Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Jeffery Ou moved to the United States when he was three. He began formal training in piano at age six. He launched his competitive career at 13, and won first prize in piano and was named one of three overall grand prize winners in the 2004 North Texas Youth Music Competition. Now, Jeffery is 18 years old and he’s a finalist on the hit NBC reality competition series America’s Got Talent.

Despite graduating from Carrollton’s Newman Smith High School in May and attending the University of North Texas this fall as a freshman, Ou has found the time to take the national stage as a piano prodigy. He departs this Sunday, Aug. 30, to return to Los Angeles, where America's Got Talent is filmed, to tape the final episodes of the season featuring the final 20 contestants.

Jeffery’s younger sister, 17-year-old Julia Ou, is a senior at Newman Smith and, like her big brother, is involved with the school band as the clarinet section leader.

“I think it's awesome that he's competing in America's Got Talent,” says Julia. “I am very impressed and proud of how far he's gotten in the competition. Going into it, we both kinda didn't have very high hopes, seeing as how this was the biggest talent show in America, but I think it's safe to say that he's come a long way.”

According to NBC’s Web site, America's Got Talent features “a colorful array of hopeful stars, including singers, dancers, comedians, contortionists, impressionists, jugglers, magicians and ventriloquists, all vying for their chance to strut and perform on stage hoping to win America's hearts - and the $1 million prize.”

Thousands of hopefuls were whittled down to 48 this season, then 20. Jeffery Ou has found himself in that Top 20 group.

“It's a lot of fun for him,” says Julia. “He gets to go out and meet tons of new people and it's just a great experience overall.”

But the experience hasn’t been without its share of drama. First of all, NBC can’t seem to spell his name correctly, always using “Jeffrey” instead of “Jeffery.” (“I have yet to see them spell it right,” Julia notes.)

A more well-known incident occurred when, during a televised performance, the audio went out while Jeffery was playing the piano. Apparently, a dancer onstage accidentally kicked a cord that rendered more than half of Jeffery’s performance silent.

“Of course, we were all bummed out,” Julia says. “My family kinda flipped out and wanted to contact NBC and demand a second chance. I guess we reacted the same way any other family would react.”

But Ou prevailed despite technical difficulties and moved on to the next round. The response at Newman Smith has overwhelmingly positive.

“They think it's amazing! I used to be the more social, outgoing one out of the two of us, and people at school didn't really know of my brother,” says Julia. “But ever since he's been on America's Got Talent, everyone's been asking about him!”

In his profile on an online network called Gaia Community, Jeffery writes that his dream in life is to “share the language of music as truly the universal means of communication and expression.” He goes on to say that music “unites all people together, regardless of heritage, background, culture, ethnicity, lifestyle…we are all one culture through music's speech.”

If Jeffery wins, he won’t be the first local winner. In season two of America’s Got Talent, the winner was Terry Fator, a ventriloquist from Mesquite. This season, Jeffery is up against dance crews, singers, and more. The next time Jeffery performs on air will be Tuesday, Sept. 8. Watch America’s Got Talent on NBC Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m.