Yänjaa Westgate, known as Yanjaa, is a New York-based Swedish-Mongolian memory champion, comedian, and television personality. She first gained international recognition for her achievements in memory sports before expanding into entertainment, appearing on numerous television shows, documentaries and performing stand-up and sketch comedy.

Early life and education

Born in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

with primarily Indigenous Siberian Buryat descent, Yanjaa grew up across multiple cultures. Her international upbringing included time on the Mongolian steppe,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Tokyo, and

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, where she attended the Swedish School of Nairobi. She graduated from

Stockholm Business School Stockholm Business School (SBS; ) is one of the largest academic departments at Stockholm University with around 3 500 students and 120 researchers/lecturers. SBS offers BSc, MSc programmes along with PhD. Through close ties with other academic ...

with a degree in Business and Economics.

Career

Memory championships

Yanjaa was originally inspired to compete after reading ''

Moonwalking with Einstein ''Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything'' is a nonfiction book by Joshua Foer, first published in 2011. ''Moonwalking with Einstein'' debuted at number 3 on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list and stayed on ...

'' by American author

Joshua Foer Joshua Foer (born September 23, 1982) is a freelance journalist and author living in Brookline, Massachusetts, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 USA Memory Champion, which was described in his 2011 book, '' Moonwalking with Eins ...

, having discovered memory techniques while struggling with her university studies. Within her first year of memory training, she won team gold and first place in names and faces at the

World Memory Championships The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of ...

. She achieved the title of International Grandmaster of Memory, becoming one of only 22 people to hold this distinction. Her most notable achievements include breaking three world records: memorizing 212 names and faces in 15 minutes (2017), 360 random images in 5 minutes (2018), and 145 random words in 5 minutes (2018). Together with Mongolian teammate Munkhshur Narmandakh, they became the first women in history to place at the world event, securing bronze and silver positions respectively out of over 130 contestants. In 2016, she was invited as one of the top 200 ''Leaders of Tomorrow'' at the 46th St. Gallen Symposium in St. Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

for her achievements in memory sports.

Television and entertainment

Yanjaa gained mainstream attention in 2017 when she became the "

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

Human Catalogue," memorizing the entire 328-page catalogue in one week. The campaign garnered international media attention with press conferences in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, won both the people's voice and jury's

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for best social media campaign in 2018. She has since appeared in several notable productions, including Netflix's '' The Mind, Explained'' (2019), a limited series narrated by

Emma Stone Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actr ...

, and HBO's ''

How to with John Wilson ''How To with John Wilson'' is an American television comedy docuseries created by filmmaker John Wilson. The series, executive produced by Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman and Clark Reinking, was ordered by HBO. It premiered on October 23, 2020. ...

'' (2020). Her documentary ''Memory Games'' (2018) premiered to a sold-out audience in New York before being acquired by Netflix. Her expertise in memory training and language learning has been featured in

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, and

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

, among other international publications. In 2020, Yanjaa hosted ''Minnet'', a Spotify-exclusive podcast exploring memory techniques with celebrity guests. She later transitioned into comedy, performing at venues across North America and Europe and winning several comedy competitions. In 2024, she joined ''IFS – invandrare för svenskar'' (IFS – Immigrants for Swedes), a prominent comedy panel show on Sweden's national broadcaster SVT.

Selected filmography

Records and achievements

* World Memory Championships: 18th overall (2014), 8th place (2015), 3rd overall (2017) * National Championships: Bronze medal (2014), Silver medal (2015) * Highest World Ranking: No. 7 (September 2018) As of 2018, Yanjaa holds three world records in memory sports: * 15-minute Names & Faces: 212 names (2017) * 5-minute Random Images: 360 images (2018) * 5-minute Random Words: 145 words (2018)

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Official website
Living people Swedish women comedians Swedish television personalities Mnemonists Year of birth missing (living people)