Akash Vukoti

Akash Vukoti is an American spelling prodigy and TV personality. He was the First-Ever First Grader to qualify and compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee*(89th SNSB Wikipedia, USA Today and WSJ article). He first appeared in the NBC TV show Little Big Shots* in March 2016 (US Magazine, Business Insider).

Academic achievements (Spelling Career)

Akash Vukoti was inducted into the American Mensa at the age of 3 years (Canton Rep) and 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 (Washington Post, NPR, GQ articles, SA Standard Times 1st article). Akash competed in the 2018 and 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee (Esquire article, AP News, Standard Times News Paper LAST article in the below citation list).

TV Shows

Akash appeared on several TV shows:

1. 3 times in the Popular TV Show Little Big Shots*: Season-1 (2016) and Season-2 (2017) (Yahoo article, AP News & ConchoValley article) and the Little Big Shots-UK* (Episode 4) in 2017
2. Steve Harvey Talk Show* (SA Standard Times 2nd article) and Jimmy Kimmel Live* (Hollywood Reporter and ETOnline articles) in 2016
3. As a guest on the Australia’s “The Morning Show*” on July 4th 2019 (Australia The Morning Show article)
4. On September 25, 2018, Akash was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on the “Dancing with the stars: Juniors”*, the spin-off of the “Dancing with the Stars”* series (ABC 1 & 2 articles). His professional partner was Kamri Peterson and the couple were mentored by Witney Carson*. The trio were eliminated 7th from the competition on November 18th, 2018*(Wikipedia DWTSJrs webpage).

Documentaries / Film

Akash has been featured in the HBO* and BBC* documentaries. Episode 231 titled “Brain Games and Mental Athletes” of the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel* features Akash which first aired on June 21st 2016 on HBO (The Post Game article). The BBC documentary “The Human Body: Secrets of your life revealed” showcasing Akash talent aired on Oct 9th 2017 on BBC-2* (BBC Documentary Link).

Akash is one of the four spelling stars featured in the Award winning documentary Film “Breaking the Bee” (www.breakingthebee.com, imdb, Cleveland Magazine, Cleveland Film Festival & Winner article, Hindustan Times article, FilmDaily.co article).

Citations

• Wikipedia page link

“Scripps National Spelling Bee” is linked to Wiki page all times.

US Magazine:

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/meet-the-spelling-bees-youngest-contestantakash-vukoti-w208029/

WSJ:

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016/05/27/watch-indian-american-children-winanother-national-spelling/

Business Insider:

https://www.businessinsider.com/akash-vukoti-is-a-6-year-old-genius-2016-3

Canton Rep:

http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20150331/NEWS/150339817

89th Scripps National Spelling Bee:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/89th_Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee

SA Standard Times 1st:

http://archive.gosanangelo.com/news/local/san-angelo-spelling-bee-names-new-winner--2d3a362b-3d32-3f7b-e053-0100007fb1fb-371169381.html/

SA Standard Times 2nd:

https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/local/2016/03/12/precocious-local-spellerdrawing-national-attention-studying-hard/92120958/

SA Standard Times 3rd:

https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/entertainment/2018/12/10/san-angelo-dancing-starsjuniors-spelling-bee-legend-akash-vukoti/

Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/inviscate-and-conestoga-get-two-contestants-to-thenext-round-of-the-spelling-bee/2016/05/25/d32f19ee-2272-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html

NPR:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/25/479537500/6-year-old-may-be-out-ofspelling-bee-but-this-kid-is-a-winner

USA Today:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/05/25/6-year-old-texan-misspells-wordending-his-spelling-bee-competition/84923350/

Hollywood Reporter:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jimmy-kimmel-spelling-bee-competition-899263

ETOnline:

http://www.etonline.com/tv/190211_jimmy_kimmel_hilariously_challenges_spelling_bee_co_champions_to_an_epic_showdown

Australia The Morning Show:

https://7news.com.au/the-morning-show/akash-vukoti-is-the-youngest-competitor-ever-atthe-scripps-national-spelling-bee-c-198550

GQ.com:

https://www.gq.com/story/national-spelling-bee-star-2016-akash-vukoti

Esquire.com

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a20748354/scripps-national-spelling-bee-espn/

AP News:

https://apnews.com/839b8d78fd7348029f03da2c4e15552f

Yahoo article:

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/steve-harvey-schools-spelling-bee-champ-words-hood074456530.html

ConchoValley article:

https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/news-connection/spelling-bee-whiz-akashvukoti-returns-to-little-big-shots/696742155

The Post Game:

http://www.thepostgame.com/real-sports-kids-mental-athletes-bee-regimen

BBC Documentary Link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05g7bbt/p05g7g87

imdb:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6193522/

Cleveland Magazine:

https://clevelandmagazine.com/entertainment/film-tv/articles/breaking-the-bee-examineswhat-it-takes-to-w-i-n

Cleveland Film Festival article

https://www.clevelandfilm.org/films/2018/breaking-the-bee

Cleveland Film Festival Winner article

https://www.clevelandfilm.org/archive/winners

Hindustan Times

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/breaking-the-bee-indian-kids-are-spellingout-a-new-sport-in-america/story-bUL6pxZQCDTNfrHOz0nnkK.html

FilmDaily.co article:

https://filmdaily.co/craft/breaking-the-bee-indian-american-dynasty/

ABC – 1 DWTSJrs

https://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars-juniors/cast/akash-vukoti

ABC – 2 DWTS Jrs

https://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars-juniors/news/updates/dwts-juniors-castannouncement-season-1

Dancing With The Stars Juniors – Wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_with_the_Stars:_Juniors

Akash wins 2019 San Angelo Spelling Bee

https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2019/03/10/vukoti-wins-san-angelo-spellingbee/3123069002/