Daniel Bloom

Daniel Bloom
Noted subjects	Linguistics, American History, "things he knows"
Current college	University of Edinburgh (2024—)
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Daniel Bloom is a Linguistics student at the University of Edinburgh. Born in New York City, he grew up in northwest London. He started playing quizbowl for Edinburgh in his second year in 2024/25, and will represent it on University Challenge in the 2025/26 season.

Daniel is known for his knowledge of American history and Jorge Luis Borges. He also enjoys cryptic crosswords and appeared on Channel 4's Countdown.

Quizbowl career

Daniel’s first tournament was 2024 ACF Fall’s northern UK mirror, where he played with David Allen, Siddhant Kumar and Lucy Isabella. That team, Edinburgh A, would win the tournament, beating Durham B. Those four also formed Edinburgh A at 2024 British Novice, where Daniel achieved the fastest buzz that day on "verbs" (10 words, though an earlier 8-word buzz on "linguistics" went unrecorded).

With David, Ted Harrison and Lovel Hearn, Daniel played in the UK mirror of PLAYTIME!

Daniel competed in the second WaShBowl tournament, with David, Harry Sexton and Caitlin Self, achieving the first buzz on "Lemmings" and being the only member of his team to recognise "Low Taper Fades".

At 2025 Spring Novice, Daniel played on Edinburgh D, with Kathryn Knispel, Lucy Isabella and Blake Danziger. Before the final, his 54 PPG made him the top scorer that tournament; after the exhibition final against York, played with Lovel and Ted, his PPG and Lovel’s were the same. That day marked the end of Daniel, Lovel and Ted’s novice careers.

He played VAULT on Edinburgh City with Kathryn, Pen Hughes and Alex Haggerty, and played MRNA IV on Edinburgh B with Lovel, Harry and Ted. At SOTON TRASH, he played with Pen, David and Ted on a team called “The Truth is a Lemon Meringue”.

After being unable to form a team comprising entirely Daniels, Daniel joined Warwick’s Danny Fisher, Evan McMullen and Lucas Johns at 2025 Penn Bowl (under “Alas poor Warwick, I knew him Edinburgh”). The team finished last.

Along with Harry, Lovel and Siddhant, Daniel formed Edinburgh B at 2025 ACF Winter, where the team finished in the top bracket.