Jeopardy! star Hannah Wilson inspired to compete by legendary trans winner Amy Schneider
Jeopardy contestant Hannah Wilson. (Jeopardy!)
Jeopardy! contestant Hannah Wilson felt compelled to compete on the iconic US gameshow after it introduced its first trans contestant.
Wilson, a transgender yarn-shop owner from Chicago, returned to the hit US game show on Monday (17 February) in an invitational tournament, alongside Jeopardy! veteran Doug Molitor and mathematician Matt Amodio.
She won $30,402, (£24,000), to finish just behind winner Amodio.
Former data scientist Wilson first appeared on the show in May 2023, going on an eight-game winning run and amassing $229,801 (£182,000).
“I can’t believe you are talking about me and not a different Hannah Wilson,” she said at the time. “I did not think this was going to happen.”
The long-running game show was an important part of her childhood, she added.
“It was something that was always on after dinner, and my parents and I would shout out the answers if we knew them,” she told Datebook. “It was part of life for as long as I can remember.”
While she had considered competing for a number of years, she finally applied after trans competitor Amy Schneider made history by becoming its first out trans competitor in 2021.
Schneider went on an unprecedented 40-game winning streak, taking home $1,382,800 (more than £1 million at the time) in the process, making her history the first woman to win more than $1 million on the show.
Wilson said that not only was Schneider’s run inspirational, but her boundary-breaking appearance motivated her to give it a go. “She inspired me to try out because I’m trans. She was this amazing champion and she showed you could just be out there. That was really important to me.”
Jeopardy! first aired in the US in 1964. It reached the UK in 1983 and last year Stephen Fry became the latest host of the show.
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