Austin Butler - Film & Theater Personalities, Facts and Personal Life

Austin Robert Butler was born on 17th August, 1991 at Anaheim in California to Lori Anne and David Butler. He has an elder sister, Ashley Butler.

He grew up in his hometown and attended regular school. When he was thirteen, he was spotted by a management company representative at the ‘Orange County Fair’.

The representative helped him procure minor roles in television shows. Gradually he took keen interest in acting and began taking lessons for the same. He left regular school in grade seven and was home-schooled in order to cope with shootings and acting lessons.

At the same time, he also learnt how to play the guitar and piano. The first music instrument he ever held was a violin. However, he learnt the guitar faster and used to play it until his fingers would bleed.

He received home-schooling for three years, and took the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) in tenth grade formally completing his high school education.

Until 2005, he worked as an extra on shows. Finally, he landed a role as a background actor on Nickelodeon’s ‘Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide’. His colleague and good friend, Lindsey Shaw got him introduced to her manager who agreed to work for him.

His first major break was in the teen hit show ‘Hannah Montana’, where he starred in a guest role, and played the part of Derek Hanson. On the show he got to work with teen star Miley Cyrus, under the Disney banner.

In 2007, he was cast as Jake Krandle on the Nickelodeon show ‘iCarly’ in the episode ‘iLike Jake’. The following year, he landed his first recurring role as James Garrett, on the Nickelodeon family series ‘Zoey 101’.

His role on ‘Zoey 101’ was his breakthrough performance, as offers came pouring in after he gained fame on the show. He played the love interest of the title character of the show in season 4, spanning 9 episodes.

In 2009, Austin Butler was offered the main role in the movie ‘Aliens in the Attic’, under the distribution of 20th Century Fox. It was an adventure movie, where he played the role of Jake Pearson, a dauntless lad who battles with aliens to save his homeland and family.

In 2009, he starred in ABC’s family sitcom ‘Ruby & The Rockits’ as Jordan Gallager in a main role spanning 10 episodes. In the series he plays a teenage boy who has a crush on his cousin and loves playing the guitar. Thus, his viewers got a glimpse of his music skills as well.

In 2010, he accepted a recurring role in the family drama ‘Life Unexpected’. Throughout the year he was spotted on television shows such as ‘Wizards of Waverly’, ‘Jonas’, ‘CSI: Miami’ and ‘The Defenders’.

Soon, he got the main role in ‘Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure’, which was basically a spin-off from the hit movie ‘High School Musical’. In the film he enacted the part of Peyton Leverette’ and received critical acclaim for his performance.

From 2011 to 2012 he acted in ‘Switch at birth’, ‘The Bling Ring’, ‘Are You There, Chelsea?’ and ‘The Carrie Diaries’. During these two years he worked with huge production houses and excellent directors, which in turn helped boost his career further.

With success as both a TV actor and film actor, he joined the cast of ‘Death of the Author’, a theatrical play in 2014 at Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles. The play was directed by Bart De Lorenzo.

In the play he acted as a pre-law student holding a double major in mathematics and political science. The play was a hit and ran for over a month; his performance was critically appraised by numerous magazines.

In 2014, he also got to share screen space with Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith. Later that year, he starred as ‘Chase’ in the TV show ‘Arrow’ and co-starred with noted actor and producer, Tom Sizemore and the beautiful Miranda Cosgrove in the horror film ‘The Intruders’.

In 2016, he signed the role of Wil Ohmsford in MTV’s fantasy drama, ‘The Shannara Chronicles’ based on Terry Brooks novel ‘The Elfstones of Shannara’. In the series, he plays a half human-half elf, the last of his bloodline with the onus of saving his land from demons.

His performance in ‘The Carrie Diaries’ was critically acclaimed for his natural acting skills. The series was a prequel to the popular show ‘Sex and the City’. Since the latter was so raved about, the prequel had to live up to its standard, which it did. In the show, he played the main role of Sebastian Kydd, who is romantically involved with Carrie.

He has also been applauded for his performance in ‘The Shannnara Chronicles’, where he plays the lead role. The show received positive reviews from the ‘New York Times’ daily and weekly magazine ‘Variety’, based on the quick pace of the series and execution of the show’s characters.

In 2010, he was nominated at the ‘Young Artist Award’, in the categories of ‘Best Performance in a Feature Film- Young Ensemble Cast’ for the movie ‘Aliens in the Attic’ and for ‘Best performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) – Leading Young Actor for the show ‘Ruby & The Rockits’.

In 2011, he was nominated once again at the ‘Young Artist Award’ for his performance in the drama series ‘The Defender’ in the category of ‘Best Performance in a TV Series – Guest Starring Young Actor’.

He has been in a long-term relationship with Vanessa Hudgens since 2011. Before Vanessa, he was rumoured to have dated Cody Kennedy in 2007.

During his initial career, he did background acting with his elder sister Ashley, who also attended acting classes. The siblings acted on the show ‘Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide’.

His friend circle comprises of Ashley Tisdale, Alexa Vega, Cater Jenkins, Lindsey Shaw and Lucy Hale. He was also the ring bearer at Alexa Vega and Sean Covel’s wedding.

He hasn’t let his passion for music die out. As a guitarist he loves collecting guitars and also composes songs and uploads his singles on ‘iTunes’.