Utkarsh Ambudkar

Utkarsh Ambudkar (/ˈʊtkɑːrʃ æmˈbʊdkɑːr/ UUT-karsh am-BUUD-kar;^[3] born December 8, 1983),^[4][5] also known by his stage name UTK the INC, is an American actor, rapper, and singer. He is known for his film roles including Pitch Perfect (2012), Game Over, Man! (2018), Blindspotting (2018), Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019), The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020), Free Guy (2021), Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021), and World's Best (2023). His television roles include The Mindy Project, White Famous, Never Have I Ever, Mira, Royal Detective, and Ghosts. He also appeared in the Hulu limited series The Dropout (2022).

Utkarsh Ambudkar
Ambudkar at the 2022 New York Comic Con
Born	(1983-12-08) December 8, 1983 (age 41) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Other names	UTK the INC UTK
Education	Wootton High School
Alma mater	NYU Tisch School of Arts (BFA)
Occupations	Actor rapper singer
Years active	2004–present
Spouse	Naomi Ambudkar ​ (m. 2019)​ [1]
Children	3[2]

He made his Broadway debut in Lin-Manuel Miranda's improvisational hip-hop show Freestyle Love Supreme in 2019.

Early life

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]

Career

Ambudkar is a former VJ for MTV Desi. 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]

Personal life

Ambudkar married 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.^[26][27] 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]

Discography

• The Gold Tusk EP (2006)
• Members Only EP (2012)^[28]
• Vanity (2019)
• Petty (2019)

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Rocket Science	Ram
2008	Last Call	Nikash
2012	Pitch Perfect	Donald
2015	Freaks of Nature	Parminder
2016	Ride Along 2	Amir
	Barbershop: The Next Cut	Raja
2017	Basmati Blues	Rajit
2018	Blindspotting	Rin
	Game Over, Man!	Bae Awadi
2019	Brittany Runs a Marathon	Jern Dahn
2020	Mulan	Skatch	Deleted scene
	The Broken Hearts Gallery	Max Vora	[29]
	Godmothered	Grant
2021	Tom & Jerry	Real Estate Rat (voice)
	Free Guy	Mouser
	Tick, Tick... Boom!	Todd	[30]
2022	The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild	Orson (voice)	[31][32]
	Marry Me	Coach Manny	[33]
	The Drop	Robbie	[34]
2023	World's Best	Suresh Patel	Also writer and producer[35]
2024	My Dead Friend Zoe	Alex	[36]
	Doin' It		[37]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006; 2010	The Electric Company	UTK; Harry	2 episodes
2011	Danni Lowinski	Rasoul	Television film
2012	Freestyle Love Supreme	UTK	Television film
2013–2017	The Mindy Project	Rishi Lahiri	10 episodes
2013	China, IL	Aladdin (voice)	Episode: "Wild Hogs"
2016	The Simpsons	Jay (voice)	Episode: "Much Apu About Something"[38]
	The Muppets	Pizza	3 episodes
2017	White Famous	Malcolm	10 episodes
	The Problem with Apu	Himself	Documentary television film
2018	Trolls: The Beat Goes On!	Master Controll (voice)	Episode: "Big Poppy"[32]
	Bartlett	Sanjay Kahn	4 episodes
2018–2020	Brockmire	Raj	5 episodes
	Harvey Street Kids	Fredo (voice)	17 episodes[39][32]
2020	Mira, Royal Detective	Chikku (voice)	Main cast[40]
	Central Park	—	Songwriter: "The Park Is Mine" (with Rafael Casal)[41]
2021–2023	Never Have I Ever	Mr. Manish Kulkarni	Recurring (season 2-4)[42]
	Blindspotting	Niles Turner	2 episodes
2021	Robot Chicken	Aang, Sora, Xenomorph Student (voice)	Episode: "May Cause Numb Butthole"[32]
2021–present	Ghosts	Jay Arondekar	Main role[43]
2021	Special	Ravi	3 episodes[44]
2022	The Dropout	Rakesh Madhava	Recurring role[45]
2023	Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur	Anand (voice)	Recurring role[32]
	Celebrity Jeopardy!	Himself	Contestant (season 2)[46]
2024	Avatar: The Last Airbender	King Bumi	Recurring role[47]
2025	Running Point	Malkeet Dasari	Episode: "Doljanchi"

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Force Grey: Giant Hunters	Hitch	Main role; 6 episodes[48][22]
2017–2018	Force Grey: Lost City of Omu		Main role; 20 episodes[49][23]
2023	Critical Role (campaign three)	Bor'Dor Dog'Son	Guest role; 5 episodes[24][25]

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Ref.
2004	History of the Word	Ali	Crossroads Theatre	[50][51]
2005	The Me Nobody Knows	Performer	Staged Reading, Vineyard Theatre	[52]
	The Snow Queen	Kay	Urban Stages	[53][54]
2007	History of the Word	Ali	Washington Irving High School LaGuardia Performing Arts Center	[55][56][57]
2008	Rafta, Rafta...	Etash Tailor	Acorn Theater/The New Group, Off-Broadway	[58][59]
	Animals Out of Paper	Suresh	McGinn/Cazale Theatre, Off-Broadway	[60][61]
2009	Dov and Ali	Ali	Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway	[62][63]
2010	The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity	Vigneshwar Paduar	Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway	[64]
2012	Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them	Rahim	Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway	[65][66][67]
2013	Hamilton	Aaron Burr	Vassar College, Workshop	[68]
2019	Freestyle Love Supreme	Himself	Greenwich House Theater, Off-Broadway	[69][70][71]
2019–20			Booth Theatre, Broadway	[72][73]