Shum was born in
San Jos??
,
Costa Rica on April 28, 1982 to Chinese parents who moved from Guangzhou to Costa Rica. He was raised there with his two sisters for about 5???6 years before they moved to San Francisco. He started dancing with his high school dance company team and continued his career in
San Francisco, California under several different studios. He incorporates various different styles into his dance, including popping, tutting, waving, locking, breaking and also contemporary.
Shum launched his career as the only male dancer on
BET's
Comic View
in 2002 and has continued his dancing career from there. He was also one of the lead dancers with stars such as
Beyonc??,
Mariah Carey,
Jennifer Lopez and
Jessica Simpson. He was a silhouette for the now-famous iPod commercials, as well. He now plays Mike Chang, a dancer who joins the glee club, on the Fox musical television show
Glee
. Known as the "Other Asian" on Glee, Harry Shum Jr. has been getting a lot more screen time this season with his budding relationship with Tina, and his performances in "Make 'Em Laugh," "Dream a Little Dream," and "Sing." On November 17, various news sources began circulating the rumor that Harry Shum Jr. may be promoted from guest star to series regular in season three, with varying levels of certainty from different sources.
In 2010, Shum appeared in
Step Up 3-D, a 3D look at New York style street dancing.
He is also a dancer and choreographer for the
Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.
In 2011, Shum completed an action-oriented project with director
Ross Ching, producers
Don Le and
George Wang, starring himself in the lead role as "the Hunter", Stephen "tWitch" Boss (runner-up of Fox's
So You Think You Can Dance (season 4), and
Katrina Law (
,
The Resistance
). The project released January 10, 2011, and is set to be part of a trilogy of short films including a prequel and sequel.
"3 Minutes"
has received nationwide coverage from the official
Star Wars site and
Gizmodo, as well as the New York Post,
Seventeen Magazine,
Audrey Magazine, and Hyphen Magazine . It was also won the coveted slot of
Vimeo's Staff Pick of the Day on its debut day, netting well over 60,000 views on the site within the first 24 hours. Currently, the short film has been viewed by well over 350,000 people on both
Youtube and
Vimeo.
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