# Utkarsh Ambudkar

Utkarsh Ambudkar (/ˈʊtkɑːrʃ æmˈbʊdkɑːr/ UUT-karsh am-BUUD-kar; born December 8, 1983), 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 recently appeared in the Hulu limited series The Dropout (2022).
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, to an Indian American family with 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 degree from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2004.
Through his mother, Ambudkar is a descendant of the lawyer and jurist Sir Vembakkam Bhashyam Aiyangar.

## 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. He was set to star in the Fox series Eat, Pray, Thug, but the show was not picked up. Ambudkar originated the role of Aaron Burr in the developmental readings of Hamilton. He formerly played Raj on the sitcom Brockmire. He played Jern in the 2019 film Brittany Runs a Marathon.
He played Skatch, a con artist, in a deleted scene of the 2020 Disney live-action remake of Mulan. That same year, he appeared in Disney's Godmothered, and then in the 2021 action comedy Free Guy. 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).
He was a member of the musical group "The Beatards." Since 2005, Ambudkar has been a part of hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme under the name UTK the INC. As part of the group, he participated in the limited television series for Pivot in 2014 and made his Broadway debut in the group's self-titled show on October 2, 2019.
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. In 2023, he appeared as a guest player in Critical Role's third campaign, also hosted by Mercer, as the sorcerer Bor'Dor.

## Personal life

Ambudkar married in 2019, and has three children.
He struggled with alcoholism in the early 2010s. 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. 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."

## Discography

* The Gold Tusk EP (2006)
* Members Only EP (2012)
* 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 | |
| 2016 | Barbershop: The Next Cut | Raja | |
| 2017 | Basmati Blues | Rajit | |
| 2018 | Blindspotting | Rin | |
| 2018 | Game Over, Man! | Bae Awadi | |
| 2019 | Brittany Runs a Marathon | Jern Dahn | |
| 2020 | Mulan | Skatch | Deleted scene |
| 2020 | The Broken Hearts Gallery | Max Vora | |
| 2020 | Godmothered | Grant | |
| 2021 | Tom & Jerry | Real Estate Rat | Voice |
| 2021 | Free Guy | Mouser | |
| 2021 | Tick, Tick... Boom! | Todd | |
| 2022 | The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild | Orson | Voice |
| 2022 | Marry Me | Coach Manny | |
| 2022 | The Drop | Robbie | |
| 2023 | World's Best | Suresh Patel | Also writer |
| 2024 | My Dead Friend Zoe | Alex | |
| 2024 | Doin' It | | |

### 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" |
| 2016 | The Muppets | Pizza | 3 episodes |
| 2017 | White Famous | Malcolm | 10 episodes |
| 2017 | The Problem with Apu | Himself | Documentary television film |
| 2018 | Trolls: The Beat Goes On! | Master Controll | Episode: "Big Poppy" |
| 2018 | Bartlett | Sanjay Kahn | 4 episodes |
| 2018–2020 | Brockmire | Raj | 5 episodes |
| 2018–2020 | Harvey Street Kids | Fredo, Teen Boy, Tiny Duck | Voice, 17 episodes |
| 2020 | Mira, Royal Detective | Chikku, Male Judge, Train Engineer, Engineer, Passenger, Uncle | Voice, main role |
| 2020 | Central Park | — | Songwriter: "The Park Is Mine" (with Rafael Casal) |
| 2021-2023 | Never Have I Ever | Mr. Manish Kulkarni | Recurring (season 2-4) |
| 2021-2023 | Blindspotting | Niles Turner | 2 episodes |
| 2021 | Robot Chicken | Aang, Sora, Xenomorph Student #1 | Voice, episode: "May Cause Numb Butthole" |
| 2021–present | Ghosts | Jay Arondekar | Main role |
| 2021 | Special | Ravi | 3 episodes |
| 2022 | The Dropout | Rakesh Madhava | Recurring |
| 2023 | Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur | Anand | Voice, recurring role |
| 2023 | Celebrity Jeopardy! | Himself | Contestant |
| 2024 | Avatar: The Last Airbender | King Bumi | Recurring |
| 2025 | Running Point | Malkeet Dasari | Episode: "Doljanchi" |

### Web

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

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Venue |
| 2004 | History of the Word | Ali | Crossroads Theatre |
| 2005 | The Me Nobody Knows | Performer | Staged Reading, Vineyard Theatre |
| 2005 | The Snow Queen | Kay | Urban Stages |
| 2007 | History of the Word | Ali | Washington Irving High School LaGuardia Performing Arts Center |
| 2008 | Rafta, Rafta... | Etash Tailor | Acorn Theater/The New Group, Off-Broadway |
| 2008 | Animals Out of Paper | Suresh | McGinn/Cazale Theatre, Off-Broadway |
| 2009 | Dov and Ali | Ali | Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway |
| 2010 | The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity | Vigneshwar Paduar | Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway |
| 2012 | Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them | Rahim | Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway |
| 2013 | Hamilton | Aaron Burr | Vassar College, Workshop |
| 2019 | Freestyle Love Supreme | Himself | Greenwich House Theater, Off-Broadway |
| 2019–20 | Freestyle Love Supreme | Himself | Booth Theatre, Broadway |