A university challenge competition that was so good that he was hired by producers to work on the program is the son of two renowned professors, has learned MailOnline.
Harrison Whitaker from Cambridge University, 26, has proved to be one of the best performing participants in the history of the Academic Quiz Show in recent episodes.
Now it has become clear that his genius might have been 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 stunning quiz competence with a job that worked on the next series of university challenge, no one will be more proud of Harrison than his parents, professors Todd and Beth Whitaker.
The couple supported the film study of Terre Haute, Indiana during his extraordinary quizzing run.
When Harrison was captain of Cambridge's Quiz Bowl team two years ago – for a non -television match against archrival Oxford in which Harisson cut his teeth – his proud father said: 'No modest scooping here. Just brag. Our son Harrison is captain of the Cambridge University Quiz Bowl team. '
Todd continued with his American friends: 'Their arch -rival is Oxford University (think of Harvard v Yale). They play in a double match once a year and Oxford has long been dominant.
'Today, Cambridge Oxford beat for the first time in decades and they won the last question. Proud of my captain. Proud of my son. '
Harrison Whittaker with his father professor Todd Whittaker from the University of Missouri
PhD student Harrison Whitaker from Cambridge University, 26, has become one of the best performing participants in the history of the show
Harrison grew up in the Midwestern region of the United States and brought its forming years by the academic world that went to high school in the university city of Terre Haute.
Known as 'The Crossroads of America', the city is the home of a number of Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Ivy Tech College of Indiana.
As a well -completed student, Harrison not only excelled in his studies, but also on the sports field – breaking records in the 4,000 m sprint on the Terre North Vigo High School.
Weekends in his hometown brought by his family to watch basketball games and even meet sporting legends such as Larry King.
After graduating from high school, Harrison, who has two sisters Katherine and Madeline, went to the big city of New York.
He started studying English and American literature at New York University, Ghostwriting as a part -time job.
Harrison then continued his studies at the Ivy League Columbia University and studied English and comparative literature.
Already a star in the making, the young person received a prize for the best dissertation in his field.
Harrison Whitaker has been rewarded for his performances at university challenge by being hired to write questions for the show
After the pandemic, at the end of 2021, he moved to the UK to start his promotion in film at Cambridge University.
There he was fully immersed in academic quizzes and quickly became captain of different teams.
At the end of his quiz-bowl career last May, his father said, who is a professor in educational leadership: 'Today, Cambridge won again and Harrison, who graduates this year, for the second time.
'Great way to finish his Bowl career quiz. Proud of my captain. Proud of my son. '
A long way from home Harrison returns to the United States every summer, where his parents also make to Europe to visit him.
“I am from the United States, I am flying home this summer to visit my family, and I certainly judge anyone else who does the same,” he wrote in a university magazine about the addiction of students “to short migration flights.
In another piece he later wrote about his plea for the UK to stop importing American fast food chains.
“Handwring about the Americanization of this country dates more than a century, but to import fast food, of all things, seems a particularly terrible sign to the future,” he wrote in Varsity.
Harrison's parents Todd and Beth are both respected academics at the University of Missouri
“Let's hope that the next large transatlantic shipment – whether it is paranoid politics, gun violence, pick trucks, culture wars or an unholy cocktail of that – is not worse.”
The 26-year-old, greeting University Challenge-Gastheer Amol Rajan Gobsmacked this year after he almost pulled his Cambridge team to the semi-final on his own.
“I don't try to choose individuals, but Harrison that you were absolutely on fire,” said the BBC presenter after the promotional film student correctly answered the most questions at Darwin College.
But what started as a bit of fun for Harrison has now led to a full career, because he was hired as a writer for the next series of the long -running game show.
“It is exciting – and a bit strange – to answer questions on one series to write them for the next,” the student told Cambridge to The Times since then.
“I just hope that I can play a small role in future participants and teams that have just as much fun in the show as with Darwin.”
In the quarterfinals of University Challenge against the University of Bristol, Harrison spent his team with a win of 160-150 in a close run match.
He received eight of the nine starter-for-ten questions, including a crucial tie-break on the poetry of John Keats.
Other answers covered topics, including 3D printing, Griots, The Crying of Lot 49, Noodsity, Richard II, Jean-Francois Lyotard, the return of the native and Keats Ode to autumn.
Since then it has been confirmed that Harrison's list of questions will appear on a future series of university challenge.
