Star-Crossed Games that Featured Famous Faces
When you’ve been doing scavenger hunts for 20 years, and have sent more than half a million people scouring streets across America for answers to tricky questions and taking fun team photos, you’re going to run into a few celebrities. Actors, politicians, authors, you name it, they’ve either gone on our scavenger hunts or wound up in photos with hunters who randomly ran into them.
This happens most frequently in New York City, where celebs are free range; you’d think there’d be a lot in Los Angeles, but of course they rarely get out of their cars. In any case, here’s a look at some of the famous faces found on our hunts or by our hunters.
Jennifer Garner did a private Wizard School Scavenger Hunt with her daughter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner got friendly with bygone New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia on a Secrets of Greenwich Village Scavenger Hunt staged for Lauren Bush Lauren’s birthday. Her husband, David Lauren, is at left above. Fourth teammate Ricky Van Veen, founder of CollegeHumor.com, took the photo.
Meanwhile, Lauren’s cousin—and President George W. Bush’s daughter—Barbara Bush and future-ambassador Ken Howery teamed up on a public Murder at the Met Hunt.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos celebrated a major birthday by taking his friends and family on the Met Madness Scavenger Hunt. Jeff’s team won and set a record for highest hunt score that remains unsurpassed. Afterwards, he wrote to us, “Thanks for the energy and creativity you put into our hunt at the Met—incredibly original….I loved your witty questions and racing through the museum. Everyone was thrilled. You have 50 new Watson Adventures groupies.”
BBC comedian and talk show host Jonathan Ross is a fan who has been on a number of our hunts. Above, he poses with his teammates outside Federal Hall on Wall Street while tackling Hamilton: The Scavenger Hunt in 2018. He had Watson Adventures founder Bret Watson as a guest on his radio show.
Shazam! star Zachari Levi joined us for a scavenger hunt in Los Angeles.
Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley did a hunt and said afterwards, “The hunt was great. It is the perfect party for adventurous, curious kids of all ages.”
Actor Adam Scott (Parks and Rec) showed his sleuthing skills on our Murder at the National Gallery Hunt in Washington, D.C.
Sony asked us to stage a hunt in Culver City to promote the movie Searching. Actress Michelle La—seen above with Hunt Host Joshua Bott—met with hunters at the finish line. And actor John Cho read one of the clues in a recorded message.
A team on one of our hunts in Midtown New York ran into former Attorney General Janet Reno, who paused to join them in a team photo.
Another team on the Secrets of Greenwich Village Hunt spotted actress Kate Hudson and talked her into a team photo shot.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (above) read a clue to participants in a hunt we staged in The Loop for ABC’s Windy City Live. The show dubbed it the “scAvengers Scavenger Hunt,” and in the photo three hunters wear the special t-shirt.
Journalist MSNBC host Ali Velshi joined us for the Ghosts of Greenwich Village Hunt.
Actor J. August Richards, best known to fans of the TV series Angel, joined us on a public hunt in Los Angeles.
Comedian Ophira Eisenberg, host of NPR’s Ask Me Another, was formerly a Watson Adventures Hunt Host! In the photo above, she’s helping us test the first Wizard School Scavenger Hunt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Survivor survivor Mitchell Olson also hosted many a hunt for us. In the photo above, he’s MC of our Trivia Slam game.
Best-selling author Nelson DeMille joined us on a hunt in New York.
We staged a custom scavenger hunt in Madison Square Garden for the families of the band Phish, at their request.
For the Komen Tickled Pink Scavenger Hunt aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, we were joined by Logan West, Miss Teen USA 2012.
A team of kids doing a hunt on Manhattan’s Upper East Side were trying to stage a team photo in which they were pretending to apprehend a bank robber. They asked a random passerby if he would pose as the robber, and he happily agreed. After the snap he went on his way. A witness to the scene went up to the kids and said, “Do you know who that was? That was the actor Christian Slater!”