This study investigated the effectiveness of bio-augmenting aerobic cell culture to mitigate ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emission in sewage sludge composting amended with reed straw (with the weight ratio of 1:0.3–0.4). During the 20-day aerated lab-scale composting, adding 200 mL culture (56.80 NTU) reduced ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions by 38.00 % and 54.32 %, and conserved total nitrogen and sulfate by 39.42 % and 70.75 %, respectively. Organic matters degradation was quick started 1 day ahead. Comparing to the control, nitrate content increased 38.75 % at the end of the compost. Bioaugmentation evened the distributions of bacterial communities in the thermophilic phase. The shift was mainly due to 22.97 % of relative abundance of Proteobacteria depressed and 157.16 % of Bacteroidetes increased, which were benefit for nitrogen conservation and glycan breakdown, respectively. In summary, the results demonstrated that bioaugmentation addition could be an effective strategy for enhanced sludge composting.