Oakland schools received a big financial boost on Wednesday, April 23, when comedian W. Kamau Bell won the 2025 “Celebrity Jeopardy!” Tournament. He defeated entrepreneur Dave Friedberg and fellow comedian Robin Thede, winning $1 million for his charity of choice, DonorsChoose.
Bell was the only contestant to answer Final Jeopardy correctly. When asked by Ken Jennings, the show’s host, on the clue: “This comedy legend always credited his wife Ginnie for the idea behind what is still called one of the greatest finales in TV history.”, Bell answered “Bob Newhart”, cementing his win and a spot in the next Tournament of Champions.
According to its website, DonorsChoose is a national nonprofit organization, which aids teachers to request classroom supplies and enables donors to help fund public school projects. The organization was founded in 2000 by teacher Charles Best, who noticed his colleagues were often paying out of pocket for classroom materials.
Local station ABC7 News Bay Area reported that Bell’s Jeopardy winnings will go towards funding about 200 projects at various Oakland schools, including 20 at Castlemont High School. One of the projects being funded in the district is a refrigerator for a statewide farm to fork program that helps Californians access healthy and nutritious locally-grown food. The agency “administers food access and farm to school grant programs [and] connects school districts and community members directly with California’s farmers and ranchers.”
In an interview with Joseph Blasher, principal of Castlemont High, Bell stated Jeopardy’s donations fund existing projects already posted on DonorsChoose. Those projects ranged from “art materials to musical instruments, Amazon Fire Kindles for reading intervention, and snacks to incentivize students,” among other materials. Blasher goes on to say “…this should increase student engagement with more hands-on learning and much needed materials to keep learning relevant to student lives and help with learning environments.”
W. Kamau Bell was born in Palo Alto, graduated high school from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Illinois, and landed on becoming a comedian, eventually opening doors to directing and producing. Bell’s also on the Board of Directors at DonorsChoose, which may have influenced his choice of charity on “Celebrity Jeopardy!”. In addition, Bell is the ACLU’s Celebrity Ambassador for Racial Justice, and has a long history of activism.
If you’re looking for more primetime Jeopardy!, you can tune into Jeopardy Masters every Tuesday/Wednesday until June 4th on ABC 7 Bay Area. Check your local listings for exact times.
