Harry Shum Jr.

Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is a Costa Rican-born American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer of Chinese descent, best known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015) and as Magnus Bane on the Freeform television series Shadowhunters (2016–2019). He was nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards for his performance in Glee, winning once and he won the award for The Male TV Star of 2018 in the E! People's Choice Awards for Shadowhunters. He has appeared in the films Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), Step Up 3D (2010), White Frog (2012), Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), the Hulu web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (2010–2011) and the YouTube Red series Single by 30 (2016). Early life Shum was born in San José, Costa Rica. 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. 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." He later stated that he has not spoken Spanish fluently since the age of 6. Shum spent most of his schooling years in the San Luis Obispo area, California and graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2000. 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. Shum attended San Francisco State University for a year, before dropping out to pursue a dance career in Los Angeles. 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. 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," and added, "I think the cultures share a lot of similarities as far as family values and the love for flavor in their foods. I do consider myself somewhat Latin." Career 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. Known for a while as "Other Asian" on Glee, with very few lines during the show's first season, Shum's character was given storylines in the second season, mostly involving his relationship with fellow glee club member Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz). 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. 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 regular on Glee's fifth season, but would be a recurring guest star. Shum has been featured in many productions done by Wong Fu Productions. In 2010, he appeared in Step Up 3-D as Cable. He is also a dancer and choreographer for the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. In 2011, Shum completed a short action film, 3 Minutes, directed Ross Ching and produced by Don Le and George Wang. Shum was cast in the role of the Kuai Liang (the younger Sub-Zero) in the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. In 2014, he had a major role in crime drama film Revenge of the Green Dragons, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. In 2016, Shum appeared as the character Wei-Fang in the Netflix American–Chinese martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, 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. Shum scored a lead role in the Freeform series, Shadowhunters, as the centuries-old warlock, Magnus Bane. The show is based on Cassandra Clare's best-selling young adult fantasy series, The Mortal Instruments. 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. Shum also received the Bisexual Representation Award (BiRA) for "Best Bisexual Representation of a Supporting Character" in both 2017 and 2018 hosted by FluidStyleCo. 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. In 2018, Shum was cast as Charlie Wu in Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians, and appears briefly in the mid-credits scene at the end of the movie. A sequel to Crazy Rich Asians is in the works following the implied new romance between characters Charlie and Astrid. Personal life Shum began a relationship with Filipino-American dancer Shelby Rabara in 2007. The two were engaged in October 2013 while on vacation in Hawaii, and were married on November 22, 2015 in Costa Rica. On November 11, 2018, the couple announced via social media that they are expecting their first child, a baby girl. The birth of their daughter, Xia, was announced on March 28, 2019.