EXCLUSIVENo wonder he got the job! University Challenge contestant so clever he's been hired to write the questions is the son of TWO professors
A University Challenge contestant who was so good that he was hired by producers to work on the programme is the son of two renowned professors, MailOnline has learned.
Cambridge University Phd student Harrison Whitaker, 26, has in recent episodes proved one of the highest performing contestants in the academic quiz show’s history.
Now it’s become clear that his genius was perhaps in his genes - because his parents are both highly respected academics from the University of Missouri, we can reveal.
After he was rewarded for his staggering quiz prowess with a job working on the next series of University Challenge, no one will be prouder of Harrison than his parents, Professors Todd and Beth Whitaker.
The pair have supported the Film Studies student from Terre Haute, Indiana, throughout his extraordinary quizzing run.
When Harrison became captain of Cambridge’s Quiz Bowl team two years ago - for a non-televised match against arch rivals Oxford at which Harisson cut his teeth - his proud father said: ‘No humble brag here. Just a brag. Our son Harrison is captain of the Cambridge University Quiz Bowl team.’
Todd went on to explain to his US friends: ‘Their arch rival is Oxford University (think of Harvard v Yale). They play once a year in a dual match and Oxford has long been dominant.
‘Today Cambridge beat Oxford for the first time in decades and they won on the final question. Proud of my captain. Proud of my son.’
Harrison Whittaker with his father Professor Todd Whittaker from the University of Missouri
Cambridge University Phd student Harrison Whitaker, 26, has become one of the highest performing contestants in the show’s history
Harrison grew up in the Midwestern region of the United States, spending his formative years surrounded by academia attending high school in the college town of Terre Haute.
Known as ‘the crossroads of America’ the city is home to a number of universities Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.
As a well-rounded student, Harrison not only excelled at his studies but also on the sports field - breaking records in the 4,000m sprint at the Terre Haute North Vigo High School.
Weekends in his hometown were spent watching basketball games with his family and even meeting sporting legends such as Larry King.
After graduating from high school, Harrison, who has two sisters Katherine and Madeline, headed to the big city of New York.
He began studying English and American Literature at the New York University, ghostwriting as a part-time job.
Harrison then continued his studies at the Ivy League Columbia University, studying English and Comparative Literature.
Already a star in the making, the youngster was awarded a prize for the best dissertation in his field.
Harrison Whitaker has been rewarded for his performances on University Challenge by being hired to write questions for the show
Following the pandemic, at the end of 2021, he moved over to the UK to start his PhD in film at Cambridge University.
It was there he got fully immersed in academic quizzes, quickly becoming captain of several teams.
Upon the end of his quiz-bowl career last May, his father, who is a professor of educational leadership said: ‘Today Cambridge won again and Harrison, who graduates this year, won for the second time.
‘Great way to finish his quiz bowl career. Proud of my captain. Proud of my son.’
A long way from home, Harrison returns home to the United States each summer, with his parents also making trips over to Europe to visit him.
‘I’m from the United States, I’ll be flying home this summer to visit my family, and I certainly don’t judge anyone else who does the same,’ he wrote in a university magazine discussing students ‘addiction’ to short haul flights.
In another piece, he later wrote of his plea for the UK to stop importing American fast food chains.
‘Hand-wringing over the Americanisation of this country dates back well over a century, but to be importing fast food, of all things, seems a particularly dire sign for the future,’ he wrote in Varsity.
Harrisons parents Todd and Beth are both respected academics at the University of Missouri
‘Let’s hope that the next big transatlantic shipment – be it paranoid politics, gun violence, pickup trucks, culture wars, or some unholy cocktail thereof – isn’t any worse.’
The 26-year-old, hailing left University Challenge host Amol Rajan gobsmacked this year after he almost single-handedly pulled his Cambridge team to the semi-final.
‘I try not to single out individuals, but Harrison you were absolutely on fire there,’ the BBC presenter said after the PhD film student correctly answered the majority of questions thrown at Darwin College.
Yet what started as a bit of fun for Harrison has now led to a full-on career as he’s been hired as a writer for the next series of the long-running game show.
‘It’s thrilling — and a bit strange - to go from answering questions on one series to writing them for the next,’ the student who has since graduated from Cambridge told The Times.
‘I just hope that I can play some small part in future contestants and teams having as much fun on the show as I did with Darwin.’
In the quarter-final of University Challenge against the University of Bristol, Harrison edged his team to a 160-150 victory in a close-run contest.
He got eight out of nine starter-for-ten questions right, including a crucial tie-break on the poetry of John Keats.
Other answers covered subjects including 3D-printing, griots, The Crying of Lot 49, Necessity, Richard II, Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Return of the Native and Keats’s ode To Autumn.
It has since been confirmed that Harrison’s list of questions will feature on a future series of University Challenge.
