Emily Sharp-Kellar, 33, a longtime Hyde Park resident and "Jeopardy!" fan, is set to compete on Thursday’s episode of the classic quiz show. She is director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. (Jeopardy Productions, Inc.)

       A longtime Hyde Park resident and “Jeopardy!” fan, Emily Sharp-Kellar, 33, is getting ready to watch herself compete on Thursday’s episode of the classic quiz show.

       The director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Sharp-Kellar said family and friends have been eagerly waiting to watch how she performs since she got the call to be on the show in March.

       “My parents are big ‘Jeopardy!’ fans as well,” she said. “My dad is very excited I’ll be on the show. He said this is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to him in his life.”

       As per usual, contestants on the show are asked to say a little about themselves in between rounds during their game. Sharp-Kellar said she spoke about her dad in her interview and how she plays trivia on a weekly basis with her family.

       “I’m super excited for him to see the episode because he doesn’t know that’s what I talked about,” she said.

       Anyone hoping to be a contestant on the show can start by taking the Anytime Test online, which some 60,000 people have taken this year. Sharp-Kellar said she took the test in January of last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

       Those who passed the Anytime Test are then randomly selected to take another test of 50 questions, but this time the test is administered through Zoom. Sharp-Kellar was one of about 2,500 people selected each season to take the second test, which was in November.

       She made it through another random selection of the people who passed the second test and went for a “game play audition,” also through Zoom, in December in which a small group plays a mock version of the game together followed by a brief interview. Anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people take part in this third and final round per season.

       Sharp-Kellar ended up getting a call in March and was asked if she could film at the end of the month, but she wasn’t able to leave work due to it being a busy time of year for medical school admissions. The show reached out to her again in July and asked her to be a part of the first day of taping for the game’s 38th season, which premiered Monday.

       “I got really lucky,” Sharp-Kellar said. “It was my first time trying and I made it the first time around. Some people try year after year, and I just got really lucky.”

       The start of the new season, which was prerecorded, kicked off Monday with Mike Richards as host. After longtime host Alex Trebek died, Richards, the show’s executive producer at the time, took the spot. Richards, however, stepped down Aug. 20 as host after demeaning comments about women and people of color he made in 2013 and 2014 resurfaced. He was fired as executive producer from the show a week and a half later.

       Richards had only recorded a week’s worth of episodes, which were all filmed on the same day as Sharp-Kellar’s episode and are airing this week.

       Sharp-Kellar said the night before recording, she read an article about the controversy surrounding Richards and that he quit as host the day after her recording. It was “wild timing,” she said, for her being one of a few contestants who had him as a host.

       “It would’ve been so exciting to meet Alex Trebek, who is a personal hero of mine and has been since I was young,” she said. “But instead, I had to meet the new host of ‘Jeopardy!’ who I just don’t respect in the same way,” adding that the controversy did not affect her gameplay.

       She said she was excited to meet Matt Amodio, a Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut, who won his 20th straight game Tuesday.

       “It was certainly a thrill meeting Matt Amodio,” she said. “He was just really gracious, and it was exciting to meet him having watched all of his games in the last season. I studied for my game by watching him play, and how he wagered, so I would be ready to go up against him if I had to.”

       Sharp-Kellar said she’ll be tuning into her episode Thursday from Washington, D.C., where her partner of eight years lives and works and where she is currently visiting. She said her parents are having a “little watch party,” and her friends, co-workers and students from the medical school are all excited to watch her on the screen.

       “Jeopardy! in general, it is one of those American cultural institutions that celebrates learning and knowledge,” she said. “I think that’s why my parents and so many others like the show so much and have kept watching.”

       sahmad@chicagotribune.com

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