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Skylar Astin: 5 Things You Don’t Know About the Ground Floor Actor

Skylar Astin in "Ground Floor"
Skylar Astin stars in the new TBS workplace comedy Ground Floor. Check out 5 things you might not know about the actor, known for his roles in Pitch Perfect and Spring Awakening.

Think you know all there is to know about Pitch Perfect's leading acafella Skylar Astin after seeing him costar in last summer's song-and-dance flick with Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and real-life girlfriend Anna Camp? Astin, who will soon be seen on TBS' Ground Floor, is making the leap from movies to TV and to celebrate, Us Weekly is uncovering five fun facts you might not know about the actor.

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1. His last name is actually his middle name. Born Skylar Astin Lipstein in 1987, the New York City native — best known for playing Georg in Broadway's Spring Awakening, after leaving NYU to take part in the show — adopted his stage name at the request of his agent. Years later, the moniker stuck. "When I was 15, my first agent just did it for me," he tells Movieline. "I'm not ashamed, I'm not embarrassed, but she said it was just less specific to one thing and she chopped it off. Forever to my friends I will be Skylar Lipstein."

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2. Sure, you heard him belt out Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" in Pitch Perfect, but as it turns out, with the right amount of liquid courage, he can do an aca-mazing cover of Celine Dion, too. "I cannot sing karaoke, because it's hard and weird. So I rap. I'll do Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' or something like that where I'm just screaming violently by the end of it," Astin has said. "And then I have another drink and I do 'My Heart Will Go On.'" (For those interested in Astin's actual tried-and-true vocals outside of the bar, he's hard at work prepping his first studio album.)

3. He may frequently write sappy breakup songs while prepping his debut disc, but in actuality, the musician-actor is very happy with his current relationship status, thankyouverymuch. Stepping out as a couple in June 2013 in the midst of costar Camp's divorce from Pan Am's Michael Mosley, Astin and the actress — who calls her man "dashing" — have "amazing chemistry," according to a source who knows the pair. Sums up Astin to Us: "Every night's date night — she's the best." Want further proof? Check out the couple's Twitter and Instagram pages for some awwwww-inducing selfie cuteness.

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4. Like many other young boys, Astin had big dreams of making it in the big leagues — until he stepped onto the performance stage. "I wanted to play baseball, but I just wasn’t good enough, so I had to get real with myself," Astin told a group of aspiring actors at a summer intensive camp in Pennsylvania earlier this year. "At one time or another, I guess I wanted to be a lot of things — astronaut, therapist, whatever — but once I got bitten by the [acting] bug, there was nothing else I could imagine myself doing."

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5. Astin — who stars as playboy banker Brody on Ground Floor — has Freddie Prinze, Jr. to thank for his first kiss. Summer Catch, Prinze's 2001 romcom costarring Jessica Biel was the first film he ever stopped watching to fit in a makeout session. "I'll never forget that one. I took Ashley Globerman out on a date, we held hands for the whole movie — which makes for really sweaty palms — and I got a kiss right afterwards," Astin recalls to NextMovie.com. "I was in sixth grade. I started young."

Catch Skylar Astin in Ground Floor, premiering Thursday, Nov. 14 at 10 p.m. (EST) on TBS.

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