Penny Mallory
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Penny Mallory is an English keynote speaker, and TedX speaker, on Mental Toughness, performance coach and a former British Rally Championship driver.
She is a Leading Authority on Mental Toughness. She became the first woman to drive a World Rally Car (WRC)-specification in the otherwise male-dominated FIA World Rally Championship.[2] Penny has been a boxer, mountaineer, marathon runner and triathlete and is training to row the Atlantic Ocean in 2026.[3]
She also worked as a precision stunt driver, playing both 'Nicole' and 'Papa', for two Renault Clio commercials.[4]
Mallory is also a former television presenter; she co-hosted Channel 4's motoring programme Driven[5] alongside Mike Brewer and Jason Plato, and Accident Black Spot.[5] She also co-hosted with Jason Dawe on the Used Car Roadshow,[6] which was originally broadcast on Men & Motors and later was occasionally repeated on ITV4.[4] She presented Classic Car Club for Discovery[5] with Edd China, Tony Mason and Alex Riley. She also previously co-presented Channel 4's programme on the World Rally Championship (WRC) series, until it was taken over by ITV in 2004.[4]
Mallory grew up in Kent, England. In interviews, she has spoken about experiencing a difficult childhood marked by family instability and periods of social and emotional hardship. She has stated that these early experiences contributed to behavioural difficulties at school and a sense of disengagement during her early teenage years.[7]
As a teenager, Mallory left home and spent time living in hostels in London. During this period, she has described experiencing homelessness and a lack of stable support.[8] In later reflections, Mallory has credited this time as a formative influence on her subsequent interest in resilience, motivation and human performance.[9]
