‘Jeopardy!’ winner Brayden Smith suddenly dead at 24
Brayden Smith, the 24-year-old “Jeopardy!” winner dubbed Alex Trebek’s last great champion on social media, has died suddenly.
Born in Henderson, Nevada, Smith died Feb. 5 in Las Vegas, according to his obituary published in The Las Vegas Review-Journal. No cause of death was listed.
“We are heartbroken to share that our dear Brayden Smith recently passed away unexpectedly. We are so grateful that Brayden was able to live out his dream on Jeopardy,” his mom, Debbie Smith, tweeted Friday.
.In December, Smith rattled off a five-game winning streak in which he amassed more than $116,000 and was likely to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. His victory run was the final significant spree with Trebek — who died last November of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80 — helming the podium.
“Everybody knows he is ailing,” Smith said of Trebek during a TV interview. “To put on a brave face to go out there every day and continue to give America and the world some good cheer, especially this year, was really a testament to how great of a person he was.”
Smith graduated from UNLV in 2020 with a degree in economics. He recently interned at the Cato Institute in Washington, where he did research on criminal-justice issues, and intended to attend law school.
He was also a lover of music, film and sports, according to his obituary.
Smith’s family has established the Brayden Smith Memorial Fund in his honor to support “the educational aspirations of southern Nevada students,” reported ETCanada.