Vu Ha

Vu Ha was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1974, prior to the fall of Saigon to the NVA in 1975. His family (mother and older brother) escaped Vietnam after the fall, in which his family were held in a Korean refugee camp, then later moved to America, where they started their new life at Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith, AR. Raised in Rogers, AR, Ha always had a knack for entertaining others, either through his natural-born illustrative talents or through his sense of humor and passion for performing. Most of Ha's public school years, he was known as the school artist or funny-man. Ha went to college at the Art Institute of Dallas, then later the University of Arkansas where he had intentions of earning some degree in Art, but later decided that one does not need a college education to pursue artistic endeavors. Ha remained in the NW Arkansas area for most of his life, expanding his passion for performing into a variety of areas: fronting two ska/punk bands (Soda Pop Gods and Kung-Fu Grip the latter getting multiple air play on the Dr. Demento radio show), live theater (most recent performance was in the University of Arkansas's 2007 production of "West Side Story", in which Ha played Bernardo's right-hand man, "Pepe". Ha, who had been out of college for nearly ten years at the time, signed up for one class at the University in order to meet the requirements to audition for the play), and currently (2019) does stand-up comedy, in which he has performed with the likes of great comedians such as Steve Hytner, Lynne Koplitz, Bob Zany, Greg Morton, among many others. Ha's introduction into television/film was playing a background extra as a Vietcong soldier in a 3rd Season episode of HBO's "True Detective". Shortly after, Ha attended an audition for a feature film from California, calling for Vietnamese actors to fill background roles for various scenes in a Vietnam War-era film. Upon entering the audition room, with only an expectation of signing up to be an extra, the film's director immediately saw the potential in Ha to be more than just a background character, and had Ha do a cold reading for the part of the "wise monk". After Ha's initial cold read, he was cast on the spot by the writer/director of the film who cited that he was most impressed by Ha's unprepared cold reading, which came out so naturally. Ha completed the initial photography for his scenes in the film "Love in Country" in June of 2019, and had currently (2019) returned to being the best father he can be to his two children, and doing stand-up comedy locally, when the opportunity arises.