Gail Porter was born on 23rd March 1971 at 7pm at Simpson's Memorial Hospital in Edinburgh. She excelled in exams at school with the exception of her Accountancy Higher which, in a rare lapse of concentration, she failed because she bunked off the exam to go to the beach. She enrolled in a HND at film school at 18, and also got a job as a runner for a video production company. There she spent 4 agonising years, before producing her own showreel. This led to a job on ITV, which in turn led to Fully Booked and then onto further TV opportunities.

Her left nipple is pierced.Voted in at #76 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Girls of 2002 poll, UK edition. [June 2002]Welcomed first child daughter Honey on September 3rd, 2002.She was known professionally as Gail Hipgrave while married to husband Dan Hipgrave, but has since reverted to the name Gail Porter.During the summer of 2005, over the space of just four weeks, she lost all her hair because of alopecia. Specialists have warned her that it will probably never grow back. She refuses to wear a wig or a hat to cover her bald head, saying "My confidence comes from inside me. If I'm not confident inside me, nothing that I pop on my head is going to make me feel any different."Attended Edinburgh Acting School.Her hair started growing back in May 2010, but fell again at the end of that year. She got so used to being bald that she decided to shave her head entirely and to stay bald.Has her both arms tattooed.