Akash Vukoti is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

spelling child

prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

and TV personality from San Angelo,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He was the first-ever first grader to qualify for and compete in the

Scripps National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scri ...

, and first appeared in the NBC TV show ''

Little Big Shots ''Little Big Shots'' (also known as ''LBS'') is an American variety television series co-created and produced by Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres. The series features children demonstrating talents and engaging in conversation with the host. ...

'' in March 2016.

Academic achievements

Akash Vukoti - Scripps National Spelling Bee 2016

Vukoti competed in his first spelling bee when he was 2 years old. He was inducted into American Mensa at the age of 3 and became a Davidson Young Scholar at the age of 5. He became the first-ever first grader to compete in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the age of 6 years, in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. He also competed in the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Scripps National Spelling Bees. Vukoti won the 34th San Angelo Area Spelling Bee on February 11, 2023, and will be competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May 2023 for a record 6th time.

Television shows & media coverages

Vukoti was featured on several TV shows, such as ''

'' in Season 1 (2016), Season 2 (2017) and '' Little Big Shots UK'' (Episode 4) in 2017. He was also featured on the '' Steve Harvey'' talk show, ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

,'' and ''The Preachers'' in 2016. He appeared as a guest on the ''Harry'' show in 2017. Akash was also featured on ''

The Kelly Clarkson Show ''The Kelly Clarkson Show'' is an American daytime television variety talk show hosted by American singer Kelly Clarkson. It is produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and features Clarkson interviewing celebrities and segm ...

'' on November 10, 2020. On September 25, 2018, Vukoti was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on '' Dancing with the Stars: Juniors,'' a spin-off of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

.'' His professional partner was Kamri Peterson and the couple were mentored by Witney Carson. The trio were eliminated 7th from the competition on November 18, 2018. Vukoti was interviewed live on

CNN International CNN International (CNNI, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel that is owned by CNN Global. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates with sister network CNN's national and inter ...

from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and CTV from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 2016. He was interviewed on

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

’s '' The Morning Show'' of

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

in 2019 and again in 2021, and by TV9 Telugu in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on January 14, 2020. Vukoti runs his YouTube channel, which has garnered over 750,000 subscribers and over 100 million views as of March 2023. Vukoti has also done commercials for IBM,

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. ...

and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Documentaries and films

Vukoti has been featured in

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

documentaries. Episode 231 of ''

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is a monthly sports news magazine on HBO. Since its debut on April 2, 1995, the program has been presented by television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. Overview Format Each episode consists of fou ...

'' titled “Brain Games and Mental Athletes” featured Vukoti and aired on June 21, 2016, on HBO. The BBC documentary
The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed
' showcased Vukoti's talent in the episode "Learn" and aired on October 9, 2017, on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. He has been featured in the award-winning documentary film '' Spelling the Dream'', which released on Netflix on June 3, 2020, in over 190 countries. The film has generated positive reviews from around the world.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards

Personal life

Akash Vukoti is the son of Chandrakala Jandyam and Dr. Krishna M Vukoti, who immigrated to the United States from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, India. Akash has an elder sister Amrita, who is also a Davidson Young Scholar and a member of Mensa. Both Amrita and Akash Vukoti competed in the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Philanthropy

Vukoti has donated to various non-profit organizations like Children's Miracle Network in San Angelo, Wikipedia, Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, Telangana CM Relief Fund, Water.org and Kerala Floods Relief Fund. He has also donated to

Bharat Ke Veer Bharat Ke Veer ( hi, भारत के वीर), () is a fund-raising initiative by actor Akshay Kumar to benefit members of government paramilitary forces (the Central Armed Police Forces).. It has been proposed to then Indian Home Minister R ...

, an Indian government initiative supporting the families of deceased

Central Armed Police Forces Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) is the collective name of central police organisations in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). These are technically paramilitary forces formerly known as Central Para-Military Forces (CPMF). Since ...

and Assam Rifles personnel. Vukoti has also donated to non-profit organizations the American Red Cross Society and the Government of India's PM CARES Fund to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vukoti, Akash Living people American people of Telugu descent People from Rockville, Maryland 2009 births American television personalities