Early life and education

Fatone was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Italian-American family, and was raised in Bensonhurst. He attended Joseph B. Cavallaro J.H.S. (I.S. 281) located at 8787 24th Avenue, Brooklyn. He is the son of Phyllis and Joseph Anthony Fatone Sr., an actor and musician. He has two older siblings, Janine and Steven. At thirteen years, Fatone and his family moved to Orlando, Florida. There, Fatone attended and graduated from Dr. Phillips High School. During High school Fatone would go by the name P.J. and would perform singing Valentines to raise money for his school's Glee club. Reportedly, at his graduation, Fatone sang a rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner", celebrated as a precursor to his future success.

Career

Before becoming famous, Fatone appeared as a contestant on the classic Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade. However, Fatone and his partner on that episode did not proceed to the bonus round because of buzzing in and answering a question about Abraham Lincoln incorrectly. After high school, Fatone worked as a performer at Universal Studios in Orlando, where he played "Wolfie" in Beetlejuice's GraveYard Revue.

NSYNC

In the summer of 1995, after befriending fellow Universal Studios stage performer, Chris Kirkpatrick, who was singing in a doo-wop group, he became the fourth member along with Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. Then Lance Bass was added to the group that would become NSYNC. In 2001, Fatone co-starred with *NSYNC bandmate Lance Bass in the Miramax film On the Line, he guest starred with NSYNC on a 2001 episode of The Simpsons episode New Kids on the Blecch and also did voice work with Bass on the same episodes of Disney's Kim Possible and Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.

Post NSYNC career

Fatone co-starred in the 2002 dramatic comedy motion picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding as Toula's cousin Angelo, appeared in the show My Big Fat Greek Life, and reprised the role again in the 2016 sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. He acted in the critically acclaimed movie The Cooler. He has had minor roles in the experimental film, Red Riding Hood, and in Homie Spumoni, alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Fatone has also been on Broadway performing leads in Rent and in a revival of Little Shop Of Horrors.

Fatone hosted NBC's The Singing Bee as well as the Australian version of the show on Nine Network. On August 21, 2007, it was announced that Fatone, along with Lisa Rinna, would replace Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers as hosts of TV Guide's red carpet pre-shows for the 2007-2008 season. His hosting duties with TV Guide continued for the 2008-2009 season.

Fatone was also in an episode of Hannah Montana as a restaurant owner named Joey Vitolo who used to be a baseball player and forces Hannah to sing in order to get a replacement signed ball for her brother. He was also the "ringmaster" for the NBC celebrity reality series Celebrity Circus (which was based on the Australian version).

On November 30, 2007, he participated in the taping of the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade inside the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

On May 22, 2010, Fatone starred as a baseball player in an episode of Imagination Movers on the Disney Channel.

From July 6-18, 2010, Fatone played Franz Liebkind, the comedic Nazi soldier, in the musical "The Producers" at the Pittsburgh Benedum Center.

He has appeared as a voice actor in several episodes of Robot Chicken, starring as himself in a kung fu skit called "Enter The Fat One" and then in the show's Star Wars episode.

In the twelfth season of Family Feud in 2010, Fatone became the announcer with Steve Harvey as the host for that season.

In 2011, he started hosting the Live Well Network series My Family Recipe Rocks. In the same year he was in a horror film called "Inkubus".

In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. In 6 weeks he was eliminated, but he won $5000 for his charity, the Fatone Family Foundation. He also hosted the Las Vegas show The Price Is Right at Bally's Las Vegas, as a celebrity guest host.

Joey Fatone can be seen regularly on stage singing with Steel Panther at West Hollywood House of Blues. From May to June 2013, he played Bert in the Pittsburgh CLO production of 42nd Street.

In February 2014, he made a guest appearance on the hidden camera show Impractical Jokers, standing in for one of the show's stars, Brian Quinn, during a challenge.

In April 2014, Fatone began hosting the Food Network cooking competition Rewrapped, where chefs must try to recreate classic snack foods, then create new dishes using said snack food.

In August 2014 Fatone hosted the new family reality series, Parents Just Don't Understand, seen on the Hub Network, which was later re-branded as Discovery Family.

In 2015, Fatone made a couple of appearances as himself in The Jack and Triumph Show.

Dancing with the Stars

On February 1, 2007, the ABC television network announced that Fatone would participate in season 4 of the American version of Dancing with the Stars, which debuted March 19, 2007. He ended up placing second, losing the mirror ball to Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough. He competed with professional partner Kym Johnson. Fatone participated in the 15th season of Dancing with the Stars for a second chance to win a mirrorball trophy, again dancing with Kym Johnson. They were the second couple eliminated.

Dancing with the Stars At Sea

In February 2013, Fatone appeared on Holland America Line's "Dancing With the Stars At Sea", aboard the MS Eurodam. He returned to Dancing with the Stars at Sea on Holland America Line's MS Nieuw Amsterdam in January 2014 alongside co-star He was paired with Lacey Schwimmer and appeared alongside Mark Ballas, Sabrina Bryan, and a dance ensemble. Unlike the TV show, however, this was not a competition and there were no eliminations.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

On October 18, 2009, Fatone attended the TNA Wrestling's biggest annual pay-per-view event TNA Bound for Glory and co-hosted the live pre-show alongside Jeremy Borash. This was not the first time Fatone has been linked to TNA as he has been spotted at Universal Orlando where TNA tapes their weekly television program.

*NSYNC Performance

On August 25, 2013, the members of NSYNC regrouped for a one-off performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. They performed a medley of "Girlfriend" and "Bye Bye Bye". After the performance, Lance Bass said that the group does not have plans at the moment for a reunion tour or new music.

Personal life

On September 9, 2004, Fatone married his on-and-off girlfriend of 10 years, Kelly Baldwin. The ceremony took place in Oheka Castle on Long Island, New York and was attended by all of Fatone's bandmates. Fatone and his wife have two daughters. Fatone's best friend, Lance Bass, is their godfather.

Stage work

• Rent - Mark Cohen (2002)
• Little Shop of Horrors - Seymour Krelborn (2004)
• The Producers - Franz Liebkind (2010)
• 42nd Street - Bert Barry (2013)
• Rock of Ages -The Palazzo, Las Vegas (2015)

Filmography

• Longshot (2000)
• On The Line (2001)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
• Dead 7 (2016)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]