Katy Warren

**Katy Warren** was a contestant on Season 2.

## Background

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

An scholarship-winning engineering student at Memorial University, Katy is a lifelong member of the Girl Guides of Canada, who presented her with their Chief Commissioner's Award for her longtime service to the organization. Katy's innate curiosity to learn something new might just serve her well on Canada's Smartest Person — she's been known to do everything from play the ukelele to joining a roller-derby team to working with the Coast Guard. That diversity of experience lends itself well to her passion for improv, where performers are always on the spot.

Katy is studying Engineering at Memorial University, where she received an entry scholarship. She has been a life long member of the Girl Guides of Canada and earned their Chief Commissioner’s Award – Gold.

Katy has an immense curiosity and can always be found learning something new, whether it’s riding a unicycle, playing the piccolo and ukulele, or joining a roller derby team. She took first place in the 2006 Provincial Spelling Bee contest and was the runner up in 2007. She’s even done programming for the Coast Guard.

In addition to engineering, Katy has a passion for improv. Nothing makes her happier than performing before a crowd!

## Episode 204

Before Katy was summoned to the stage, a clip of her and the other three contestants, Andrew Hall, Petros Kusmu, and Neila Scott, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, apart from introducing herself, Katy stated that she has learned to stick to her guns and think on her feet and that she is more than ready to dominate. In the first challenge, Definition Dilemma, Katy got 5 correct answers. As a result, Katy finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the second challenge, Human Lie Detector, Katy was the third contestant to ask guest Alan Thicke her question about one of his stories. She asked if Alan had heard of any fun stories of the brothers on tour together. Alan replied that he hadn't heard of any stories of them on tour together, but that Carter has had interactions with Leonardo DiCaprio, who had played Alan's character's adopted son on Growing Pains and is a friend of Robin's. Andrew, Neila, and Katy all got 3 correct answers, but Alan deemed that Katy's question was better than the other two's questions and that Andrew's question was better than Neila's question. As a result, Katy finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the third challenge, Pipe Fitter, Katy successfully connected her plumbing system and filled her glass 1 minute and 50 seconds into the challenge. As a result, Katy finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points. In the fourth challenge, Stack of Shapes, Katy got 5 correct answers. As a result, Katy finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the fifth challenge, Step Squad, Katy was the first contestant to perform her improvised solo at the challenge's midpoint. Guest judge Sean Cheesman ranked Katy in 2nd place for her overall performance in the challenge and Katy was awarded 6 overall points as a result. After the first five challenges, Katy had received a total of 20 overall points. As a result, she tied for 1st place with Petros and both were congratulated by Jessi for qualifying for the Gauntlet.

In the sixth and final challenge, the Gauntlet, Katy gained the early lead on Petros as the former completed the linguistic section. After unscrambling his final word though, Petros was able to remain not too far behind Katy for the next few sections. At the physical section, Katy failed twice at transporting four bricks back across her teeter-totter, which allowed Petros to surpass her. However, Petros failed twice at transporting five bricks under his bar, which allowed Katy to take back the lead. Katy completed the last two tasks at the physical section before Petros and proceeded to the logical section, which she completed quickly. Ultimately, Petros stopped at the physical section as Katy hit the buzzer, which signalled her victory and her spot in the season finale. After the challenge ended and Katy was declared the fourth finalist of the season, Katy and the other three contestants celebrated onstage with Jessi.

### Summary of Results

 3

  WON  This contestant won the final challenge and advanced to the finale.
  LOST  This contestant lost the final challenge and was eliminated from the competition.
  ELIMINATED  This contestant was already eliminated from the competition.
     This contestant qualified for the final challenge due to a sufficient total score.
     This contestant was eliminated from the competition due to an insufficient total score.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on linguistic intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on physical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on musical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on visual intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on social intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on logical intelligence.
### Notes

1. ↑ Despite sharing a total score of 3, Alan deemed that Katy's question was better than Andrew and Neila's questions and that Andrew's question was better than Neila's question. Therefore, Katy, Andrew, and Neila placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively, for this challenge.

## Episode 208

Before Katy was summoned to the stage, a clip of her and the other six finalists, Tim Blais, Anthony Craparotta, Marco Iannuzzi, Alex Manea, Dan Tweyman, and Jason Vander-Hoek, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, Katy stated that it is nerve-wracking, but that she is stoked for the challenge ahead. A narration also recapped in this clip that Katy was one of the top two finishers in every challenge she had competed in up until this point. Jessi greeted the contestants and made them take notice of an empty eighth podium to the left of Jason's. She then announced that it is a wildcard spot that would be taken by the contestant who had earned the highest total overall score without winning their preliminary episode's Gauntlet. This additional finalist was revealed to be Heather Whittaker, who joined the other finalists on stage. In the first challenge, the Speed Round, Katy received an overall percentage score of 83%. As a result, she finished in 1st place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Tim, for automatically advancing to the third challenge.

From the stage, Tim and Katy witnessed Jason and Heather and then Anthony and Dan competing against each other in the second challenge, Ultimate Face-Off.

In the third challenge, Syllable Switch, Katy got 5 correct answers. As a result, Katy finished in 1st place and was awarded 4 overall points.

Jessi commented that Katy's performance in the linguistic challenge proved that she has more capabilities than just math and science and is full of surprises. Following this, a clip of Katy was shown in which she stated that it is important for her to have fun as much as it is important for her to work. The clip also showed footage of Katy playing a ukulele, dancing, doing schoolwork, rollerskating, and riding a unicycle and she also stated that she believes that she is Canada's Smartest Person because she has been proving to herself that she is better at various things than she originally thought. In the fourth challenge, Orders Up, Katy was the second contestant to present her surf and turf dish based upon the theme of **romance** and it consisted of two roses, a white sauce, a red sauce forming a heart shape, and a green garnish vegetable forming an arrow through the heart shape. Guest judge Mark McEwan commented that he felt amorous just by looking at it and that he could tell that Katy has a cautious style. Mark ranked Katy in 1st place for her dish and Katy was awarded 4 overall points as a result.

In the fifth challenge, Sliding Scale, Katy locked in the correct sequence of notes in 44 seconds. As a result, Katy finished in 3rd place and was awarded 2 overall points.

In the sixth challenge, Moving Sum, Katy got 4 correct answers. As a result, Katy finished in 3rd place and was awarded 2 overall points.

In the seventh challenge, Screen Test, Katy was the first contestant to pitch her film and she had to pitch an action and adventure film with a teenage ghost protagonist and with a spaceship exploding at the end of it. She said, "Alright, I want to talk to you about ghosts in space. It's a really untapped combination. We have the supernatural combined with things that no one can understand like the infinite openness of space. And we have a single teenager who went to space on one of the first missions to Mars and, tragically, didn't make it back home. So, we have our protagonist, a teenage ghost, flying back towards Earth to find her family. There's going to be action, there's going to be a lot of heart, and this big feature, which we're calling *Infiniteen* for now, that's our working title–You know, there's going to be a big explosion at the end. We hope she gets hope, but we'll see how it turns out." Guest judge Cameron Bailey commented that he found the title clever, but also that he wanted to know more about how the film would end, to which Katy responded that the film would end with the ghost happily attending a prom on Earth after surviving the spaceship explosion. Cameron ranked Katy in 2nd place for her pitch and Katy was awarded 3 overall points as a result.

In the eighth challenge, Ball Handler, Katy finished catching her red balls 54 seconds into the challenge, but was forced to stop her progress on sinking her white balls 2 minutes and 42 seconds into the challenge due to Jason having finished sinking his white balls third at that time. As a result, Katy finished in last place and was awarded 1 overall point. After the previous six challenges, Katy had received a total of 16 overall points, which she shared with Tim. The tie between Tim and Katy was settled by their overall percentage scores in the Speed Round since both contestants shared an equal number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes in challenges. Since Katy had an overall percentage score of 83% in the Speed Round and Tim had an overall percentage score of 80%, the former finished in 2nd place and the latter finished in 3rd place. As a result, she was congratulated by Jessi, along with Jason, for qualifying for the Super Gauntlet.

In the ninth and final challenge, the Super Gauntlet, Jason and Katy were neck and neck throughout the first four sections as when one would complete a section, the other would follow suit and catch up moments later. It all came down to their showdown at the visual section where Katy assembled her cube as Jason was about halfway through assembling his. Ultimately, Jason stopped at the visual section as Katy hit the buzzer, which signalled her victory. After the challenge ended and Katy was crowned Canada's Smartest Person, Katy and the other finalists, except for Marco, celebrated onstage with Katy's mother and Jessi.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://web.archive.org/web/20151219195305/http://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/participants/katy
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/meet-the-episode-4-competitors