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IN PHOTOS: Meet Shrey Parikh, the Indian-origin American to win the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee

Updated On: 29 May, 2026 03:08 PM IST | Nascimento Pinto

The teenage student from California won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday, beating two other Indian-origin students in a competition that has been dominated by them over the years. Here's all you need to know about him

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Shrey won the prestigious competition in the US. Photos Courtesy: PTI/AFP

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Shrey won the prestigious competition in the US. Photos Courtesy: PTI/AFP
Who is Shrey Parikh?Shrey Parikh is a 14-year-old Indian-American student from California, an eighth grade student from Day Creek Intermediate School, who on Friday won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after he spelt 32 words in 90 seconds including spelt 'Bromocriptine' correctly.  The teen was also a finalist in the 2024 edition of the competition, when he tied for third place. Previously, he also competed in 2022 and tied for 89th place

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Who is Shrey Parikh?
Shrey Parikh is a 14-year-old Indian-American student from California, an eighth grade student from Day Creek Intermediate School, who on Friday won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after he spelt 32 words in 90 seconds including spelt 'Bromocriptine' correctly. 

The teen was also a finalist in the 2024 edition of the competition, when he tied for third place. Previously, he also competed in 2022 and tied for 89th place

Shrey's rewardParikh takes home a slew of prizes, including USD 50,000, a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as USD 2,500 from Merriam-Webster, USD 1,000 in flight credits from Delta and USD 400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Shrey's reward
Parikh takes home a slew of prizes, including USD 50,000, a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as USD 2,500 from Merriam-Webster, USD 1,000 in flight credits from Delta and USD 400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica

Whom did he beat to win?Parikh won after beating Ishan Gupta of Frank R Conwell Middle School, Jersey City, New Jersey. Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane (in picture) from Peachtree Charter Middle School in Tucker, Georgia finished third.  The three-day competition began Monday at D.A.R. Constitution Hall here with 247 contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Defence Department schools in Europe and five other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Nine contestants advanced to the finals that were held on Thursday evening including Gupta and Dharavane, whom he finally beat

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Whom did he beat to win?
Parikh won after beating Ishan Gupta of Frank R Conwell Middle School, Jersey City, New Jersey.

Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane (in picture) from Peachtree Charter Middle School in Tucker, Georgia finished third. 

The three-day competition began Monday at D.A.R. Constitution Hall here with 247 contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Defence Department schools in Europe and five other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

Nine contestants advanced to the finals that were held on Thursday evening including Gupta and Dharavane, whom he finally beat

Competition of words Shrey and Ishaan (in picture) each had 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as they could, served from the same list. Judges determined that Shrey spelt 32 words correctly during the spell-off, as against Ishaan's 25 words

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Competition of words 
Shrey and Ishaan (in picture) each had 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as they could, served from the same list.

Judges determined that Shrey spelt 32 words correctly during the spell-off, as against Ishaan's 25 words

Shrey Parikh beats recordParikh also beat the previous spell-off record set in 2024 by another Indian-origin champion Bruhat Soma, who spelled 29 out of 30 words correctly in the spell-off Balu Natarajan became the first Indian origin student to win the competition in 1985. Indian origin students have dominated the competition and won titles over the past four decades. Of the nine finalists this year, five were of Indian origin

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Shrey Parikh beats record
Parikh also beat the previous spell-off record set in 2024 by another Indian-origin champion Bruhat Soma, who spelled 29 out of 30 words correctly in the spell-off

Balu Natarajan became the first Indian origin student to win the competition in 1985. Indian origin students have dominated the competition and won titles over the past four decades.

Of the nine finalists this year, five were of Indian origin

Photo of Day

All together now

All together now

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