Biography

Austin Ku was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to parents of primarily Chinese descent (due to an orphaned grandmother, Austin's heritage is 1/4 unknown).

Austin began his performing career at the age of 6 with the violin, an instrument he played through college and still enjoys today.  In high school, Austin began to branch out creatively, and dabbled in piano and viola before finding renewed artistic inspiration in choir and drama classes (which his older brother had also participated in).  Austin's high school has a very strong music program (it received a Grammy Gold Signature Award in 2000 as one of the top ten high school music programs in the country, and was again named a Grammy Signature School in 2006), and by senior year Austin was selected to both All-State Choir and All-State Orchestra; he was also in Honors Acting Studio and was one of the top students in his class academically.  

The summer before his senior year, Austin had the opportunity to tour the United States and Asia with the North American Elite Taiwanese Youth Chamber Orchestra as a violist.  Based on the recommendations of older college students he befriended in the orchestra, Austin applied to and attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, a school with both an excellent academic reputation and a prestigious music conservatory (the Shepherd School of Music).  Austin double-majored in Asian Studies (with a focus on traditional Chinese culture) and Vocal (Opera) Performance, and graduated cum laude.       

While at Rice, Austin performed in many University musicals and operas (and also played in the Campanile Orchestra); he received a nomination (as Berger in Hair) and later a win (as the Emcee in Cabaret) in the "Actor in a Musical" category of the Rice University Thresher's "Sammy" Awards (click the Performances page to see photos and reviews).  During his college years, Austin also attended the Aspen Music Festival and School as a summer vocal artist (where he ended up also playing violin and viola in the Festival Orchestra), and the Seagle Music Colony (a summer young artist program in upstate New York for opera and musical theater).  Austin also began to foray to some of the Houston area's local theatre companies, as well as working as a model with the Neal Hamil Agency, and as a commercial actor with Pastorini-Bosby Talent.

Following graduation, Austin was unsure whether he should pursue a career in performing or something more "practical," and so he decided to attend law school at UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), obstensibly to become an entertainment attorney.  However, Austin was unable to resist the call of performing, and even while in law school he was soon performing again in on-campus and then off-campus Bay Area productions.  He also obtained representation with San Francisco's Tonry Talent, and continued doing commercial and print work. 

After graduating from law school, Austin moved to San Francisco and began working as a legal intern in-house at a prestigious Bay Area entertainment company, while at the same time also beginning his professional acting career with a series of roles at the theatre company 42nd Street Moon.  By the end of that year however, performing won out once and for all, and Austin parted ways with his post-graduation law job to pursue a career as an actor.

Austin spent the next few years developing a career as a performer in the Bay Area, before deciding to take the next step towards the East Coast and eventually New York City.  Austin went back to school, getting his master's in musical theatre at the prestigious Boston Conservatory of Music (one of the top musical theatre training schools in the country), and just recently graduated and moved to New York City to continue his performing career--and he isn’t looking back!

Austin is very proud to have attained membership in all three of the principal actors' unions in the United States: Actors' Equity Association (the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States), AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and SAG (the Screen Actors' Guild).