A retired professor from Berkeley, California...

Dan Melia

"He was a professor at U.C. Berkeley when he won the 1998 Tournament of Champions. Now he's retired and still living in Berkeley, California. Please welcome..."

2014 Battle of the Decades invitee: $5,000.
2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions Elite Eighteen (Round 2 winners) member: $72,201.
1998 Tournament of Champions winner (semifinalist by wildcard): $100,000.
Season 13/14 5-time champion: $75,600 + a 1998 Chevrolet Corvette.

Dan won $2,550 on the 4/1/2002 episode of Win Ben Stein's Money, tying Ben 8-8 in the bonus round.

Dan appeared on Master Minds on 2020-05-29.

The official UToC web site listed Dan's full name as "Daniel F. Melia".

Last name pronounced like "MEAL-yuh".

On Wednesday, 2005-08-03, Dan, 61, wed Dara Hellman, 39, a teacher at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, on the Jeopardy! set at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, in a ceremony officiated by fellow 1998 ToC finalist Bob Harris, who was named a deputy commissioner of civil marriage by Los Angeles County. Alex Trebek attended the ceremony.

Dara's Jeopardy! Message Board user name: dhellman

Dan appeared in the following archived game:
#6787, aired 2014-03-04 Fritz Holznagel vs. Dan Melia vs. Pam Mueller Battle of the Decades: The 1990s game 2.
Dan previously appeared on Jeopardy! as Dan Melia in the following 3 archived games:
#4776, aired 2005-05-16 Jerome Vered vs. Dan Melia vs. Michael Daunt 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions Round 3, game 6.
#4753, aired 2005-04-13 Kyle Hale vs. Rick Knutsen vs. Dan Melia 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions Round 2, game 1. (Sergeant:...
#4715, aired 2005-02-18 Brian Wangsgard vs. Jeremy Bate vs. Dan Melia 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions Round 1, game 8.

[player statistics]

The J! Archive is created by fans, for fans. Scraping, republication, monetization, and malicious use prohibited; this site may use cookies and collect identifying information. See terms. The Jeopardy! game show and all elements thereof, including but not limited to copyright and trademark thereto, are the property of Jeopardy Productions, Inc. and are protected under law. This website is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or operated by Jeopardy Productions, Inc. Join the discussion at JBoard.tv.