Erik Agard (born 1993) is a

crossword A crossword (or crossword puzzle) is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of cl ...

solver, constructor, and editor. He is the winner of the 2016

Lollapuzzoola Lollapuzzoola is a crossword-solving tournament held annually on a Saturday in August. Founded in 2008 by Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht, it is the second-largest crossword tournament in the United States, and the only major tournament in New York ...

Express Division, the 2018

American Crossword Puzzle Tournament The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament h ...

(ACPT), a frequent contributor to the ''New York Times'' crossword puzzle, a crossword constructor for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', the former ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' crossword editor, and a former ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' contestant. He is currently a crossword editor at

Apple News+ Apple News is a news aggregator app developed by Apple Inc., for its iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS operating systems. The iOS version was launched with the release of iOS 9. It is the successor to the Newsstand app included in previous versi ...

. He was described by the ''Washington Post'' in 2013 as "the nation's top teen crossword puzzle solver." He has been celebrated for helping to increase diversity and inclusion in crosswords: the puzzles that he edited at ''USA Today'' were primarily constructed by women and people of color, and contain references to pieces of media and culture that other mainstream outlets do not consider "standard knowledge". For instance, the February 19, 2022 crossword puzzle contained the clue you're telling me a cis ___ built this chapel?" (@RileyJohnSavage tweet)for the entry TEEN. During his appearance on ''Jeopardy!'', his use of a meme in answer to a question gained widespread notice. After beating 5-time champion Alan Dunn, he won $66,802 over the course of four appearances. In 2018, Agard was featured on a ''

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is an American monthly sports news magazine that aired on HBO from April 2, 1995 to December 19, 2023. The program was presented by television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. Overview Format Each ...

'' segment about crossword puzzles.

References

External links

Erik Agard's Crosswords at the New Yorker
Crossword creators Contestants on American game shows USA Today people The New Yorker people Living people 1993 births {{US-bio-stub