stuck in a desert without a match, here's how you make a fire: Clip One

Wendy Padbury - born 1947, is a British actress and theatrical agent from Warwickshire. She is most famous for being the ex-wife of Melvyn Hayes and her involvement in various Doctor Who projects. She was cast as the second Doctor's (Patrick Troughton) new companion, Zoe Heriot in 1968 and became very close to her co-stars Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton. Wendy Padbury tells many fond stories about the practical jokes they would play on each other during rehearsals.
Wendy first came to prominence as an actress in 1966, starring in Crossroads as Stephanie "Stevie" Harris, foster daughter to the show's main character, Meg Mortimer (Noele Gordon). She also made appearances in Emmerdale Farm (now Emmerdale) coincidentally opposite Frazer Hines who she played alongside with in Doctor Who.
Here's a badly edited clip of the young Wendy Padbury in Doctor Who - The War Games: Clip One

Newton Faulkner born Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner, 1985 in Reigate. Ginger hair, dreadlocks, name 'Newton Battenburg', not exactly a description of a soul/rock singer megastar, Newton is a British musician playing acoustic guitar and singing in the similar vein to Pablo Nutini and James Morrison who he has supported on various tours. He is well known for his distinctive guitar playing style, which involves percussive use of the guitar's body, and unusual fingerstyle picking techniques. Faulkner went to the Hawthorns School in Bletchingley, Surrey. He began playing guitar at the age of 13 (after a few attempts at the drums and piano) and attended the theatre art training school Italia Conti Academy. Newton Faulkner has since signed with Sony BMG and released his excellent debut album ' Hand Built By Robots' including the excellent song 'Dream Catch Me.'

Watch Newton's excellent song Dream Catch Me here: Clip One

Caroline Quentin was born in Reigate, 1961. Caroline had the difficult task with being married to Room 101/Have I Got News For You's Paul Merton. Never mind, she now has two children with her partner Sam Farmer.

Toby Tobin - A name made for show business. Often seen on Ready Steady Cook with the dubious Ainsley. Tobin became Head Chef at The Dining Room in Reigate in 1994, in 2001 Tobin bought the restaurant outright with the Esure (now a part of the old Redlands building on Castlefield Road) boss Peter Wood.
Tony offers lovely meals to the people of Reigate who can afford them and the restaurant has been claimed to be one of the finest restaurants in Surrey.

He's not as good as Gordon Ramsey, but this view will change when we get our free dinner invite to the restaurant... No smoking cigars at the bar please.

Trevor Michael Thomas Kavanagh - born 1943, is a journalist and formerly the Political Editor of the Sun newspaper.

Trevor Kavanagh was educated at Reigate Grammar School before leaving school at 17 to work for newspapers in Surrey and later Hereford. In 1965 he emigrated to Australia, working on several newspapers. In 1978 he returned to the UK more permanently, taking a job with The Sun. There's proof that Kavanagh came from Reigate, as he grew up a staunch Thatcherite, but became disillusioned and turned to the red side!
It was Kavannagh in 2003 who claimed that George Galloway was an "employee of Saddam 's sadistic state machine" and that he stole "£375,000-a-year from the impoverished Iraqi people." These allegations have been dismissed as either inaccurate or without proof when brought to court. Any way, another famous resident of Reigate.

Francis Frith - born in Derbyshire 1822, died in Reigate February 25, 1898. Francis Frith was a pioneering, travelling photographer, taking photographs of the Middle East and places around the United Kingdom. Frith Drive in Reigate is named after him.
Amongst being a Quaker, selling cutlery and groceries, Frith's interest in photography led him to set up his own business in Liverpool, using collodion processing particularly when travelling to hot countries. Francis Frith is known for his enthusiasm in obtaining great compositions and his ability to find refreshing photographic solutions. His extensive photography of towns in the UK, the majority of them being of Reigate and Redhill often featuring his daughters as subjects, has helped to preserve British heritage. Now the Frith Collection sells his photographs which you can view and buy here.  An Article on Francis Frith

'Charlie' the parrot aged over 105. Now then, this bird has managed to build up for herself many controversies. Charlie is said to be the oldest bird in Britain and she was bought by Peter Oram who owns the Reigate Heath Nurseries. Peter claims the bird once belonged to Winston Churchill although Peter bought her from a pet shop in 1965 (when Churchill died). The bird has caused her owners many problems with her constant need to swear! Churchill's relatives have since stated that he never owned the macaw but an african grey, I'm sure Peter will say different!

We're not too sure that Charlie was ever Churchill's parrot but pretty convinced here at Reigate and Redhill.co.uk that Charlie was the same bird in Reigate's old pet shop Gay Dogs, now that shop is a legacy in itself...

Michael 'Beppe' Greco - Gravel voiced star of Eastenders (Beppe) and London musical Chicago, Greco seems to be Redhill's most famous person as he's everyones cousin or friend from St Bedes School which he attended. Well he's the cousin of a bloke I used to work with anyway (heh Vinny?).

Apparently Greco also attended Reigate 6th Form College and was voted #1 most fanciable male during Fashion Week (1985-87).

Jimmy White – born May 2nd 1962, Tooting. Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White remains the most exciting snooker player alive and many people can remember rooting for him when snooker used to be interesting. Crowd favourite, amassing over £4,000 000 in prize money (most spent on booze and high living) will be famous as the man who never won the World Snooker Championship, even though coming close so many times ('go on Jimmy!'). Seen in Redhill town and on Redhill train station many times in the 1990’s, Jimmy often visited the town to settle his debts with the banks during his bankruptcy. Maybe his new passion of Poker (ranked 70th best English poker player) may help him keep up his payments on his Epsom mansion. Anyway, Jimmy has expressed an interest to be involved in The Reigate Cardroom poker and bridge club.

Here's Jimmy showing his whirlwind ball skills and why he is Britain's most loved snooker player: Short Clip One - crazy spin to beat Kirk Stevens  :  Long Clip Two - 147 break

Carole Hersee - born 1958 in Redhill, Surrey but moved near Farnham Comprehensive School where she attended. She is most notable for appearing as an eight year old child in the central image of the iconic United Kingdom television Test Card F (developed by her late father George Hersee, an engineer for the BBC in 1967 where the X in the middle of the card being used as a centering device for old TV screens), along with her clown 'Bubbles' who she keeps in a box! Carole is in the Guinness Book Of Records as the person who has appeared on television for more hours than anyone else - an estimated total of 70,000 hours, equivalent to nearly eight years. She was paid only £100 for this by the BBC and still has to pay her license fee. Carole became a seamstress and has created costumes for several West End theatre productions and film productions including Flash Gordon and Dangerous Liaisons.
An article about Carole Hersee can be read here: Telegraph article on Carole Hersee

Sophie Raworth - born 1968 in Redhill. Sophie is mainly known for presenting BBC's One O'Clock News and has appeared on countless other BBC news slots as well as appearing on various TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Test The Nation.
In 2008, Sophie took time out to have her baby. She has appeared as a relief news reader on BBC 24.

Here's Sophie Raworth being told what to wear by Trinny and Suzannah: Clip One

Liz May Brice - born Elizabeth May Brice 1975 in Redhill
Liz is best known as convicted murderer Pat Kerrigan on ITV1's Bad Girls and episodes of the BBC series Hustle. To international audiences she may be more familiar as putting on great american accents in the horror films Resident Evil and AVP: Alien vs Predator.

Here's a syncophantic interview on GMTV featuring Liz: Clip One