Ravin Mika Wilding was born on 16 October 1977 in Canterbury, Kent, England, as the second of five children. His father is of Indo-Mauritian heritage and his mother is English; both parents worked as nurses for the NHS. After a family breakup, he had to leave home at a young age. He completed an apprenticeship in dry lining,  becoming the first in the UK to complete that qualification before enlisting in the British Army at the age of 17.

He served in the 5th Airborne Brigade in the specialist air defence unit known as P-Troop, an elite unit often referred to as a feeder unit to the Special Forces. He was forced to leave the Army after four years due to a serious leg break, after which he worked at Harrods in Knightsbridge as a security guard. His application to the Metropolitan Police Service was accepted after nine months at Harrods, and he joined on 22 May 2000, posted to Peckham in South London.

After serving eight years with the Metropolitan Police Service as a detective constable, Wilding transitioned to broadcasting in 2004 while still an officer. He resigned from the police force in February 2008 to concentrate on TV work. Since 2022, Wilding has presented Scam Interceptors on BBC One, a programme about internet fraud, alongside Nick Stapleton and featuring ethical hacker Jim Browning.

Rav is a regular face on BBC One’s Morning Live, where he shares expert advice on crime and scams. Following his separation from wife Jill Morgan in 2023, he is co-parenting their daughter and, as of 2024, was in a relationship with television co-presenter and former police officer Rebecca Mason.