Merrick Hanna

Merrick Hanna was born on March 22, 2005 in San Diego, California, the United States, to Shawn Hanna and Aletha Hanna. He has a younger brother named Sagan Hanna.

The teenager loves mathematics and likes working with numbers and solving number problems. He attends Khan Academy. He plans to become a robotics engineer while also continuing with a dancing career. He teaches himself to code in Java and intends to attend UCLA, from where his mother and grandparents had graduated. His father graduated from UCSD, and he sometimes practice with UCSD students at the popping club called Poptikz.

Merrick loves to spend time with his friends at the beach, surfing, and playing Clash of Clans.

Passionate about dancing since the age of nine, Merrick Hanna is an expert in freestyle dancing and well known for his ‘flo-bot’ style of dance. He first became interested in dancing after he watched the ‘Jabbawockeez’ on ABDC. He then taught himself dancing by watching dancing shows on TV and online videos. He participated in ‘Lip Sync Battle Shorties’, an American reality television show aired on Nickelodeon. He also appeared in another dance competition show called ‘So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation’.

Though he was unsuccessful in entering ‘America's Got Talent’ during the seasons 10 and 11, he eventually got through in season 12. He was much appreciated by the judges on the show but was finally eliminated in the second week of the semifinals. His last performance in the show was of dancing to Jon Bellion's ‘iRobot (The Human Condition)’. At one point during the performance, he appeared to be flying in the air! Although he received a standing ovation by judge Mel B, he could not receive enough votes from the audiences.

He has also embarked on a career in acting and has performed in summer Shakespeare runs of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ and ‘A Winter's Tale’. He appeared in an episode of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ and stated in an interview that being on ‘Ellen…’ and dancing with Twitch were among his favorite dancing experiences so far.

His dancing videos have gone viral several times on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In June 2018, Merrick performed in YouTube Onstage, an annual entertainment showcase in Anaheim, California. Merrick loves to entertain the children at the Ecke Family YMCA with his unique dance style. He also helps with hip-hop classes for young kids at the Ecke Family YMCA charity events.