Utkarsh Ambudkar

Utkarsh Ambudkar was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 8, 1983, into an Indian family to a Marathi father and a Tamil mother. He grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where his parents, who had emigrated from India in the 1980s, were research scientists at the National Institutes of Health. He starred in comedy roles at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, and he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2004.^[6][7][8][9]

Through his mother, Ambudkar is a descendant of the lawyer and jurist Sir Vembakkam Bhashyam Aiyangar.^[10]

Ambudkar is a former VJ for MTV Desi.^{[citation needed]} He appeared in the comedy film Pitch Perfect, as the character Donald, and in the television shows The Mindy Project and The Muppets.^[11] He was set to star in the Fox series Eat, Pray, Thug,^[12] but the show was not picked up.^[13] Ambudkar originated the role of Aaron Burr in the developmental readings of Hamilton.^[6][14] He formerly played Raj on the sitcom Brockmire.^[6] He played Jern in the 2019 film Brittany Runs a Marathon.^[15]

He played Skatch, a con artist, in a deleted scene of the 2020 Disney live-action remake of Mulan.^[16] That same year, he appeared in Disney's Godmothered, and then in the 2021 action comedy Free Guy.^[17][18] In 2020, Ambudkar debuted as the mongoose Chikku in the Disney Junior animated series Mira, Royal Detective. He is currently starring in the CBS supernatural sitcom Ghosts (2021).^[19]

He was a member of the musical group "The Beatards."^[6] Since 2005, Ambudkar has been a part of hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme under the name UTK the INC.^[6] As part of the group, he participated in the limited television series for Pivot in 2014^[20] and made his Broadway debut in the group's self-titled show on October 2, 2019.^[21]

Ambudkar has appeared in several Youtube sketch comedy skits including the comedy groups CollegeHumor and Key & Peele. Ambudkar starred in Force Grey: Giant Hunters (2016) and Force Grey: Lost City of Omu (2017), a Dungeons & Dragons actual play web series with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master, where he played the character Hitch, a rogue with a nefarious past.^[22][23] In 2023, he appeared as a guest player in Critical Role's third campaign, also hosted by Mercer, as the sorcerer Bor'Dor.^[24][25] In October 2024, he appeared on Eisa Davis and Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical concept album Warriors. He sang the role of Sully.^[26][27][28]

Ambudkar married his wife Naomi in 2019 and has three children.^[1]

He struggled with alcoholism in the early 2010s.^[6] In a 2023 interview, he revealed that he has been sober for eight and a half years. He also stated that his lack of sobriety at the time was why he was replaced as Aaron Burr in Hamilton.^[29][30] He told The New York Times in 2019: "It was ego, it was being a daily marijuana user, it was partying at night, it was being preoccupied, growing up as a brown person, feeling unattractive, and seeking validation of the opposite sex to sort of fill a hole, my self-worth."^[6]

• The Gold Tusk EP (2006)
• Members Only EP (2012)^[31]
• Vanity (2019)
• Petty (2019)