Trans ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Built Bridges While Breaking Records

America got to know Amy​

Schneider’s run of 40 Jeopardy! wins is the second-most successful in the show’s history. As part of her streak, she became the first openly transgender contestant to qualify for the annual Tournament of Champions, making her mark with a distinctive buzzer style, which she told Good Morning America comes from instinct and feel, and her ever-present pearls, a gift from her girlfriend.

Schneider grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and told the Journal-News that Jeopardy! was a fixture in her household. Her father auditioned for the show, and her mother was a math professor at several local universities. Growing up, Schneider was active in her high school’s theater program, which she said gave her confidence on the Jeopardy! stage.

It was that theater experience that helped her reconcile her gender identity before coming out in 2016. Schneider noted on Twitter that performing in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream helped her begin to accept herself, writing that “dressing up as a woman every night felt shockingly right to me.”

Throughout her Jeopardy! run Schneider posted analyses of her wins on Twitter, amassing more than 100,000 followers.

While Schneider isn’t exactly downplaying her success, she does often remind the world that she is just a woman showing off her skills in a game that is well suited to them.

“Jeopardy!’s central gimmick ... teaches an underrated skill, which is simply understanding what you’re being asked,” Schneider recently wrote in a piece she penned for the sports and culture website Defector. “The gimmick of the show forces a weird kind of syntax on the clues, so that, oftentimes, you have to untangle the question before you can even begin to find the answer.”

Schneider has said in interviews that she didn’t really have a specific strategy when playing a game of Jeopardy! Instead, she told USA Today, she tried to bet on herself by going big on Daily Doubles when the opportunity presented itself and just tried to keep her run going.

Far-reaching impact

Schneider’s visibility on Jeopardy! and her winning streak have had an impact on the transgender community, whether Schneider set out to have one or not. For many Americans it was their first time seeing a transgender person regularly – even if only through a video screen.

“Amy Schneider’s incredible run on Jeopardy! allows families all over the country to get to know her as someone who is great at word puzzles, has in-depth knowledge on a range of topics and who also happens to be a transgender woman,” says Nick Adams, director of transgender representation at GLAAD. “Amy is using her history-making appearances and new platform to raise awareness of transgender issues and share a bit of her personal story, too.”

Schneider’s reach has gone beyond success on television. Some in the trans community have found that her wins on a mainstream show viewed by millions have created a deeper understanding of who a transgender person is.

For Madeleine Anderson, 30, from Connecticut, Schneider’s visibility has been helpful in improving her relationship with her grandparents. When Anderson first came out as transgender to her grandparents last September, they were confused and said they “needed more time” to digest the news, Anderson says. She worried that her grandparents might be intolerant of those in the LGBTQ community, but a recent visit went smoothly. Her grandmother admitted she wasn’t sure what to think of Anderson’s transition until she saw Schneider’s run on Jeopardy! and became a fan.

“I’m pretty sure that this was the first time [my grandmother] had ever seen any positive representation of trans people in news or media before — certainly one where we weren’t portrayed as scary or weird or where our trans-ness was the center of our identity,” Anderson says. “I don’t think this was the only thing that made her accepting, of course. But I think it helped smooth the path to help her think of transition as something not shocking, and just part of life.”​

Sydney Bauer is contributing writer who covers sports, politics, and major events through the lens of identity and gender. Her work has appeared in outlets including Reuters, them., the Daily Beast, and The New Republic.