‘Jeopardy!’: 5 Things to Know About Champion Paolo Pasco

Jeopardy! Inc.

Paolo Pasco, 25, has dominated Jeopardy! at the start of this season, with three impressive wins under his belt so far.

Pasco returns for his fourth game on Monday, September 15, to try to add to his total of $79,741. He has had runaway wins nearly every time. Pasco took down one-day champion Ian Morrison on September 10, starting his three-day streak.

On the game show, Pasco has shared that he is a puzzle writer, but not much else is known about him. Not much is known about his personal life, including his relationship status, but there are other interesting facts about him.

Here are five facts about Jeopardy! champion Paolo Pasco.

He has multiple jobs

Aside from writing puzzles, Pasco is also a Games Editor for TED Conferences, the organization that gives TED Talks. According to his LinkedIn, Pasco has worked there since August 2025.

The job social media site also lists that he has been the Assistant Editor at American Values Club Crossword since 2019. Before that, he was a Crossword Constructor there. Pasco has also freelanced for publications’ crosswords, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed Puzzles, and more.

Previously, the Jeopardy! champion worked as a Games Editor at LinkedIn and a Data Scientist at ASML.

Pasco is a Harvard Graduate

Pasco received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science from Harvard University in 2022. While there, he was a member of many groups, including being the president, treasurer, and social media manager of the Three Letter Acronym Improv, a lyricist and tech crew member for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Asian Students Arts Project, proctor of the First-Year Arts Program, Asian American Christian Fellowship, and Asian American Dance Troupe.

He wrote a book

Ok, the book is filled with crossword puzzles, but still, Pasco is a published author. He released Pause for Puzzles: Easy Crosswords for Serenity in May 2025. The book is 128 pages long and features 56 10×10 easy crosswords. It has “themes designed to keep you relaxed and entertained throughout your stress-free solving session,” according to its publisher, Hachette Books.

His love for crosswords began in 8th Grade

Growing up in San Diego, California, Pasco was on a family road trip when he discovered his love for crossword puzzles in eighth grade, according to his Alumni Profile on Harvard’s website. He downloaded The New York Times crossword app on his tablet and fell in love with it by the end of the trip. Pasco loved other puzzles before then, like Sudoku and the Dell Magazine puzzle books from airports.

“There’s this picture of crossword puzzles where you have to know stuff to finish them,” Pasco told the outlet. “That trip was when I realized they were cool, and you didn’t have to know everything. You just had to know some amount of words, and then let context take you the rest of the way.”

From there, he began writing puzzles and became a published puzzle writer in his freshman year of high school, according to Harvard Magazine.

Pasco has his own blog

Grids These Days is a blog that was created by Pasco, where he releases his own puzzles. The tagline reads, “Crossword puzzles. Not every Sunday, but any Sunday.” Most of them include a pop culture feel with the occasional 1940s opera singers thrown into the mix.

On his blog, he also revealed that when he is not writing puzzles that he enjoys golf and movies.

Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock