Nick & Liesl

Nickolas Gene "Nick" Carter (born January 28, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, entertainer and actor. He is best known as a member of the pop group Backstreet Boys. He has released two solo albums, Now Or Never and I'm Taking Off during breaks taken by the Backstreet Boys. He has made occasional television appearances and starred in his own reality show, House of Carters. He gained fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a teen idol. He is also the older brother of singer Aaron Carter. Early life and family edit: Carter was born in Jamestown, New York, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter, owned a bar called the Yankee Rebel. Several years later, the family moved to Ruskin, Florida and managed the Garden Villa Retirement Home, where they added to the family. Carter's siblings are: B.J. (Bobbie Jean);Leslie (June 6, 1986 - January 31, 2012); and twins Aaron and Angel (born December 7, 1987). Robert G. Carter has a daughter, Virginia (born 1972), from a previous marriage. Carter's parents divorced in 2003. His father remarried, to Ginger R. Elrod (born December 5, 1974) in 2004, and had a son, Kaden Brent, in June 2005. Career edit: Early years edit: Carter began auditioning for acting roles in the early 1990s, and appeared in many commercials. He later made a tiny background appearance in the 1990 Johnny Depp film Edward Scissorhands, as a kid playing on a slip and slide. Nick covered a number of songs made popular by other artists in the late 1980s including "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and "Uptown Girl". Some of these early recordings were released in 2002 on the CD titled Before the Backstreet Boys 1989-1993 by Dyenamic Discs, Inc. Backstreet Boys edit: Main article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstreet_Boys Carter, A.J. McLean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, and Kevin Richardson formed the pop group Backstreet Boys, with Carter, at 12, the youngest member. The group recorded several albums, beginning in the mid-1990s, went on hiatus, and regrouped in 2003, releasing albums as late as 2009's This Is Us. As of July 2012, they are working on their new album which is to be released in 2013. Solo career edit: In 2002, when the Backstreet Boys expressed a strong desire to leave their management company, The Firm, Carter chose to remain with them to manage his solo career. As the group began recording their new album without him, he started working on his first solo album.Now Or Never was released on October 29, 2002, and it reached No. 17 on Billboard 200 and was certified gold, both in the United States and Canada. The lead single, "Help Me" achieved considerable worldwide success while the other single, "I Got You" was a minor hit in Europe. The album made the charts in many countries as well. He also launched a worldwide tour in support of the album. He was one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2000 and Cosmogirl magazine's "Sexiest Man in the World" in 2002, beating out such competition as actor Brad Pitt and rival pop star Justin Timberlake for the title, launching a media-hyped "rivalry" between Timberlake and Carter, culminating in an amicable 2009 meeting off camera on the set of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where Carter defeated Timberlake in an arm wrestling match."Man of the Moment". Nick began work on his second solo album in 2003, but the recordings were aborted when the Backstreet Boys returned to the studio. One of the tracks from the earlier recording sessions was used as the theme song to the television series House of Carters in 2006. "Let It Go" was written by Nick Carter, Matthew Gerrard, and Bridget Louise Benenate. Carter recorded a duet with pop singer Jennifer Paige called Beautiful Lie in 2009. In 2010, Nick Carter started recording new songs for his second solo album, working with Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk, Toby Gad, Josh Hoge, Claude Kelly, among many others. Carter's new album titled I'm Taking Off, was released on February 2, 2011 in Japan, in Germany on June 3, 2011 and in the USA via iTunes on May 24. As of June 2011, Nick's second solo album reached No. 8 in Japan, selling over 20,000 copies. Carter also started his own record label Kaotic, Inc. Acting career edit: In October 2004, Carter starred as local bully Brody in the ABC Family Halloween special, The Hollow, opposite Kevin Zegers. Carter and his siblings starred in a reality television show, House of Carters, which premiered on October 2, 2006 on E!. The series features all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house, as well as feature in-depth moments of their ups and downs. He made two appearances on the TV show "8 Simple Rules", and also appeared on "American Dreams". In 2007, Carter filmed the independent movie Fast Glass with Brandon Quinn, Andrew Keegan, Natalia Cigliuti, Greg Grunberg, and Reno Wilson. It was originally scheduled for release in 2008, but was released as direct-to-video movie in 2010. In 2012, he made a guest appearance on 90210. Personal life edit: Carter proposed to his girlfriend of four years, Lauren Kitt, on February 20, 2013 in the Florida Keys. Health problems edit: Carter has acknowledged ongoing struggles with drugs and alcohol abuse. He says that he became sober after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and realized that he could die if he did not make major lifestyle changes. The singer credits fellow Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson for helping him turn his life around by giving him Norman Vincent Peale's book Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results. After reading that book he started a healthier lifestyle, saying "Working out definitely helped my self esteem, and it helped to kind of push it all aside. I just started replacing drinking and the parties...with healthier things like sports, video games." On February 19, 2009, Carter appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to speak about his past on drugs and alcohol addictions. Humanitarian work edit: Carter was announced as the new United Nations Special Ambassador for the Year of the Dolphin (YoD) on May 17, 2007 representing the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention on Migratory Species, and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. He was to record a new song and video with all proceeds going to this project, make a public service announcement and appear at local schools. Carter has stated that he has a passion for the environment and its oceans. He has worked with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN). He also has lobbied for these causes at Capitol Hill.

Source: Wikipedia

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