Harry Shum Jr.

Shum was born in Limón, Costa Rica, the son of Chinese immigrants. His mother is a native of Hong Kong, and his father is from Guangzhou, China. They relocated to Costa Rica, where Shum and his two older sisters were born. When Shum was six years old, the family moved to San Francisco, California.^[3] He stated, "I feel I have the best of so many worlds. I speak Spanish and Cantonese. Spanish is actually my first language before I learned Cantonese and English."^[4][5] He later stated that he has not spoken Spanish fluently since the age of 6.^[6]

Shum spent most of his schooling years in San Luis Obispo County, California, and graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2000.^[7] Initially, he had been more interested in theater and sports but found a passion for dance after auditioning for his high school dance team on a dare.^[7][8][9] Shum attended San Francisco State University for a year, before dropping out to pursue a dance career. In an interview, he said that his earliest motivations to dance were from watching Ginuwine, Dru Hill, and Usher before becoming influenced by dancers like Gene Kelly and Michael Jackson.^[8]

Shum began his dance career in Los Angeles.^[10] As an 18-year-old, he was spotted by choreographers Rosero McCoy and Jamal Sims to go on a UK tour with the singer Kaci.^[11] He steadily built his career, appearing as the only male dancer on BET's ComicView,^[4] and starred in a series of iPod advertisements as dancing silhouettes.^[12] He joined Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, and Missy Elliott in their co-headlining tour Ladies First in 2004,^[13][14] while working as a backup dancer for artists including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, and Mariah Carey.^[15] He appeared in several music videos of songs including Lose My Breath by Destiny's Child and "It's Like That" by Mariah Carey.^[16] Shum also worked as a dance instructor.^[17]

Since 2008, Shum was given roles in Step Up 2 and later Step Up 3D,^[18] both directed by Jon M. Chu. From 2009 until 2015, he portrayed the role of Mike Chang, a dancer who joins the glee club, on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee.^[19] Known for a while as "Other Asian" on Glee, he was given very few lines during the show's first season. Partly due to the enthusiasm from fans during his appearances on the live tour taking place after the first season concluded, Shum's character was given storylines in the second season, mostly involving his relationship with fellow glee club member Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz).^[20] He subsequently gave performances of "Make 'Em Laugh" in "The Substitute", "Sing" from A Chorus Line in "Duets", "Valerie" in "Special Education", and the show's first dance solo in "A Night of Neglect". He was promoted from guest star to series regular for the third season.^[21] He was given a major storyline in the third episode of the season, "Asian F," and performed "Cool" from West Side Story, his first solo song. On June 28, 2013, it was reported that Shum would not return as a regular on Glee's fifth season but would be a recurring guest star.^[22]

Shum worked as both a choreographer and a dancer for the dance group The LXD.^[23][24]

Shum has been featured in many productions of Wong Fu Productions.^[25] In 2011, Shum starred in a short action film, 3 Minutes, directed by Ross Ching and produced by Don Le and George Wang.^{[citation needed]} In 2012 he starred in White Frog, a comedy-drama film directed by Quentin Lee. Subsequently, Shum was cast in the role of the Kuai Liang (the younger Sub-Zero) in the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy.^[26] Harry had a major role in crime drama film Revenge of the Green Dragons, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese.^[27] Shum was also a judge on the reality competition television series Face Off.^[28]

In 2016, Shum appeared as the character Wei-Fang in the Netflix American–Chinese martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny,^[29][30] a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (1999). Shum was also cast as the male lead, Peter Ma, in Single by 30, a YouTube Red original series from Wong Fu Productions and New Form Digital after starring in the original pilot in 2015. The first season of the series premiered on August 24, 2016, on Wong Fu Productions' Channel.^[31]

Shum scored a primary role in the Freeform series, Shadowhunters, and portrayed the centuries-old warlock Magnus Bane between 2016 and 2019. The show was based on Cassandra Clare's best-selling young adult fantasy series, The Mortal Instruments.^[32] His portrayal of Bane, a bisexual man of color, helped Shadowhunters win the 2017 GLAAD media award for an "Outstanding Drama Series", which he accepted with his co-star Matthew Daddario.^[33] Shum also received the Bisexual Representation Award (BiRA) for "Best Bisexual Representation of a Supporting Character" in both 2017 and 2018 hosted by FluidStyleCo.^[34] Shum won the award for The Male TV Star of 2018 in the E! People's Choice Awards for his role as Magnus Bane in Shadowhunters.^[35]

Alongside his work in Shadowhunters, he received supporting roles in films including Escape Plan: The Extractors and Burn. In 2018, Shum was cast as Charlie Wu in Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians.^[36] Despite most of his scenes from the lattermost being cut due to the desire to focus on one romantic pairing, he appears briefly in a mid-credits scene, hinting at a romantic link to one of the characters, Astrid Leong-Teo.^[37]

In 2019, Shum appeared in 4 episodes of Tell Me a Story which premiered in December 2019. In March 2020, Shum guest starred in an episode of Comedy Central's Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. On December 4, the romantic drama All My Life was released in US theaters, followed by a premium video-on-demand release on December 23, and a streaming release on HBO Max on August 7, 2021.^{[citation needed]}

Conspiracy thriller Broadcast Signal Intrusion, in which Shum starred and served as an executive producer,^[38] premiered to critical acclaim at South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2021^[39] and was released On Demand and in select theaters on October 22, 2021.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2022, Shum appeared in a supporting role in the critically acclaimed Academy Award-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once.^[40][41] Michelle Yeoh called Shum "the most incredible physical comedian ever", referring to his performance in the film.^[42] On May 6, 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that a Crazy Rich Asians spinoff is in early development at Warner Bros. and is set to focus on the relationship between Astrid Leong-Teo and Charlie Wu, played respectively by Gemma Chan and Shum.^[43] Starting October 2022, Shum joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy season 19 as surgical intern Dr. Benson "Blue" Kwan.^{[citation needed]}

Shum also turned to voiceover work. He made a guest appearance in the Paramount+ animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, voicing the character of Rawda.^[44] In 2022, Shum starred in and executive produced Realm's fiction podcast series Echo Park, which was nominated for Best Fiction Podcast at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards.^[45][46] In 2023, Shum voiced Brainiac 5 in DC Studios's animated film set in the Tomorrowverse, Legion of Super-Heroes.^[47] Also, in 2023, he narrated the PBS Nature documentary The Hummingbird Effect.^{[citation needed]}

In 2024, Shum will portray a drag queen in the short Shimmer - Inspired by Eva Young, set to premiere at the Sun Valley Film Festival.^[48]

On September, 21st, 2024. Shum and his wife, Shelby Rabara released their first kids book, Martee Dares to Dance, published by Gloo Books. ^[49]

Shum began a relationship with actress and dancer Shelby Rabara in 2007.^[50] The two were engaged in October 2013 while on vacation in Hawaii^[51] and were married on November 22, 2015, in Costa Rica.^[52][9] They have a daughter.^[53]

According to Shum, his father currently lives in Costa Rica, and he regularly visits the nation. As well as stating the fact that his family has historically lived in Costa Rica, dating back at least 3 generations.^[54]

Shum has stated that he identifies as being somewhat Latino. He said, "It's strange that I am full Chinese and born in a Latin country, but I love the fact that I was immersed in that culture at birth while maintaining my Chinese roots."^[55]

 

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