Akash Vukoti
Akash Vukoti is an American spelling prodigy and TV personality from San Angelo, Texas. He was the first-ever first grader to qualify for and compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and first appeared in the NBC TV show Little Big Shots in March 2016.
Personal life
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. She has also competed in the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee.Academic Achievements
Akash 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 at the age of 5. Akash 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. Akash later competed in the 2018 and 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bees. He also qualified for the 93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2020. However, the competition has been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.TV shows
Akash was featured on several TV shows, such as Little Big Shots in Season 1, Season 2 and Little Big Shots UK in 2017. He was also featured on the Steve Harvey talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Preachers in 2016. He also appeared as a guest on the Harry show in 2017. Akash was interviewed on Australia’s The Morning Show of Seven Network in 2019. He was even interviewed by TV9 Telugu in Hyderabad, India that first aired on January 14,2020. On September 25, 2018, Akash was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on , a spin-off of Dancing with the Stars. 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.Akash has also done commercials for IBM, Amazon Kindle and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Documentaries and films
Akash has been featured in HBO and BBC documentaries. Episode 231 of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel titled “Brain Games and Mental Athletes” featured Akash and aired on June 21, 2016 on HBO. The BBC documentary The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed showcased Akash's talent in the episode "Learn" and aired on October 9, 2017 on BBC Two.Akash has been featured in the award winning documentary film , which released on Netflix on June 3, 2020 in over 190 countries. The film has generated positive reviews from around the world.
Awards
| YEAR | ASSOCIATION | AWARD | CATEGORY | REF. |
| 2017 | Telugu Association of North America | Special Recognition Award | Spelling & Language | |
| 2017 | Honorary Title Dhaarana Vaamana | — | ||
| 2020 | Global Child Prodigy Award 2020 | Language |