From Ghosts to Greatness: Utkarsh Ambudkar Is Just Getting Started

Actor, musician, writer, and producer Utkarsh Ambudkar has built a career on versatility, heart, and humor. Whether he’s stealing scenes on screen, breaking ground behind the camera, or dreaming up his next big creative leap, Utkarsh continues to redefine what it means to be a modern multi-hyphenate. We caught up with him to talk superpowers, Broadway dreams, laugh-out-loud moments on set, and the surprising joys of living in the “good part.”

Let’s start with your superpower. If you could steal one talent from any of your characters, which would it be and how would you use it in real life?

I think Jay from Ghosts. He has the incredible ability to love unconditionally no matter what insanity his wife and her ghost friends bring into the house. If I could operate with that level of patience and wonder all day long, it would be amazing!

Your career spans acting, rapping, singing, writing, producing… if your life were a genre mashup movie, what would it be called and who would direct it?

I think I’d have the lovely Taika Waititi ghost-direct it, but I would take full credit. And as for a title, Get to the Good Part, a musical comedy and martial arts piece about a protagonist who is constantly searching for the next best thing, only to joyfully realize that they had been living in the “good part” the whole time. And Jean-Claude Van Damme is in it.

You’ve worked on some fan-favorite projects including Ghosts, which was recently renewed for its fifth and sixth seasons. The show is beloved by audiences, but what is it about this project that makes it so special for you?

The fact that people all over the world have connected to this quirky family comedy is so gratifying. We love working together, and our crew in Montreal is the best. It’s HARD for a show to be successful. It takes a million miracles for it to happen, and I’m so freakin’ glad this one hit for us all. It is not lost on me how rare our success is!

As a producer, you were recently nominated for an Emmy for World’s Best on Disney+. Can you tell us more about this experience and why you wanted to bring this story to life?

World’s Best was a dream come true. I got to work with my best friends to tell a loosely biographical story about coming up as an emcee in NYC. We found a singular talent in Manny Magnus to play our lead, and we were able to put the FIRST nuclear South Asian family on a Disney screen. If you haven’t seen it yet, please please please give our labor of love a chance!

As a multi-hyphenate, you’ve already tapped into so many parts of your creativity. Is there something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try your hand at?

I think a one-man hip-hop musical on Broadway could be fun and terrifying – just telling the stories and communing with a live audience. I have some ideas as to how it would feel and sound and start… I think it would be super scary, which is very exciting!

Be honest: who’s the funniest castmate you’ve ever had, and what’s something they did that totally broke you on set?

There are only two actors that I can recall that I was unable to do my job around because they were too funny. Jillian Bell, who I’ve done four movies with (Game Over, Man; Godmothered; Brittany Runs a Marathon; and The Drop) and Ike Barinholtz on The Mindy Project, where I was literally cut out of scenes because I couldn’t stop laughing. Jillian is maybe the funniest person I’ve ever been around. She tickles me too much with her delivery. I can’t fight it!

What’s the most random or surprising compliment you’ve ever gotten from a fan?

My buddy Lin-Manuel Miranda did a reimagining of a one-act musical called Working in 2012 and named one of his characters “Utkarsh.” I don’t think I even knew about it until many years later. I got a request from Helen Hunt (!!) to make a video for her daughter, Makena, saying hi because she had played “Utkarsh” on stage. That was mind-blowing and awesome. Listen to Makena’s band, WideMouth – they friggin’ rule.

If you had to swap lives with one of your characters for a week, which one would you choose? And what’s the first thing you’d do in their world?

I might want to go back to Donald from Pitch Perfect, for no other reason than I could be in college again and be able to fit into those tight pants one more time.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What’s your survival playlist? You get one Bollywood song, one Broadway show tune, and one ’90s hip-hop track.

“Urvasi” (Tamil version), “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” from Rent, and I’d want an instrumental of “The Message” by Nas so I could rap to it and write to it.

What’s something about you that most people assume is true, but couldn’t be more wrong?

I asked one of my best friends and he said, “That you’re an extrovert. Because you perform live and do comedy, people probably think you like being around people. But really, you just want to watch bad movies and hang with your kids.”

And finally: if your younger self could see everything you’ve done so far, what do you think he’d say?

“What the f*%k took you so long?”

Utkarsh Ambudkar @utktheinc Photography Cecile Boko @bokocecile Styling / Vip Talent + Editorial Director AmbiKa “B” Sanjana @styledbyambika Grooming Nadia Hoecklin @nadiahoecklin Styling Assistant Sarah Gibson @sarahmgibsonn