After impressing bosses with his performance in University Challenge, contestant Harrison Whitaker has revealed it’s landed him an unlikely career.

The student competed as part of Cambridge’s Darwin College in the BBC quiz show earlier this year, with even host Amol Rajan praising his performance and saying he was ‘absolutely on fire.’

Now, Harrison has revealed that he’s landed a role on University Challenge’s next series, but this time he will be writing the questions.

Harrison, who was the team captain for Darwin College, almost single-handedly led his team into the semi-finals on this year’s series.

In the quarter-final against the University of Bristol, he helped to edge his team to a 160-150 victory in a close-run contest.

Harrison first joined Darwin College in 2021 to study a PhD in film and screen studies, and during the quarter-final, he got eight out of nine starter-for-ten questions right, including a crucial tie-break on the poetry of John Keats. 

After impressing bosses with his performance in University Challenge, contestant Harrison Whitaker has revealed it’s landed him a new job, writing questions for the show

Other answers covered subjects including 3D-printing, griots, The Crying of Lot 49, Necessity, Richard II, Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Return of the Native and Keats’s ode To Autumn. 

Harrison originally hails from the US, and previously studied at New York and Colombia universities, and he previously shared gender, counterculture and critical theory are among his interests.

Speaking about his new job, Harrison told The Times: ‘It’s thrilling — and a bit strange – to go from answering questions on one series to writing them for the next.

‘I just hope that I can play some small part in future contestants and teams having as much fun on the show as I did with Darwin.’

A spokesperson for ITV also told the publication that Harrison’s questions will feature on a future series of University Challenge, and his time on the show was actually filmed in April last year.  

During Harrison’s appearance in the semi-final, he and his team also left viewers in hysterics with the show’s ‘funniest ever answer.’

Darwin College faced off Bristol University to secure a place in the semi-final during Monday’s episode of the quiz show.

For the picture round, the teams were shown a map of the US and a pH๏τo of a musical artist, before being asked to name the singer and the тιтle of the single, which included the name of the settlement shown. 

The student competed as part of Cambridge’s Darwin College in the BBC quiz show earlier this year, with even host Amol Rajan praising his performance

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One of the images shown was of the iconic star Tina Turner, but the team were left stumped trying to guess the 1973 song name or settlement.

Attempting a sH๏τ in the dark, one of the team captains said: ‘This is so wrong – is it Chattanooga Choo Choo?’

Host Amol Rajan burst out laughing at the answer as he revealed the answer was in fact Tina’s hit song Nutbush City Limits.

Viewers found the answer hilarious, with one deeming it one of the funniest to grace the show.  

Taking to X, formerly Twitter,  they wrote: ‘Think I just heard Tina turn in her grave,’;

‘Tina Turner – Chattanopga Choo Choo. Gotta be funniest answer EVER!!’; 

‘Tina Turner’s Chattanooga Choo-Choo,’; ‘Tina Turner and her hit song “Chattanooga Choo Choo” [face palm],’;

‘Whitaker shouldn’t feel embarrᴀssed about his “Chattanooga Choo Choo”- I always get Tina Turner mixed up with the Glenn Miller Orchestra too,’;

‘Unusual to have NOT heard of Nutbush City Limits, but to know Chattanooga ChooChoo,’;

‘Tina Turner – Chattanooga Choo Choo. They’re on the wrong track there.’