Akash Vukoti | |
|---|---|
 Vukoti in 2020 | |
| Born | May 29, 2009 Rockville, Maryland, U.S. |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Website | akashvukoti |
Akash Vukoti is an Indian-American child prodigy and TV personality from San Angelo, Texas. He competed for a record 6 times at the Scripps National Spelling Bee [1] and was the first-ever first grader to compete in the bee. His first television appearance was in the NBC TV show Little Big Shots with Steve Harvey in March 2016. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Vukoti competed in his first spelling bee when he was 2 years old. [7] He was inducted into American Mensa at the age of 3 and became a Davidson Young Scholar [8] at the age of 5. [9] 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. [10] [11] [12] [13] He later competed in the 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bees. This made Vukoti the only person to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee for a record 6 times. [14] [15] [16] [17] [1] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]
Vukoti was featured on several TV shows, such as Little Big Shots in Season 1 (2016), Season 2 (2017) and Little Big Shots UK (Episode 4) in 2017. [25] [26] [27] [28] He was also featured on the Steve Harvey talk show, [29] [30] Jimmy Kimmel Live!, [31] [32] [33] and The Preachers [34] in 2016. He appeared as a guest on the Harry show in 2017. [35] Akash was also featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show on November 10, 2020. [36]
On September 25, 2018, Vukoti was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on Dancing with the Stars: Juniors, [37] [38] a spin-off of Dancing with the Stars. He is the youngest celebrity competitor in Dancing with the Stars history. [39] [40] 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 from Hong Kong and CTV from Canada in 2016. [41] He was interviewed on Australia’s The Morning Show of Seven Network in 2019 [42] and again in 2021, [43] and by TV9 Telugu in Hyderabad, India on January 14, 2020. [44] [45] Vukoti runs his YouTube channel, [46] which has garnered over 800,000 subscribers and over 125 million views as of May 2023. [47] Vukoti has also done commercials for IBM, [48] Amazon Kindle [49] and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. [50]
Vukoti has been featured in HBO and BBC documentaries. Episode 231 of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel titled “Brain Games and Mental Athletes” featured Vukoti and aired on June 21, 2016, on HBO. [51] 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. [52]
He has been featured in the award-winning documentary film Spelling the Dream , [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] which released on Netflix on June 3, 2020, in over 190 countries. The film has generated positive reviews from around the world. [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63]
| Year | Title | Distributor | Country | Release Date | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed | BBC | UK | October 9 | [52] |
| 2020 | Spelling the Dream | Netflix | Worldwide | June 3 | [58] [54] |
| Year | Title | Channel | Country | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Little Big Shots | NBC | USA | Season 1, Episode 1; Aired March 8 Season 1, Episode 9; Top 10 Moments; Aired May 8 | [25] [64] |
| 2016 | Steve Harvey | Syndication | USA | Aired March 11 | [29] |
| 2016 | Jimmy Kimmel Live! | ABC | USA | Aired June 2 | [31] [32] [33] |
| 2016 | Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel | HBO | USA | Brain Games; Aired June 21 | [51] |
| 2016 | The Preachers | Syndication | USA | Aired July 11 | [34] |
| 2017 | Little Big Shots UK | ITV | UK | Aired March 29 | [28] |
| 2017 | Little Big Shots | NBC | USA | Season 2, Episode 7; Aired April 23 | [27] |
| 2017 | Harry | Syndication | USA | Aired April 27 | [35] |
| 2018 | Dancing with the Stars: Juniors | ABC | USA | Eliminated 7th in the 6th week; Aired October 7 to November 18 | [37] [38] [65] |
| 2020 | Akashamanta | TV9 Telugu | India | Television special; Aired January 13 | [66] |
| 2020 | The Kelly Clarkson Show | Syndication | USA | Season 2; Aired November 10 | [36] |
| Year | Association | Award | Category | Place | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Telugu Association of North America | Special Recognition Award | Spelling & Language | St. Louis | [67] |
| 2017 | North America Telugu Society [68] | Honorary Title Dhaarana Vaamana | Special Honor | Chicago | [69] |
| 2020 | Global Child Prodigy Awards [70] | Global Child Prodigy Award 2020 | Language | New Delhi | [71] [72] |
Akash Vukoti is the son of Chandrakala Jandyam and Dr. Krishna M Vukoti, who immigrated to the United States from Andhra Pradesh, India. Akash has an elder sister Amrita, who is also a Davidson Young Scholar and a member of Mensa. [73] Both Amrita and Akash Vukoti competed in the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee. [74] [75]
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, [76] an Indian government initiative supporting the families of deceased Central Armed Police Forces 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. [77]
A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly.
Spellbound is a 2002 American documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film received positive reviews and won several awards, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Spelling Bee of Canada is a charitable, educational spelling bee organization founded by Julie Spence in the Greater Toronto Area in 1987. As of 2022, over 70,000 children have participated in the competition.
The 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee finals took place on May 30, 2008.
The Scripps 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. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area during the week following Memorial Day weekend. Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. It was previously held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C. from 1996 to 2010.
The 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National, in Oxon Hill, Maryland from May 27 to May 31, 2012, and was broadcast live on ESPN3. The championship finals occurred on May 31, 2012.
Veronica Penny is a Canadian Spelling Bee Regional Champion who has competed in spelling bees on the Regional level, the Provincial Level, the National Level, and in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In 2009, at age 10, Penny placed 25th, and in 2010, she placed 17th. In 2011, she reached the Finals, placing 6th in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Penny has a record of 10 Regional Spelling Bee titles. From 2008 to 2010, Veronica won 5 Hamilton Regional bees. In 2011 and 2012, Veronica won 5 Regional Championships in Ottawa. Veronica became Ontario Provincial Champion in 2010, representing Hamilton, Ontario. She won the Provincial Championship the next year in 2011, representing Ottawa in the Spelling Bee of Canada. Penny was the Spelling Bee of Canada Intermediate champion for 2013.
The 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held from May 27 to May 29, 2014 at the Gaylord National in Oxon Hill, Maryland and was broadcast live on ESPN3, the semi-finals on ESPN2, with the final rounds live on ESPN. Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas and Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York won the competition, making the 87th Bee the twelfth in the past sixteen competitions to have an Indian-American champion.
The 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from May 24–28, 2015. Students competed for a prize valued at $38,600 coming from various companies.
The 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on May 24–26, 2016.
The 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, United States from May 30 to June 1, 2017, with "Bee Week" events running for spellers between May 28 and June 3, and televised coverage on May 31 and June 1. Ananya Vinay, 12, won the competition by successfully spelling "marocain" in the final round. In fact, she made history as she had placed 172nd place in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, and then she won the 2017 edition. There is a remarkable moment when Shourav Dasari correctly spelled "Mogollon" in five seconds.
The 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 27 to 30, 2019. The finals were held on May 30, 2019, and televised on ESPN2 and ESPN. It featured 562 total contestants and was won by eight co-champions who had lasted through twenty rounds.
The 1908 National Education Association Spelling Bee was a team-based, inter-city spelling bee held on June 29, 1908, at the Hippodrome Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Predating the 1st Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1925 by seventeen years, this 1908 competition was the first national spelling bee in the United States. Cleveland won the team competition, and Marie C. Bolden was the individual champion.
Spelling the Dream is a 2020 documentary film directed by Sam Rega and written by Sam Rega and Chris Weller. The premise of the film revolves around competitive spelling bees, which have been dominated by Indian-Americans in recent times. The film follows the life of four kids: Akash Vukoti, Tejas Muthusamy, Ashrita Gandhari and Shourav Dasari. The film also features interviews with Jacques Bailly, Kevin Negandhi, Sanjay Gupta, Fareed Zakaria, Hari Kondabolu, Valerie Browning, Srinivas Ayyagari, and Pawan Dhingra.
The Spelling Bee is an annual spelling bee held in Ghana since 2007.
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Zaila Avant-garde is an American speller, basketball player, and juggler. She won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is the first African-American contestant to win the bee and is the second Black winner, after Jamaica's Jody-Anne Maxwell.
The 94th Scripps National Spelling Bee was a spelling bee that was held at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The finals were held on June 2, 2022, and televised on Ion Television and Bounce TV, marking the first time in 27 years that the Bee was not televised on an ESPN network. The winner of the bee was Harini Logan, an 8th–grade girl from San Antonio, Texas, who won with 21 words spelt correctly during the Bee's first spell-off round.
The 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee was a spelling bee competition that was held at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
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