Background
Kelly grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and attended Newton North High School where she helped lead the science bowl team to national competition.
Kelly grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and attended Newton North High School where she helped lead the science bowl team to national competition.
She graduated from Princeton University in 2002 and completed a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, studying the history of archaeology in 19th century Mexico.
She is a writer and academic. She played quiz bowl at both Princeton and Berkeley. Her sister Arianna was defeated in her initial Jeopardy! appearance, in part due to questionable calls that prompted Standards and Practices to bring her back for a second appearance.
In her second appearance, Arianna was defeated by Aaron Schroeder, who later faced Larissa in the 2009 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals.
In the 2009 Jeopardy! She lost to Pawson in the second game after she missed the Final Jeopardy! clue, which required identifying George II of Great Britain as the last British ruler to be born outside the United Kingdom. Kelly is a science fiction author, who has had one story published at Strange Horizons.
Excluding tournament winnings, Kelly is the second-highest winning female contestant and ranks seventh all-time in Jeopardy! earnings. Kelly is also the second-highest winning female contestant in any single game in Jeopardy!"s history.
Kelly returned to participate in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament in 2014, but was eliminated in the first round, winning $5,000.
Jeopardy! records
Longest streak (from first appearance) of correct Final Jeopardy! responses, with 10 (later surpassed by Ben Ingram, who had 12 correct responses)
Longest winning streak on Jeopardy!.