Kevin Ashman
Widely considered one of the world's greatest quizzers, if not its very best quizzer, Ashman has dominated the British trivia scene. In addition to topping the World Quizzing Championship regularly, he has been a fixture on the UK quiz show circuit. He's been an Egghead since 2003, had a record-setting run on Mastermind, won all-star versions of Brain of Britain and Fifteen to One, and has also written for quiz shows. And these are just the highlights.
John Dicker and Joel Peach
In around 2005, NYC expat John Dicker was dissatisfied with the state of pub trivia in Colorado and started his own. Within a year he and Joel Peach had ten venues in the state. Today Geeks Who Drink has more than a thousand venues, dominating the pub trivia scene like McDonald's dominates burgers. In addition, its annual event, Geek Bowl, attracts more than 200 teams for an arena-sized pub trivia night. It even inspired a briefly run TV series.
Anne Hegerty
As the Governess, Anne Hegerty has become one of the most feared of the opponents on The Chase. She is so popular she also appears in the Australian version of the show. Known for appearing at events where quizzing fans congregate, Hegerty also made some headlines when she appeared on a UK reality show called I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. She was candid about being on the autism spectrum, opening a fresh dialogue.
Chris Hollister, Jonathan Oakes, Carmela Smith, Ben Young
In the 2014, Jonathan Oakes established the Trivial Warfare podcast with friend and archrival Chris Hollister. Carmela Smith and Ben Young began to appear in later episodes. Now, some 200 episodes later, Trivial Warfare is not only one of the longest standing trivia podcasts, but it has developed a social media community on Facebook that allows fans to interact with each other and with the stars of the show.
Mike Mailway (aka LM Boyd)
In 1963, LM Boyd started writing a column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer under the pseudonym Mike Mailway, based on the letters of his telephone number at the paper. He and his wife Patricia Boyd later self-syndicated the column around the US. The PI described it as "a glorious mix of personal assistance, practical advice and random data." He wrote the column until 2004, but even in Stan Newman's hands, it continued to run in Seattle under Boyd's name.
Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin had already had a long TV career when he lobbied ABC to bring the UK show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to the US. Because of Philbin's charm, the show became a massive hit and trivia became water-cooler conversation. Contestants became mini-celebrities. Philbin's appeal was such that his monochromatic style choices even became a fashion trend. Although WWTBAM is no longer on every weeknight, it continues in afternoon syndication.
