Scripps Spelling National Bee Champion Faizan Zaki's Parents Immigrated From India

After leaving last year's competition as the runner-up, Faizan Zaki has emerged as the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion. Faizan's victory came after he nearly threw the competition away, but following his triumph, many wanted to learn more about this young man.

In addition to being a gifted speller, Faizan is also quite evidently an enthusiastic and carefree competitor. Here's what we know about him, including who his parents are.

Faizan is originally from Plano, Texas, but we don't know a ton about his parents. They immigrated from southern India and have clearly been supportive of their son's passion for words. Zaki Anwar, Faizan's father, is definitely supportive. At the same time, Faizan is not the kind of kid who takes the whole bee seriously. Instead, he's been focused on having fun with the competition, and that approach has finally paid off in a victory.

"One thing that differentiates him is he really has a passion for this. In his free time, when he's not studying for the bee, he's literally looking up archaic, obsolete words that have no chance of being asked," Bruhat Soma, one of Faizan's close friends who beat him out for last year's championship, said in speaking with ESPN. "I don't think he cares as much about the title as his passion for language and words."

Although Faizan is undeniably a "linguistics nerd," as his official spelling bee bio explains, in most other respects, he's a regular kid from Texas. To its immense credit, the winners of the spelling bee do not go on to become massive celebrities. They win a cash prize and then return to their regular lives, having accomplished something that will definitely make colleges take notice of them when they're applying. Part of the reason we don't know who his parents are is that we don't need to.

Faizan almost won after Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane both missed their words, which put him just two words away from victory. Instead of taking the time to ask questions about his first word, though, he dived into spelling it immediately and made a crucial error.

Faizan said that he made that mistake in part because, after losing last year's Bee in a lightning round, he emphasized speed in his studying for this year's competition.

Faizan's father weighed in on his son's success, saying that he might be the best speller in the competition's history.

"He's the GOAT. I actually believe that. He's really good, man. He's been doing it for so long, and he knows the dictionary in and out," he said.

That sounds like a dad who is proud of his son. Faizan now has a runner-up badge and a victory under his belt, and it seems like he's going to head right back to the dictionary to find more words, just for the heck of it. It's not how I spend my free time, but more power to him.