Mattea Roach, the 23-year-old “Jeopardy!” champion, flew past competitor after competitor. Some games were nail-biting: in one go she beat her opponent by just a dollar. But the LSAT teacher, who graduated from the University of Toronto in 2020, ended her streak on Friday, winning 23 consecutive games and earning $560,983 (plus a $2000 consolation prize for her loss). She is one of the most winning players of the regular season, just behind Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider.
Like Mr. Jennings, Mrs. Schneider, and Arthur Chu before her, Mrs. Roach achieved crossover fame during her tenure on the show.
She caught the attention of “Jeopardy!” fans in part because of her signature style of play: she tended to bet small on the likes of Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy.
But her demeanor also attracts attention. Mrs. Roach gestures (and not just with her hands – her wrists join in the action too, and have become the subject of social media attention†
All “Danger!” participants answer in the form of questions, of course, but Ms. Roach landed her answer with an extra layer of upspeak. As she puzzled through her answers, she spoke aloud to herself — or was it addressed to the host or the audience at home? Her playing can be disarmingly casual. On the Final Jeopardy cue that ended her streak, she added a lowercase “idk” (text slang for “I don’t know”) to her scribbled, incorrect answer.
Ms. Roach was the most talked-about Gen Zer to appear on the show, and her fashion sense mirrored her generation. She appeared in what might be called the Merkel core (as in the former Chancellor of Germany): Her signature look was bold, boxy blazers.
Ms. Roach says her fame was a surprise.
“I don’t know if there’s any way to psychologically prepare for this kind of thing,” she said in an interview on Friday as her streak ended. Still, she thought for a moment about what she was wearing.
This interview has been edited and abridged.
Do you get a lot of recognition on the street?
I hadn’t been home the whole time the games were broadcast, so I hadn’t seen any of them with my parents in Nova Scotia. We drove to Cape Breton yesterday to see my grandparents and came back to Halifax today. My mother and I stopped at this restaurant on the side of the road. I was wearing a KN95 mask and one of the women who worked in the restaurant said, “I recognize you by your earrings.” I swear it was like 10 women coming out of the kitchen, like clowns coming out of a clown car. They just kept coming to say hello.
How would you describe your personal style?
How can I describe it that can be printed in The Times… I’ll put it this way: I dress like a lesbian. I saw a lot of tweets after my first gig where I hadn’t really, like, publicly talked about my orientation or identity from people who were queer, which were like: We can tell.
I certainly dress more masculine; I’m either wearing completely neutral shades, or if I’m going to wear something floral, it’s going to be very garish and very loud. Even when I go to an event, I want to feel comfortable.
If you see me in the summer, I’m one of those people who loot Old Navy for all the horrible print shirts I can find or go to thrift stores looking for all the great Hawaiian daddy shirts.
What went through your mind when you thought about your appearance on the show?
I started rabbit holes a little before the show. I realized that there is a Twitter accountIt’s not about what people wear on the show.
I thought, okay, I want to make sure I’m wearing something that I feel I look good on. I was much more concerned about feeling comfortable with what I was wearing.
I bought exactly one item new: a tweed blazer. Everything else was stuff I already had. With the exception of one time, I wore this black vest that came out of the closet because I think they were like, we need to put on another layer so that something else is going on. And of course I wasn’t too happy about having to wear the vest out of the closet, but it was fine.
I wore the same pants almost every game because you don’t see them – these black stretchy Palazzo pants from Zara. The only time I wore different pants was two episodes where I wore a jumpsuit.
Do you do a lot of second-hand shopping?
Most of the blazers I wore to the show came from vintage or thrift stores in Toronto—with the exception of a crushed velvet blazer, which I got from a friend who was cleaning out her closet.
That way, it’s easier to find high-quality pieces at a reasonable price. I like the idea that it is more durable.
I’m not a big Value Village or Goodwill shopper just because I don’t like shopping that much. I just don’t like the process of sorting through a lot of garments. So the places I go are usually places that have already put together a selection.
Are you a Depop girl†
No I am not. I’ve tried to look around there. They don’t have a wide variety of sizes. A lot of times I find that a lot of people might buy things that are too big and then make a two piece shirt out of what used to be a shirt and I think, well, I can’t wear that.
It is clear that your financial situation has changed as a result of your presence on the show. Do you think your style will change with it?
I don’t know my style will change. I think I’ll probably feel a bit more free to buy a lot more expensive. I don’t even take Ubers, although I can definitely afford it, because I just hate spending money. So I don’t think I’ll suddenly go out and completely renew my wardrobe.
I’ll probably take the opportunity to buy at least one suit and have it custom made because that’s something I think, especially as a woman, is quite difficult to do and can be quite expensive. I have never been able to find a two piece fitting suit where both pieces fit me.
Do you keep the blazers? Or have you already burned them?
No, I love my blazers, why should I get rid of them?
I saw you tweet, “My identity is irrelevant to how well I performed on the show. But it’s relevant because I’m someone who is read as queer in real life because of the way I dress, talk to my body, and other elusive factors.” How did you see that play?
I want to make sure that if I’m just going to do this one time, I’m doing it in a way that I’m proud of.
I wasn’t really trying to moderate in any major way how I was talking. I knew I didn’t want to dress more feminine than I normally would just to look better for a hypothetical person in Central America who might not like the way I dress. I’m glad I pushed forward as my authentic self as it would have been a lot of steam for me to uphold a certain image that didn’t match who I am in so many games.
I didn’t think about it in terms of, “Oh, it’s going to be so important for people to see a young queer on the show.” As far as I thought that mattered, it was especially important to me.
