Paolo is a freelance crossword constructor. He graduated from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2022 with a BA, Computer Science. He’s been solving and constructing his own crosswords since long before he came to Harvard. Growing up in San Diego, Pasco’s path to professional crossword constructor began on a family road trip when he was in the eighth grade. He’d enjoyed other puzzles before then, especially Sudoku and the Dell Magazine puzzle books sold in airports. But on that trip he downloaded the New York Times crossword app to his tablet; by the end of the trip, he had found a new passion.

His puzzles have been published by The Atlantic, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among others. He became The Atlantic’s assistant crossword editor while still at SEAS and runs his own independent crossword puzzle website.