James Randi

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928) is a naturalized American retired stage magician and scientific skeptic who has extensively challenged paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the co-founder of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). He began his career as a magician named The Amazing Randi, and later chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo". Randi retired from practicing magic aged 60, and from the JREF aged 87.

Although often referred to as a "debunker", Randi dislikes the term's connotations and prefers to describe himself as an "investigator". He has written about the paranormal phenomena, skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit! The JREF sponsors the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which now makes grants to non-profit groups that encourage critical thinking and a fact-based world view and which, prior to Randi's retirement offered a prize of US$1,000,000 to eligible applicants who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event under test conditions agreed to by both parties.