Jacques Bailly

Who is Jacques Bailly?

Jacques A. Bailly won the 1980 Scripps National Spelling Bee and now serves as the official pronouncer of the Bee, a position he has held since 2003.

Bailly grew up in the Denver, Colorado area. He began participating in spelling bees in sixth grade, training with a nun at his Catholic school. He reached the National Spelling Bee as an eighth grader and won with the word elucubrate.

Bailly studied Ancient Greek and Latin, receiving his bachelor's degree from Brown University and his PhD from Cornell University. He learned German in Switzerland with the help of a Fulbright scholarship. In 1990, he wrote a letter to the National Spelling Bee organizers to offer his services and was hired as an associated pronouncer. Bailly became the Bee's chief pronouncer after the death of Alex Cameron in 2003.

Besides his duties with the spelling bee, Bailly works full-time as an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont, specialising in Greek and Roman philosophy, particularly Plato.

Bailly plays himself in the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee, which tells the story of a girl who competes in the National Spelling Bee.