Supernerd fact 'I DIDN'T TALK AS A CHILD'

The Chase's bow-tied brainiac took years to find his voice

- Donna Fleming

Issa Schultz is known for his talent for answering trivia answers on The Chase Australia – and now The Chase New Zealand – as well as for his hilarious quips.

But the fact he makes his living talking on TV is something his family never dreamed would be possible.

“I don’t know why, I was just completely silent,” says Issa, whose nickname is The Supernerd. “They think I had a comprehension issue.

“We worked on my hearing, we worked on speech therapy – or sheep therapy as I used to call it because I couldn’t pronounce some words properly. It all came good when I was about seven or eight.

“But before that, my parents feared the worst. They thought I wouldn’t have any sort of intelligence because I wasn’t responding. My mum was in tears believing I wouldn’t amount to anything. So to go from that to this job is a pretty steep rise.”

Issa, 41, who was born in England and emigrated with his family to Australia when he was 11, thought he was destined for a lifelong career in finance. He was working for a bank and “obsessively quizzing” as a hobby – he’d been on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – when he was asked to audition for The Chase Australia in 2015.