rick rosner

Rick G. Rosner (born May 2, 1960) is an American TV writer who received some of the highest scores ever recorded on tests designed to measure exceptional intelligence (Morris 1986, Prager 1997) and became known for applying his high IQ to activities not usually associated with genius. Rosner used fake IDs to repeatedly return to high school, worked as a stripper, roller-skating waiter, bouncer, and nude model (Morris 1986, Anderson & Van Atta 1988, Chotzinoff 1985, Rosner 1991, Moore & Markoe 1994, Rivera 1989) and sued the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire over an allegedly flawed question (Bronstad 2004, Jennings 2006). Contents [hide] 1 Life 2 IQ 3 Stunts & Negative Reactions 4 References 5 See also 6 External links //

Life

Rosner was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved to Boulder, Colorado when his mother remarried. Nerdy and socially awkward, he began lifting weights in high school in an unsuccessful strategy to attract a girlfriend. Nearing graduation, Rosner decided to forgo college and move in with his father’s and stepmother’s family in Albuquerque while he returned to high school to try to lose his virginity. Rosner broke into Boulder High School and stole blank transcript forms, which he used to create a false academic record that enabled him to enroll as a fake transfer student at Albuquerque’s Highland High School. After several months, at odds with his father’s family and with his virginity still intact, Rosner dropped out of Highland High and returned to Boulder, where he became a mediocre student at the University of Colorado (Morris 2000, Rosner 1991, Krier 1992).

Still hoping to meet girls, Rosner became a bar bouncer, stripper, and nude model. He also began work on a theory of the cosmos which attempted to draw useful parallels between the structure of the universe and an efficient, self-consistent mapping of the information in an individual consciousness (Morris 2000, Berliner 1992).

At 26, Rosner once again became a 12th grader, claiming that he wanted to use high school as a quiet place to think about his theory of the universe. Using the name Gilligan Rosner, he attended summer school at Del Norte High School and spent the fall semester at Eldorado High School, both in Albuquerque, before transferring to New York City, where he graduated from H.S. 435, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, at the age of 27. His future wife masqueraded as his cousin and legal guardian while Rosner attended MCSM (Morris 2000, Rosner 1991).

After graduation, Rosner worked as a fact-checker and writer for MTV’s first game show, Remote Control -- the first of many game shows with which he would become involved as a writer, producer, creator, or contestant (Paquet 2004). In 2000, Rosner reached the Hot Seat on ABC’s Prime time quiz show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He was eliminated at the $16,000 level by the question, “What capital city is located at the highest altitude above sea level?” (Kolbert 2000)