Claire Richards was born on the 17th of August 1977 in Hillingdon, Middlesex at 1.30 in the morning. At school she was a bit of a goody two-shoes, managing to stay out of trouble. Although she was once caught out at lunch time without her lunch pass when she went to buy some chips. It may not have been all that bad, but the matter was made worse by the fact it was the first time she had done it and she got caught while her friends did it everyday and got off scot-free! Her favourite lesson at school was P.E., and she also liked pottery class, while she considers the least fun lesson to be R.E. The first ever item of clothing that Claire bought herself was a super-baggy pair of trousers which she got on a shopping trip to London with her Mum. Clearly the fashion sense has stayed with her to this day as Claire is always dressed in the coolest clothes, and refuses to leave home without a pair of trainers! Claire's career was sparked off after she was nominated to be the lead in her school musical, which was 'The Sound Of Music'. This gave her a taste for singing and led to prizes being won in Karaoke contests. She was so good at Karaoke that she not only got barred from the local pub for winning too often but also won an inter-brewery competition! The first record Claire bought was "Into The Groove" by pop legend Madonna. Destined for fame, it wasn't long before Claire met her first celebrity, comedian Frank Carson when she went along to the local theatre to see his comedy act, as well as meeting Michael Barrymore later at an audition to his show. Rick Astley was her first celebrity crush because of his good looks and lovely voice. However it wasn't long before she got over him and fell in love with New Kids On The Block front man, Jordan Knight. From an early age Claire knew she wanted to be in the entertainment industry as initially the Stepper wanted to be in musicals. Although other thoughts were to be a chef or beautician! Luckily for us she chose the correct route, her biggest triumph, STEPS! Food wise you wouldn't expect Claire's favourite meal to be hamburgers and junk food, but she can't get enough of the stuff! She says that if she could, her main diet would consist of take aways. Would you also believe that she used to eat crackerbread with sugar on, and toast with Branston pickle? A bizarre combination to say the least! Luckily this is as daring with food as Claire will be as she dislikes all fish and spicy foods, and simply will not eat food such as pigeons and veal, and who could blame her, eurgh! One other little thing you should know is that Claire's favourite sweets are fizzy red laces and the candy that pops in your mouth. She used to buy packets of them in their tens. She may be a member of the busiest and hardest working band around, but claire still finds time to branch out into other areas of entertainment. After doing such a remarkable job at presenting the programs 'Electric Circus' and 'CD:UK', she is going on to work along side band mate H on a new program called 'STEPS To The Stars'. The two popstrels will present the program, which is an entertainment show, with competitors showing off their talents in a bid to be one of the lucky finalists who will appear on the popular Saturday morning show 'Live & Kicking' for the finale. 'STEPS To The Stars' is due to air at the start of the new millenium, with a run of eight shows. To make the whole event even more Steptacular the whole bunch of Steppers will be popping into the studio to round off the show with a different STEPS song at the end of each episode. The whole package makes for un-missable viewing.