Larissa Kelly

Last updated
Larissa Kelly
Born (1980-02-10) February 10, 1980 (age 44)
Occupation
  • Writer
  • academic
NationalityAmerican
Education Newton North High School
Princeton University
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Genre Science fiction
Spouse
Jeff Hoppes
​
(m. 2002)​

Larissa Kelly (born February 10, 1980) [1] is an American multiple-time champion on the U.S. game show Jeopardy! , currently resident in Richmond, California. She is a writer and academic.

Contents

Biography

Kelly grew up in Newton, Massachusetts [2] and attended Newton North High School where she helped lead the science bowl team to national competition. [3] Kelly graduated from Princeton University in 2002 and completed a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, studying the history of archaeology in 19th century Mexico. [4] [5] [6] She played quiz bowl at both Princeton and Berkeley. [7] [8] On August 3, 2002, Kelly married her quiz bowl teammate Jeff Hoppes. [9] On the All Star games draft show in 2018, she mentioned that her husband attended high school with Brad Rutter. [10]

Kelly is one of three members of her family to have played on Jeopardy!, all between 2004 and 2008, and the only winner of the three. Her husband was defeated by Ken Jennings in Jennings' 70th game as champion. Her sister Arianna was defeated in her initial Jeopardy! appearance, in part due to questionable calls that prompted Standards and Practices to bring her back for a second appearance; in her second appearance, Arianna was defeated by Aaron Schroeder, who later faced Larissa in the 2009 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals.

In the 2009 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas, Kelly won her quarterfinal and semifinal matches and led after the first game of the two-game finals, with $24,400 to Dan Pawson's $22,301 and Schroeder's $9,600. Although Kelly led going into Final Jeopardy! in the second game, she lost to Pawson after incorrectly responding to the clue which required identifying George II of Great Britain as the last British ruler to be born outside the United Kingdom. Kelly won $100,000 for finishing second. [11]

Kelly is a science fiction author, who has had one story published at Strange Horizons . [12]

Appearances on Jeopardy!

Including tournament winnings, Kelly set the Jeopardy! record for money won by a female contestant at $660,930 [13] and is third to Julia Collins in Jeopardy! winnings outside tournament play. During her regular run on Jeopardy!, Kelly won a total of $222,597 over six games and $1,000 3rd place consolation prize in her seventh, with her last appearance airing May 28, 2008. Excluding tournament winnings, Kelly is the fourth-highest winning female contestant and ranks seventh all-time in Jeopardy! earnings. [14] [15] [16]

While she was champion, Kelly broke Ken Jennings 's record for most money won in a contestant's first five days by winning $179,797; this record was one of two Roger Craig broke during his reign as champion, as he won $195,801 in his first five games (Craig also topped Jennings's single-game record of $75,000). [note 1] Kelly is also the third-highest winning female contestant in any single game in Jeopardy!'s history. Kelly's $45,200 performance narrowly trails Maria Wenglinsky, who won $46,600 on November 1, 2005, Emma Boettcher, MacKenzie Jones, who both won $46,801 on June 3, 2019, and February 19, 2020, respectively, and Amy Schneider, who won $50,000, $61,800, and $71,400 on November 25, 2021, December 2, 2021, and January 20, 2022, respectively.

Kelly returned to participate in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament in 2014, but was eliminated in the first round, winning $5,000. She also appeared on Jeopardy! All Star Games in February 2019, as a member of Team Brad Rutter with David Madden; her team won and split $1,000,000. [17]

Jeopardy! records

During her time as champion, Kelly set several records, which have since been surpassed:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1950s quiz show scandals</span> Revelations that contestants on TV quiz shows were secretly assisted by producers

The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows' outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving ratings, greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Jennings</span> American game show host (born 1974)

Kenneth Wayne Jennings III is an American game show host, former contestant, and author. He is best known for his work on the syndicated quiz show Jeopardy! as a contestant and later its host. Jennings was born in Seattle, Washington but grew up in South Korea and Singapore. He worked as a computer programmer before he tried out for Jeopardy! in 2004. During his initial run, Jennings secured a consecutive 74 wins, setting the record as the highest-earning American game show contestant and bringing significant media attention and viewership.

Jerome Vered is a Studio City, California writer, publicly known for his record-setting success as a contestant on the U.S. television game show Jeopardy!

Bradford Gates Rutter is an American game show contestant, TV host, producer, and actor. With over $5.1 million in winnings, he is the second-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, behind Ken Jennings, and still the highest-earning contestant on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy!.

A game show is a type of radio, television, or internet program in which contestants, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering trivia questions or solving puzzles, usually for prizes. Game shows are usually distinguishable from reality television competition shows, in which the competition consumes an entire season of episodes; in a game show, prizes can typically be won in a single match. Beginning with the first five-figure and six-figure game show jackpots in the mid-1950s, a succession of contestants on various quiz shows of the era each set records. Teddy Nadler of The $64,000 Challenge, the highest-scoring contestant of the 1950s era, was not surpassed until 1980, when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic-Tac-Dough. Between 1999 and 2001, during a brief boom in high-stakes game shows, the record was broken six times. Both the 1955–1958 and 1999–2001 eras of rapidly set and broken records were driven primarily by one-upmanship between the networks each trying to secure bragging rights and ratings by inflating their prize offerings, rather than the merits of the contestants themselves. American daytime television has historically had smaller prize budgets for game shows that air in that daypart.

Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.

Charles “Chuck” Forrest is an American attorney and game show contestant who at one time held the record for the largest non-tournament cash winnings total on the syndicated game show Jeopardy! The Los Angeles Times called him "the Alexander the Great of Jeopardy! players." The producers of the show regarded Forrest as one of the best and most memorable contestants of the 1980s. He is widely regarded by other elite Jeopardy! players to be one of the most formidable contestants ever to play.

Roger Alan Craig Jr. is an American game show contestant, computer scientist, data scientist, and machine learning consultant. He held the record for highest single-day winnings on the quiz show Jeopardy! from September 14, 2010 to April 9, 2019. In 2011, Craig returned to win the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. In 2014, he competed in the Battle of the Decades tournament, finishing third overall behind Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Chu</span> American television personality (born 1984)

Arthur Chu is an American columnist and former contestant on Jeopardy!, a syndicated U.S. game show. Chu first became known for the unusual style of play he adopted during his eleven-game winning streak on Jeopardy!. When the shows aired, Chu attracted criticism from many for jumping from category to category rather than selecting clues in sequential order, a strategy known as the "Forrest Bounce", named for former champion Chuck Forrest.

Julia Collins is an American game show contestant and a supply chain professional from Wilmette, Illinois. She is best known for being a 20-day champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!.

David "Dave" Madden is an American game show contestant, academic competition organizer, and art historian. He is a former 19-day champion on Jeopardy! and holds the eighth-longest streak in Jeopardy! history.

Matthew Barnett Jackson is an American paralegal and former contestant on the syndicated game show Jeopardy! who won 13 consecutive games, earning $413,612. This is the eleventh-highest game streak of all time as of June 4, 2023. His 13-episode streak ended with a loss on October 14, 2015. Jackson's total winnings place him tenth on the all-time money-winning list in regular (non-tournament) games as of June 4, 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Holzhauer</span> American game show contestant and poker player (born 1984)

James Holzhauer is an American game show contestant and professional sports gambler. He is the third-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time. Holzhauer is best known for his 32-game winning streak as champion on the quiz show Jeopardy! from April to June 2019, during which he set multiple single-game records for winnings, and for winning the following Tournament of Champions that November.

<i>Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time</i> American game show tournament

Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time is a special tournament limited-run series of the game show Jeopardy! that took place in January 2020. The tournament was produced for ABC and aired on the network in prime time. This was the second time a Jeopardy! competition aired on network television ; the first occurred in 1990 when the special tournament series Super Jeopardy! was carried by ABC.

Matthew Benjamin Amodio is an American mathematician and game show contestant who won 38 consecutive games on the game show Jeopardy! in 2021, the third-longest streak in the show's history, behind Ken Jennings and Amy Schneider. A PhD student in computer science at Yale University, Amodio won $1,519,601 in 39 appearances on Jeopardy!, making him the third millionaire contestant on the show in regular-season play. Across all American game shows, Amodio is the 10th-highest-earning contestant of all time. His run on the show has been called the "Amodio Rodeo".

Jeopardy! is an American quiz game show in which contestants use certain strategies and skills to increase their chances of winning each game, win the most games, and ensure large winnings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Schneider</span> American writer and game show contestant

Amy Schneider is an American writer and game show contestant. Winning 40 consecutive games on the quiz show Jeopardy! from November 2021 to January 2022 and the November 2022 Tournament of Champions, she holds the second-longest win streak in the program's history, behind only Ken Jennings, who hosted the show as she competed and the longest win streak by a woman. She is the most successful woman and most successful transgender contestant ever to compete on the show, in terms of both the length of her streak and her $1.6 million in winnings.

Victoria Groce is an American quiz player and game show contestant.

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Public Records Index Vol 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
  2. ↑ "Jeopardy! press release". Archived from the original on December 4, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Newton North High School". February 19, 2001. Archived from the original on 19 February 2001.
  4. ↑ "Student & Alumni Profiles Archives". Berkeley Graduate Division.
  5. ↑ "UC Berkeley Department of History Newsletter" (PDF). UC Berkeley. Fall 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  6. ↑ "Dissertation – "Waking the Gods: Archaeology and State Power in Porfirian Mexico"". December 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  7. ↑ "UC Berkeley Quiz Bowl: Pictures". www.ocf.berkeley.edu.
  8. ↑ "Welcome!". Princeton Quiz Bowl.
  9. ↑ "Archived Yahoo Quizbowl Message Group Post". Archived from the original on 2012-07-08.
  10. ↑ "Video of Jeopardy! All-Star Draft". YouTube .
  11. ↑ "Jeopardy! 2009 Tournament of Champions, Final Round, Game 2" . Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  12. ↑ Kelly, Larissa (2008-12-22). "Engines of Survival". Strange Horizons. Archived from the original on 2009-03-28. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  13. ↑ "Leaderboard of Legends | Jeopardy.com". www.jeopardy.com.
  14. ↑ "Grad student makes 'Jeopardy!' history". United Press International . May 29, 2008. Retrieved 2010-10-04. In addition to being the "winningest" female champion in the quiz show's 24 seasons, she also has become the third biggest money winner behind all-time "Jeopardy!" champ Ken Jennings, who went home with $2.5 million, and David Madden, who won $430,400, representatives for the series said.
  15. ↑ Beggy, Carol; Shanahan, Mark. "The mighty Quinn". Boston.com– via The Boston Globe.
  16. ↑ "Sport Tips And References". en.nagato.cc.
  17. ↑ "Jeopardy! Crowns a Winning Team in the First-Ever 'All-Star Games'". 6 March 2019.
  18. ↑ "Cal student makes history on 'Jeopardy'". East Bay Times. 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  19. ↑ Mucha, Peter (18 November 2011). "Del. man uses app to break 'Jeopardy!' records". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  20. ↑ "05.28.2008-Berkeley student scores big on "Jeopardy!"". www.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  21. ↑ Jeopardy! . Season 30. Episode 185. May 30, 2014. Syndication.
  22. ↑ Jeopardy! . Season 25. Episode 141. March 23, 2009. Syndication.
  23. ↑ Jeopardy! . Season 31. Episode 49. November 20, 2014. Syndication.
  24. ↑ Jeopardy! . Season 24. Episode 187. May 26, 2008. Syndication.
Footnotes
  1. ↑ These scores were achieved after Jeopardy! doubled its clue values in 2001; if earlier scores are doubled to account for this, Craig, Kelly, and Jennings all trail Frank Spangenberg, whose adjusted total is $205,194.[ citation needed ] Jerome Vered's adjusted total of $193,602[ citation needed ] is third to Spangenberg and Craig.
Preceded by
Mehrun Etebari
 Biggest Jeopardy! winners by season
2007–2008		Succeeded by
Justin Bernbach
Preceded by
Doug Hicton
 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions first runner up
2009		Succeeded by
Jason Zollinger
Preceded by
Jennifer Gotcher
 Biggest one-day winners on Jeopardy! by season
2007–2008		Succeeded by
Kevin Joyce
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.