Ross Butler parents Jeannie Butler and English father raised him in the US. Ross was born in Singapore and moved to the US at four.
The American actor and model is best known for portraying Zach Dempsey in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and Brett Willis in Corinne Marshall’s K.C. Undercover.
Butler got his start with minor roles in student films and other low-budget projects. He finally booked his breakthrough recurring role on the Disney Channel comedy series K.C. Undercover, starring Zendaya.
In 2017, he appeared as Reggie Mantle in the supernatural horror crime drama Riverdale. He later left the drama series following his commitment to 13 Reasons Why.
However, he reprised his role as Reggie in Riverdale’s 100th episode, The Jughead Paradox.
Initially, the star had no interest in acting. But after seeing the huge under-representation of Asian-American talent in the industry, he decided he would make a change in stereotype and enter Hollywood.
Ross Has Asian and European Influences
Ross Butler parents Jeannie Butler and English father lived in Jakarta. His mother Jeannie Butler is a real estate consultant in Virginia.
He was born to English-Dutch father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother in Singapore. The Butler family lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, before settling down in the US.
13 Reasons Why star was only four when the family moved to Fairfax, Virginia, a suburban area outside Washington, D.C. There he was raised by his single mother, Jeannie Butler.
As evidenced by his social media posts, he is extremely close to his family. He often shares their beautiful pictures on Instagram and marks special days such as birthdays, Father’s Day, and Mother’s Day.
On June 19, 2017, Butler shared a joyous childhood picture of himself with his dad on Twitter. He wrote, “Happy Fathers Day! Miss ya pops.” He really misses his dear father.
Another photo came on in June 2020 on Instagram. The picture saw little Ross and his pops pointing at something while enjoying themselves on the beach. “Happy Father’s Day, Dad,” he wrote in the post.
He also made a shoutout to all those single moms and dads out there through the post.
His Mother Jeannie Butler
Ross Butler mother Jeannie is a real estate consultant at Keller Williams Realty in McLean, Virginia. She has been serving the firm for over 14 years since joining in October 2008.
She helps clients with selling and buying their homes in Tysons Corner, Mclean, and Arlington. She guides sellers to stage their homes into attractive model homes.
Jeannie is available on Instagram under the username @malgal1421. She has 235 posts with nearly 1k followers but has opted to keep her account private. She is also dynamic on Facebook.
Back then, when the actor wasn’t very inspired as a child, Jeannie took him to piano lessons, and he has been playing music ever since.
Butler Spent His Childhood In Singapore And Jakarta
After spending the first few years of his childhood in Singapore and Jakarta, the Butler family moved to Virginia.
Ross Butler has no siblings as he has not shared any pictures of his brother or sister on social media.
In July 2015, a Twitter user asked if he and Piper Curda were siblings. “You look a lot alike,” he tweeted. The actor responded to the Tweet and said, “nope! we’re not.”
Similarly, in March 2019, model Justin Biticon tweeted, “the rumors are true guys ross is my brother.” K.C. Undercover star joked by replying, “I don’t know why there was any doubt.” “ever since I went blonde man smh,” she responded.
Before pursuing acting as a career, Butler studied chemical engineering at Ohio State, as his mother wanted him to be an engineer. But he was miserable in the field and intended to leave Virginia.
One day, he came clean to his mom and said, “I feel like I want to entertain people. I want to tell stories.” Though unvoiced, he had intentions to move to Los Angeles for months.
Three days later, he moved to LA; he was 20. At first, his mom didn’t support his decision because she saw an acting career as insecure and frivolous.
His decision resulted in at least two years of discord with his mom. Butler has since managed to maintain a close relationship with her and now the mother-and-son duo is on good terms.
He Has Diverse Family History
Perfect High star belongs to mixed background, born to a Chinese-Malaysian mother and an English-Dutch father, placing his foot in European heritage.
Growing up in Fairfax, he never really felt a connection with his heritage, despite being born in Singapore, reported Character Media.
Renowned stars like Al Pacino and Tom hanks dominated his most-loved films, and none looked like him.
When the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out, Butler found it “cool” but it didn’t resonate with him.
The actor said, “they weren’t even speaking English.” So, growing up, he didn’t embrace his Asian heritage as much because he didn’t see it.
After arriving in LA, he started picking up modeling jobs, enrolled in acting classes, and went for auditions.
Hollywood took no time to show the star what it expected of someone from his background.
It was in those auditions he finally found his purpose. He started to think about why he didn’t have Asian American heroes. He grew up wanting to be Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
And once he’d decided he deserved to be in those rooms, there was probably nothing to stop him.
As his career took off, he would mostly find himself as the only Asian person in the cast and crew.
But things changed, he was part of a full Asian cast in Waste It On Me. He said there was an immediate connection as they all, for the most part, had gone through the same trials of being Asian American in Hollywood.