Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond
Richard Hammond in 2006
Born	Richard Mark Hammond (1969-12-19) 19 December 1969 (age 47) Solihull, Warwickshire, England
Residence	Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire, England Marylebone, London, England
Nationality	British
Other names	Hamster
Education	Solihull School Ripon Grammar School
Alma mater	Harrogate College of Art and Technology
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, author, voice actor
Years active	1998–present
Employer	The Daily Mirror W. Chump & Sons Amazon BBC (former) ITV (former) Sky (former)
Known for	Presenting: Brainiac: Science Abuse Crufts Should I Worry About...? The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show Top Gear Petrolheads Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel Total Wipeout Richard Hammond's Blast Lab Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds Richard Hammond's Crash Course Richard Hammond Builds a Planet Science of Stupid The Grand Tour
Home town	Solihull, England
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Spouse(s)	Amanda Etheridge (m. 2002)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Eileen Hammond Alan Hammond

Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is a British presenter, writer, and journalist, known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James May. He has also presented Brainiac: Science Abuse (2003–2006), Total Wipeout (2009–2012) and Planet Earth Live (2012).

In 2016, Hammond began presenting The Grand Tour television series, produced by W. Chump & Sons. The show is co-presented with his former Top Gear co-hosts, Clarkson and May, as an exclusive distributed via Amazon Video to Amazon Prime customers.

Hammond was born in Solihull, Warwickshire, and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham car industry. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew, writer of the 'Crypt' Series, and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. He attended Blossomfield Infant School in Shirley from the age of 3–7. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1986 to 1988 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology.

After graduation, Hammond worked for several BBC radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, Radio Newcastle and Radio Lancashire, before auditioning for Top Gear.