Chris D’Angelo has put himself one win away from $100,000 on Jeopardy!, after reaching five victories and $97,000 as of May 27, 2026. He is scheduled to play his sixth game on Wednesday, with a shot at crossing the six-figure mark.
That is the kind of run that turns a longtime applicant into a must-watch contestant. D’Angelo said he had tried to get on Jeopardy! for 21 years before finally getting the call, and the show’s audience now knows him as one of its notable giant killers after he took down 10-game champion Tristan Williams. He was also the first contestant since Josh Weikert to win less than $100,000 in five games, which makes Wednesday’s game feel like a threshold, not just another appearance.
D’Angelo is from Havertown, Pennsylvania, and lives in Washington, D.C. He works as a content manager and has said he loves trivia. On LinkedIn, he is listed as a Social Studies Content Manager at Albert.io, where he has worked since 2022. Before that, he was a history teacher and also coached school theater auditions. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Drama from the University of Virginia and a Master’s of Science in Curriculum and Instruction from Florida International University.
The other reason his story has traveled is that it never belonged only to him. D’Angelo comes from a trivia family, and his sister Jen D’Angelo said, “Chris knows everything. We were like a very trivia-forward family,” while his brother Rob D’Angelo is an author and trivia host. Chris has also joked on the show, “Maybe you can call me ‘Quiz Guy,’” and said he had little in common with Awkwafina’s character beyond a shared obsession with the game and the years spent trying to get on it.
There is still a wrinkle in the story: even after becoming the fourth giant killer to advance to the Tournament of Champions by winning five games, he had not yet reached the $100,000 mark as of the May 27 update. That leaves Wednesday as the moment that decides whether his streak becomes a neat television milestone or a bigger one. Either way, after 21 years of trying to get there, D’Angelo has already turned a long wait into one of the season’s most closely watched runs.
