Leslie Scott

Leslie Scott (born 18 December 1955) is a Tanzanian-born British board game designer, author, and businesswoman, best known as the inventor of the game Jenga. Despite initial challenges, Scott transformed a family wooden block game into the classic Jenga, achieving worldwide success after licensing to Hasbro in 1986. Recognized for her contributions, she received accolades such as the 2010 Wonder Women of Toys Inventor/Designer Award and the 2012 Tagie Award for Excellence in Game Design.

Early life and education Born in Tanzania, Scott spent her childhood in East and West African countries and completed her education in England. Her family had always enjoyed playing board games together, furthered by her father, Robert Scott, a World War II fighter pilot turned oil company executive, who designed many games and toys for her and her three siblings to play with.

One of the games that was eventually developed and played by the family while they were living in Ghana was created using wooden blocks that were scraps found by her younger brother from a sawmill near their house in Ghana. After moving to Oxford in 1974, she taught the game to her friends with a set of blocks she had brought along, and it became popular amongst her peers. This interest led to the introduction of the game to the market as Jenga.

Having grown up speaking Swahili, Scott decided to derive the game's name from the word "kujenga", meaning "to build", with the desire to have people exclusively associate the word with the game. Irwin Toy hated the name of the game, Jenga The Perpetual Challenge, saying that the English-speaking public would not understand the words Jenga and perpetual.

Honours Scott is the recipient of the 2010 Wonder Women of Toys Inventor/Designer Award, and the 2012 Tagie award for Excellence in Game Design.

In 2020, Jenga was inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play.

Private life Scott is married to the Oxford zoologist Professor Fritz Vollrath, who is famous for his studies on spiders. They have two children.

Works

Games Jenga Ex Libris, the game of first lines and last words