Over 10 seasons and counting, Dropout’s trivia quiz show Um, Actually has hosted plenty of big-name nerds from outside the streamer’s usual roster of talent. Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer has a few wins under his belt, Marvel Comics writer Cody Ziglar recently took home the crown in the season 11 premiere, and season 9 ended with an episode where all the contestants were voice actors, like Dante Basco, who played Zuko in the original animated run of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
If host Ify Nwadiwe had his way, though, you’d see plenty more familiar guests plop down on the show’s mustard-yellow couch for some nerdy trivia. He recently spoke to Polygon about dream casting for the show.
“We’ve definitely tried to get a Meltdown couch,” Nwadiwe told Polygon via Zoom. That roster would be Emily Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jonah Ray, who worked together on Comedy Central’s The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail in the mid-2010s. As with so many Hollywood productions (and Dungeons & Dragons game nights), schedule conflicts have been the big barrier: “That’s also the thing — the dance of scheduling and seeing who we can get.”
That’s also why Nwadiwe’s good friend Ron Funches hasn’t appeared on the show yet. “I met Ron back working on @midnight,” Nwadiwe said. “He’s super-nerdy. We nerd out about stuff. It was funny, because he wasn’t available for this past season, and now seeing that he was on The Traitors, I wonder if that’s why.”
Nwadiwe, now in his third season as host, has some “huge swings” in mind for casting. “Would love to get John Boyega on the couch, just do a couch with my favorite nerdy Nigerians, John Boyega, Ayo Edebiri. Those would be great,” he said. Star Wars actor Boyega is not shy about his nerdy fandoms; as an anime fan, he would have fit right in with comedian Garrick Bernard, musician Thundercat, and Ziglar on the season 11 premiere.
Nwadiwe would also like to do a Warhammer episode with Henry Cavill, the former Superman actor, World of Warcraft fan, PC gaming enthusiast, and previously announced executive producer/star of an upcoming Warhammer 40K franchise . “I think it’d be funny, and I think it’d be great, for people to see Henry Cavill just nerding out,” Nwadiwe said. “I know we’ve all heard about it, we’ve seen him build a PC, but we haven’t seen him really gush about Warhammer yet. I want to be the vehicle for that.” Dropout CEO Sam Reich? Time to start making some calls.
Speaking of dream couches and exciting Um, Actually guests, the current season will also see the return of Tournament of Champions. Back in the first season, the four-part tournament saw nine of Um, Actually’s top contestants return for a best-of-the-best showdown. Nwadiwe competed against Emma Fyffe and Siobhan Thompson. (Thompson walked away victorious from their episode.)
Season 11’s Tournament of Champions will see fan-favorites like Erika Ishii, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Danielle Radford once again duking it out. “[The] main talking points for the superfans of the show is, ‘Who has the most wins? Who can beat who?’Nwadiwe said. “So I’ve been excited to bring back Tournament of Champions at some point, and this was the season. We were off to the races with it.”
Um, Actually’s season 11 Tournament of Champions lineup.Image: Dropout
Nwadiwe was a particularly competitive contestant on the show — when he took over as host, he had nine wins under his belt, the record at that time. (Mulligan has since tied him.) Does he harbor any desire to return to the couch as a contestant and take back his crown?
“No, because secretly, now all of the pressure’s off,” Nwadiwe said. He likened himself to a UFC fighter or boxer who retires undefeated at the peak of their powers. “I left at the top as the most winningest, and I beat the second most winningest, and I’m done. And no matter if it’s like, ‘Well, now Brennan has more wins…’ That’s because I’m not in the competition. Based on the historical facts, I would probably still be the most winningest, because I be winning.”
Nwadiwe didn’t mind that Tournament of Champions returned during his tenure as host, so he didn’t have to relive defeat on the biggest stage. He says he was “very, very, very, very scorned” over losing to Thompson in the first go-round. “I think that’s what led to me going on my run of dominance after that,” he said. “But now, not having to even deal with that pressure, I’m loving it. I love being the person running it.”
Um, Actually is streaming on Dropout.tv.
