‘Jeopardy!’ Fan Fave Mattea Roach Opens Up About Financial Struggles Before Winning $800K

Martin Holmes August 30, 2024, 8:06 am

Jeopardy! super-champ Mattea Roach has been opening up about their life before appearing on the hit game show, revealing they were on government benefits before bagging over $800,000.

In a new video interview with CBC, the 25-year-old former Law School Admission Test tutor from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was asked about their financial situation prior to their impressive Jeopardy! 23-game winning streak.

“I was actually on E.I. when I was taping Jeopardy!,” Roach shared.

E.I. is Canadian Employment Insurance, which “provides temporary income support to unemployed workers while they look for employment or to upgrade their skills.”

“I had to file my little ‘no no, no, yes, no’ [form] while I was taping Jeopardy!,” Roach continued. “And I, of course, got docked for being out of the country, and they asked, ‘Were you out of the country looking for work?'”

“And I was like, ‘In a sense,'” Roach quipped. “I was out of the country chasing a fortune. But that’s not something the E.I. people want to hear, right?”

Roach made their first appearance on Jeopardy! on April 5, 2022, and went on to win 23 games, winning $560,983 and becoming the most successful Canadian to play Jeopardy! They also placed in fifth for all-time consecutive games won.

After their Jeopardy! success, Roach qualified for the Tournament of Champions and Jeopardy! Masters, finishing in second place in the latter competition. They returned for the second season of Masters earlier this year but failed to make the finals.

Through all their appearances, Roach has amassed $810,983, putting them in sixth place for all-time winnings (including tournaments).

Roach told CBC their financial situation was why they didn’t take many risky wagers on the Daily Doubles. “I was not in a position where I felt comfortable throwing around house money,” they explained. “Because it meant something to me, really concretely.”

“If you were more financially comfortable and used to wagering money, you would just realize the right thing to do is go big,” they added.

Roach never hid their financial situation while on the show, even declaring after their first win, “All my student loans are paid off!”

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However, Roach told CBC they never needed to use the money to pay off their student loans as Canada decided to end interest on university payments. Instead, Roach used their winnings to improve their credit score.

As for what’s next for Roach, they announced on Tuesday, August 27, that they’ll be hosting a literature radio show on The CBC called Bookends With Mattea Roach this fall.

“I’m enough of a cynic that I gave up on the idea of a ‘dream job’ forever ago, but if reading books and interviewing authors for the national public broadcaster isn’t a dream job I don’t know what is,” Roach wrote on X earlier this week. “Bookends begins airing September 8, I am so proud and excited!”

I’m enough of a cynic that I gave up on the idea of a “dream job” forever ago, but if reading books and interviewing authors for the national public broadcaster isn’t a dream job I don’t know what is. Bookends begins airing September 8, I am so proud and excited

— Mattea Roach (@mattearoach) August 27, 2024