What is Stephen Fry’s IQ?
A quiz called QI, a film called I.Q. and a Graham Norton Show post titled “What IS Stephen fry’s IQ???” all put his name beside the letters; none is a test result.
No Stephen Fry IQ test result has been published, and the 150–155 IQ score that circulates names no test, examiner or date. What is documented is a scholarship to Queens’ College, Cambridge, an upper second in English (1981) and 13 series hosting QI, which support an estimated IQ of about 130–145.
Stephen Fry’s estimated IQ
- Passed the Cambridge entrance exams in 1977 while completing A-levels at City College Norwich, after leaving Uppingham School in the sixth form, and was offered a scholarship at Queens’ College for 1978. The two A-levels were in English and French, with reported grades of A and B.
- Graduated from Queens’ College in 1981 with an upper second-class honors BA in English literature, having appeared for the college on the quiz show University Challenge in 1980.
- Published four novels between 1991 and 2000 (The Liar, The Hippopotamus, Making History, which won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and The Stars’ Tennis Balls), the memoir Moab Is My Washpot (1997) and the Greek-myths retellings Mythos (2017), Heroes (2018), Troy (2020) and Odyssey (2024).
- Presented QI, the BBC panel game, for 13 series from September 11, 2003 until 2016. Its questions are devised by a team of researchers known as the QI Elves, so the job shows poise and range more than unaided recall.
- Honors tied to his written and broadcast work: honorary degrees including those from Dundee (1995), East Anglia (1999), Anglia Ruskin (2005) and Sussex (2011), a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature (2019) and the British Comedy Awards’ lifetime achievement award (2007).
The record is almost entirely verbal, so the range says little about numerical or spatial reasoning, and an upper second in English is a good degree, one class below a first. His most-repeated credential, a 2006 vote by Radio Times readers for Most Intelligent Man on Television, is a popularity poll, and the scholarship and A-level details rest on Wikipedia rather than on a college or exam-board record we could open.
- Born
- August 24, 1957, Hampstead, London
- Education
- Stouts Hill prep school; Uppingham School (left in the sixth form); City College Norwich (A-levels, 1977); Queens’ College, Cambridge (English, upper second-class honors, 1981)
- Comedy and television
- Cambridge Footlights (The Cellar Tapes, 1981); Blackadder (1986–1989); A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989–1995); Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993)
- QI
- Host from September 11, 2003 to 2016 (series A–M, 13 series); the name is short for Quite Interesting
- Films
- I.Q. (1994, as James Moreland), Wilde (1997), Gosford Park (2001), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
- Books
- The Liar (1991), Moab Is My Washpot (1997), Mythos (2017), Heroes (2018), Troy (2020), Odyssey (2024)
- Circulating figure
- 150–155, unsourced (TheThings, September 23, 2022)
- Documented IQ test
- None published
What an IQ of 130–145 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Stephen Fry is
Stephen John Fry was born on August 24, 1957, in Hampstead, London. He went to Stouts Hill, a preparatory school in Gloucestershire, and then to Uppingham School in Rutland, which he left half a term into the sixth form (the last two years of British secondary school). He then enrolled at City College Norwich, and in 1977 he passed A-levels in English and French, with reported grades of A and B, and the Cambridge entrance exams, which brought an offer of a scholarship at Queens’ College, Cambridge, for 1978. His memoir Moab Is My Washpot (1997) covers the first twenty years of his life.
At Queens’ he read English literature, appeared for the college on the quiz show University Challenge in 1980 and joined the Cambridge Footlights, where he met Hugh Laurie through their mutual friend Emma Thompson. The 1981 Footlights revue The Cellar Tapes, with Fry, Laurie, Thompson, Tony Slattery, Penny Dwyer and Paul Shearer, won the first Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, and Fry graduated that year with an upper second-class honors BA. On television he played Lord Melchett in Blackadder II (1986), the Duke of Wellington in Blackadder the Third (1987) and General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth (1989). With Laurie he made A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (ITV, 1990–1993), in which he played the valet Jeeves to Laurie’s Bertie Wooster.
His films include Peter’s Friends (1992), I.Q. (1994), Wilde (1997), in which he played Oscar Wilde and was nominated for a Golden Globe, Gosford Park (2001), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), in which he played Mycroft Holmes, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), as the Master of Lake-town. He has read all seven Harry Potter novels for the British audiobook editions. He presented QI from its first series, which began on September 11, 2003, until series M ended in February 2016, and Sandi Toksvig took over with series N that October. Since 2024 he has presented the Nine Network’s Jeopardy! Australia.
His books include the novels The Liar (1991), The Hippopotamus (1994), Making History (1996), which won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and The Stars’ Tennis Balls (2000), and, from 2017, the Greek-myths retellings Mythos, Heroes (2018), Troy (2020) and Odyssey (2024). He received the lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards in 2007, holds honorary degrees including those from Dundee (1995), East Anglia (1999), Anglia Ruskin (2005) and Sussex (2011), and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019. He was knighted in the 2025 New Year Honours, and in 2025–26 he played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Stephen Fry: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1957Born August 24 in Hampstead, London.
- 1975–1977Leaves Uppingham School half a term into the sixth form; studies at City College Norwich and in 1977 passes A-levels and the Cambridge entrance exams, earning a scholarship offer from Queens’ College.
- 1981Graduates from Queens’ College with an upper second-class BA in English; the Footlights revue The Cellar Tapes, with Fry in the cast, wins the first Perrier Award.
- 1986–1989Plays Lord Melchett in Blackadder II (1986), the Duke of Wellington in Blackadder the Third (1987) and General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth (1989).
- 1994I.Q. is released on December 25, with Fry as psychology professor James Moreland; the film’s 186 is scored by its fictional hero, Ed Walters.
- 2003QI begins on September 11 with Fry as host.
- 2006Radio Times readers vote him “Most Intelligent Man on Television” (December).
- 2016His last regular QI episode airs on February 19; Sandi Toksvig takes over with series N in October.
- 2022TheThings publishes its 150–155 IQ line, attributed to “a variety of sources” (September 23).
- 2025Knighted in the 2025 New Year Honours; plays Lady Bracknell at the National Theatre in a run that continues into 2026.
Where the 150–155 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
What is Stephen Fry’s IQ? The number that answers the question is a band, 150–155, and its trail is one link long. The one page we opened that prints it is TheThings, in an article dated September 23, 2022. Under the heading “He Has A High IQ” it says his IQ is somewhere in that band “according to a variety of sources”, adds that no article estimates it lower than 150, and links the band to a celebrity.fm page whose address ends “what-is-stephen-frys-iq”. That page now returns a not-found error, so what it cited, if anything, is unknown (see where celebrity IQ numbers come from). No Stephen Fry IQ test result stands anywhere in the trail: no test name, no examiner, no date.
Around that band sit questions that never get an answer. A Graham Norton Show Facebook video, whose address begins “stephen-fry-wows-nicole-kidman”, carries the title “What IS Stephen fry’s IQ???”, and a YouTube page for a Graham Norton Show clip is titled “Nicole Kidman Is Blown Away By Stephen Fry’s Intelligence”. We could read only the titles, not the clips, so nothing is claimed about what is said in them, and a title is not a score. Quora threads called “What is Stephen Fry’s IQ?” and “How intelligent is Stephen Fry?” rank in the same searches, but Quora blocks automated access, and a search for Stephen Fry IQ Reddit returned no Reddit page at all. The one reputation that is documented is a reader poll: in December 2006 readers of Radio Times voted him “Most Intelligent Man on Television”, as Wikipedia and two biographies repeat. A vote measures popularity, not ability, and we did not find the original Radio Times item.
Two of the phrases people pair with his name point at his work, not at a score. The Stephen Fry IQ show is most plausibly QI, the BBC panel game he hosted from September 11, 2003 until 2016. The name is short for “Quite Interesting” and is IQ with the letters swapped, but it is a general-knowledge quiz whose questions are devised by a team of researchers, the QI Elves. It has touched the subject: British Comedy Guide’s topic list for the series G episode “Genius” (BBC One, January 1, 2010) records facts on IQ tests, the Flynn effect and Mensa, and series I included an episode called “Intelligence” (BBC Two, December 2, 2011). The Stephen Fry IQ movie is most plausibly I.Q. (1994), directed by Fred Schepisi, with Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan and Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein. Fry plays James Moreland, a professor of experimental psychology who is engaged to Ryan’s character and challenges Ed Walters, the mechanic played by Robbins, to a public intelligence test. The film’s figure, 186, is what Walters scores after four scientists slyly prompt him with the answers: it sits 5.7 standard deviations above the average (see the highest score a test can report), belongs to a fictional character and was obtained by a ruse, and nothing links it to Fry.
A Stephen Fry IQ level has to be inferred from the record, and the documented facts point lower than the circulating band. On a 15-point scale 150 is 3.3 standard deviations above the average of 100, roughly one person in 2,300, and 155 is 3.7, roughly one in 8,100 (see how rare a high IQ score is). The record supports an estimated IQ of 130–145, a range that reaches a score around 140 without claiming more. It sits level with Jodie Foster’s 130–145, five points above the 125–140 given to Rowan Atkinson, the star of Blackadder, in which Fry played the Melchetts, and five below the 135–150 given to Conan O’Brien, another comedy writer, who was president of the Harvard Lampoon and took his Harvard degree magna cum laude. The ranges overlap heavily, so the gaps should not be read as a ranking. Because Fry’s record is verbal, a verbal IQ test is the kind of measure it speaks to, and none has been published.
How we read a number →The only page we opened that prints a Stephen Fry IQ figure: 150–155, “according to a variety of sources”, with no test, examiner or date. It links the band to celebrity.fm’s what-is-stephen-frys-iq page, which returns a not-found error; celebrity.fm’s home page now shows a “Coming Soon” notice.
States that no IQ figure for Stephen Fry appears in any source it used and that it prints a number only when a named outlet has reported one. The page shows no date and lists no sources.
Only the page titles could be read; the clips, captions and comments could not, so nothing is claimed about what is said in them. The Facebook video’s address begins stephen-fry-wows-nicole-kidman. A title asks the question and gives no number.
Panels, air dates and topic lists. “Genius” records facts about IQ tests, the Flynn effect and Mensa; “Intelligence” covers crows, the Dunning–Kruger effect and Asimo. Wikipedia gives QI’s first broadcast (September 11, 2003), Fry’s last regular episode (“Misconceptions”, February 19, 2016), the QI Elves who research the questions and Sandi Toksvig’s start with series N (October 21, 2016). These are show facts, not Fry’s own views, and no score for him appears.
Both list Stephen Fry as Professor James Moreland, fiancé of Meg Ryan’s Catherine Boyd, and give the release date of December 25, 1994. Wikipedia’s plot has Moreland challenge Ed Walters to a public intelligence test and gives the score of 186, reached after four scientists prompt him with the answers; Rotten Tomatoes does not mention the score.
Orientation and cross-checks: birth date and place, schools, the 1977 exams and 1978 scholarship, the 1981 upper second, University Challenge in 1980, the Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster credits, film and book lists with years, honors and honorary degrees, Conan O’Brien’s Harvard degree. Wikidata confirms Q192912 is the actor and writer Stephen Fry, born August 24, 1957 in Hampstead, with no date of death recorded. The Stephen Fry article makes no statement about IQ.
Reports that the Knight Bachelor honor was conferred in March 2025, after the 2025 New Year Honours announcement.
Both repeat that Fry was voted Most Intelligent Man on Television by Radio Times readers (Humanists UK dates it December 2006), and Chartwell says he read all seven Harry Potter novels for the UK audiobooks. They echo Wikipedia’s wording; the original Radio Times item was not opened.
None from Fry, a school or a psychologist. Looked for on TheThings, geniuses.club, sociosite.net’s list of 100-plus celebrity scores, myiqscores.com, the site searches of celebsiq.com and realiqtestonline.com (no results), Riot IQ’s index of 119 famous-people articles (none on Fry), the WatchMojo, brainmanager.io and Popwire smartest-celebrity lists (Fry absent), Wikipedia’s Stephen Fry and QI articles and the QI episode pages; none contains a score. A Reddit search returned no page, and Quora pages and the text of Facebook posts could not be read.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Stephen Fry, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Search for a Stephen Fry IQ score and the figure that comes back is a band of 150–155, printed by TheThings in an article dated September 23, 2022 and attributed to “a variety of sources.” Quora questions such as “What is Stephen Fry’s IQ?” and a Graham Norton Show post titled “What IS Stephen fry’s IQ???” appear beside it in search results, with no number we could read.
No Stephen Fry IQ test result has been published, and the only page we opened that prints a number names no test, examiner or date. TheThings gives the band “depending on your source”, names none, and links it to a celebrity.fm page that now returns a not-found error; the celebrity.fm home page shows a “Coming Soon” notice. geniuses.club has a Fry page saying no IQ figure appears in any source it used and that it prints a number only when a named outlet has reported one. We found no Stephen Fry entry on sociosite.net’s list of 100-plus celebrity scores, in the site searches of celebsiq.com and realiqtestonline.com, in Riot IQ’s index of 119 famous-people articles, or in three smartest-celebrity lists (WatchMojo’s British list, brainmanager.io and Popwire). What can be checked is the record: a Cambridge scholarship, an upper second in English and a long shelf of books.
The circulating band starts five points above the top of the range the record supports and ends ten above it. That is closer than the 160s and 180s attached to several actors on this site, but closeness is not evidence: as usual, the documented record points lower than the number in circulation.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Stephen Fry — frequently asked
What is Stephen Fry’s IQ?
No published IQ test result exists for Stephen Fry, so his IQ is unknown. The 150–155 that circulates online comes from a 2022 article citing unnamed “sources”, not from a test. Our estimate of 130–145 is inferred from his Cambridge scholarship, an upper second in English, a long run of books and 13 series hosting QI.
Is Stephen Fry’s IQ score really 150?
There is no evidence that it is. The Stephen Fry IQ score of 150–155 appears on TheThings (September 23, 2022), which names no test, examiner or date and links to a celebrity.fm page that no longer loads. A 150 would sit 3.3 standard deviations above average, roughly one person in 2,300.
What is the Stephen Fry IQ show?
Searches for a Stephen Fry IQ show most plausibly mean QI, the BBC panel game he hosted from 2003 to 2016. Its name is short for “Quite Interesting”, and it is a general-knowledge quiz, not an intelligence test. Episodes titled “Genius” (2010) and “Intelligence” (2011) covered IQ and intelligence facts, but the topic lists we read give no score for Fry.
What is the Stephen Fry IQ movie?
It is most plausibly I.Q. (1994), in which Fry plays James Moreland, a psychology professor who challenges the film’s hero to a public intelligence test. The film’s figure, 186, is scored by the fictional Ed Walters after scientists slyly feed him answers. It is a character’s number, not Fry’s IQ score.
Did Stephen Fry take an IQ test?
There is no public record that he did. No Stephen Fry IQ test result has been published by him, a school or a psychologist, and none of the pages quoting a number names a test. What is documented is an exam route to Cambridge: he passed the entrance exams in 1977 and was offered a scholarship at Queens’ College.
What does Reddit say about Stephen Fry’s IQ?
We could not read any Reddit thread on it: a search for Stephen Fry IQ Reddit returned no thread we could open. Quora and Facebook titles asking the question surfaced, but with no number we could read. Treat any figure quoted in a thread as unsourced unless it names a test, a date and an examiner.
Is Stephen Fry a genius?
Genius is not a term this site measures. What is documented is a Cambridge scholarship, an upper second in English, several novels and memoirs and 13 series hosting QI. In December 2006 Radio Times readers voted him “Most Intelligent Man on Television”, which is a popularity poll, not an IQ test.
How does Stephen Fry’s estimated IQ compare with Rowan Atkinson’s?
IQ Metrics places Stephen Fry’s estimated IQ range of 130–145 five points above Rowan Atkinson’s 125–140 at each end, with heavy overlap. The two share Blackadder, where Atkinson starred as Edmund Blackadder and Fry played the Melchetts. Both ranges are inferences from documented achievement, not test scores, and the gap is not a ranking.
How does my IQ compare with Stephen Fry?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
More actors
Photograph by Toglenn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Toglenn (2018), CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Sam Shaw (1954), public domain. Background removed for the portrait above.
An estimate is an inference.
Yours can be measured.
Thirty questions, scored against general-population benchmarks. Your score, your percentile, your ability breakdown and a printable IIF certificate.
Find your IQ score now! →