Jeopardy! fans are in for some star power this week — though not in the form of Emma Stone (at least, not yet!).
Brett Kelly, who starred as Thurman Merman opposite Billy Bob Thorton in the very R-rated Christmas comedy Bad Santa (2003), will compete on Wednesday, October 23’s episode.
Just eight when he appeared in the cult classic, Kelly is now 31. Listed as an actor from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, he will face the returning champion and Sophia Mayudes, a Seattle, Washington software engineer:
An eagle-eyed fan caught wind of Kelly’s addition to the Contestant Zone on Monday, titling a post in the Jeopardy! subreddit: “The Kid from Bad Santa (Brett Kelly) is going to be a contestant on Wednesday’s Jeopardy.”
They added: “The actor who played ‘The Kid’ in Bad Santa, Brett Kelly, with that instantly recognizable face, is going to be a contestant on Wednesday’s Jeopardy! episode. He was also in Trick r’ Treat. This is becoming an odd trend I’m noticing on game shows where I see recognizable actors or former actors from popular movies appear as civilian contestants.”
Other fans flooded the comments section over the jolly news, excited to see how he’ll do.
“If only someone could make us some sandwiches for the watch party…” one person wrote referencing one of Kelly’s most iconic Bad Santa lines.
“Nice! I just watched Trick R Treat and immediately thought ‘Isn’t that the kid from Bad Santa?’” wrote another.
“There was the actor who was in Titanic that was on Jeopardy,” noted a third referring to Nick Cascone from Season 40.
Kelly was the adorably pudgy, unexpected pal to Willie (Thornton), a thief who gets hired as a mall Santa every yuletide to rob the joint after hours. Thurman — convinced Willie really is Santa — served as a heartwarming foil to the conman and eventually became close friends. Bad Santa also starred Bernie Mac and Lauren Graham.
Kelly has since starred in the classic Halloween anthology Trick r’ Treat (2007), Bad Santa 2 (2016), and the CW series Family Law (2021-current). “I’ve been living an extremely normal and boring life. I went to a regular high school, graduated from university, and basically that brings us up to this point,” he recently told Today.
He told Cracked that even two decades later, he still gets recognized for his first, and biggest role: “I don’t get it as much anymore. But whenever I have my hair longer and curlier and it’s Christmas, that is the recipe for I’m going to probably get a lot of people coming up to me.”
“It’s on TV every Christmas, there’s no escaping from it. Every channel seems to have it on at some point.”
Are you excited to see Brett Kelly on Jeopardy!? Let us know in the comments section below!