Seemingly unbeatable Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider has quit her job as an engineering manager to work on a book and become a full-time public figure. And in one of her first public appearances since her shows aired, she'll be appearing at the Commonwealth Club on Thursday.
The 42-year-old Schneider, who lives with her girlfriend in Oakland, tweeted Tuesday that she'd just quit her job the day before.
"It's a bit nerve-wracking to pivot from software engineer to... public figure, I guess? But regardless of the outcome I'm so excited to spend the next couple years at least tackling this new challenge!" she wrote.
After going on her historic, 40-game winning streak — which was shot in the fall but just finished airing in late January — Schneider made the rounds of national media in recent weeks. That included a piece in the New York Times in which she talked about the stresses of balancing her work life with flying down to LA and back for weeks on end to shoot her episodes. She revealed that she'd already taken a demotion at her day job, and recently she told ABC 7 that she was focused now on putting a book proposal together — to "put all the stuff she's been thinking about during her life into a book."
Schneider is trans and she's explained that she only transitioned after a divorce in 2016. She originally moved to Oakland in 2009 with her then wife after visiting friends in the East Bay who went to Berkeley, saying they both immediately fell in love with the Bay Area.
Schneider now holds the record for the most wins and the most winnings of any female in player in Jeopardy! history — $1,382,800 in total — and she's second only to Ken Jennings in the number of consecutive game she won.
The Commonwealth Club talk this week will be in conversation with Michelle Meow, who produces LGBTQ events for the club. It's Thursday at 12:30 p.m. PT, and you can buy a ticket to attend in person or to watch a livestream.
As the club said in its announcement, "There’s nothing minor about her historic run on one of the most respected game shows in the country, and she’s having a major impact on attitudes about the trans community."
It's still too early to know what Schneider may be up to in the coming months when it comes to being a newly minted public figure — I can imagine she's up for a stint on ABC game show The Chase at the very least, which has given further trivia-answering opportunities to other all-time Jeopardy! champs Jennings, James Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter.
As Schneider said in a Twitter Spaces interview after her winning streak ended, she has an agent at CAA (Creative Artists Agency), and she's been "having a lot of meetings" with said agent. And, she added, she's "excited about all kinds of different things, and I’m just trying to drink from the fire hose of what they’re trying to talk about."
Previously: 'Jeopardy!' Champ Amy Schneider Ends 40-Game Winning Streak By Forgetting About Bangladesh