Early life

Nickolas Gene 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 Bobbie Jean, Leslie (June 6, 1986 - January 31, 2012), and twins Aaron and Angel (born December 7, 1987).

Carter's father has a daughter, Ginger Carter (born 1972), from a previous marriage. His 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

Early years

Carter began auditioning for acting roles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and appeared in many commercials. He also made an appearance in the 1990 Johnny Depp film Edward Scissorhands as a child playing on a slip and slide. Carter 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

Main article: Backstreet Boys

At only 12 years old, Carter, A. J. McLean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, and Kevin Richardson formed the pop group Backstreet Boys on April 20, 1993. Nick is the youngest member. The group has recorded several albums, beginning in the mid-1990s, the latest being 2013's In a World Like This. The guys are currently working on their 9th studio album, and plan to have the CD done by the fall of 2016, with a world tour to follow.

Solo career

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 the Billboard 200 chart 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 No. 9 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.

In 2014, Carter recorded a duet album with Jordan Knight from fellow boy band, New Kids On The Block, titled Nick & Knight which debuted at #24 on the US Billboard 200 and #14 in Canada. The tour to support the album ran through September-November of 2014.

On September 22, 2015, Nick Carter released the first single from his new album, entitled "I Will Wait" on Vevo. The new CD, All American, was released on November 25, 2015. Nick will go on tour in support of the album in February and March of 2016.

Acting career

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 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. Carter made his motion picture debut in 2013, appearing in the comedy This Is the End along with the rest of the Backstreet Boys.

In 2014, Carter and his then fiancee, Lauren Kitt, starred in their own VH1 reality show, I Heart Nick Carter, which centered around the planning of their April 2014 wedding.

At Comic-Con 2015 in San Diego, Carter revealed his plans to film a movie that he had written, and would be directing and starring in. Entitled Dead 7, the film focuses on a ragtag band of gunslingers operating during a post-apocalyptic zombie plague. The film also stars Carter's wife, Lauren, and his band mates Howie Dorough and AJ McLean. In addition NSYNC's Joey Fatone, O-Town's Erik-Michael Estrada, Jacob Underwood and Trevor Penick, and 98 Degrees' Jeff Timmons will also star in the movie. The movie started filming in August 2015, and will be shown on the Sci Fi channel around April of 2016.

Dancing with the Stars

On August 26, 2015, it was revealed that Carter will be taking part in the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. He was paired with professional dancer Sharna Burgess. Carter and Burgess made the finals of the show and came in second place, behind Bindi Irwin and Derek Hough.

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Hough	Tonioli
1	Cha-cha-cha / "I Don't Like It, I Love It"	8	8	8	No Elimination
2	Jive / "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" Foxtrot / "Coming Home, Pt. II"	7 8	7 8	7 8	Safe
3	Viennese Waltz / "Did I Make the Most of Loving You?"	9	91 / 9	9	Safe
4	Jazz / "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"	9	9	9	Safe
52	Paso doble / "Don't Look Down"	9	9/83	9	No Elimination
6	Samba / "You Should Be Dancing"	9	10/104	10	Safe
7	Argentine tango / "Bring Me to Life" Team Freestyle / "This Is Halloween"	8 10	8 10	8 10	Safe
8	Contemporary / "Can't Help Falling in Love"	10	10	10	Safe (Immunity)
9	Quickstep / "A Cool Cat in Town" Team-Up Dance (Rumba) / "Hey Jude"	9 9	9 9	10 9	Safe
10	Tango / "Scars" Samba Dance-off / "Lean On" Trio Salsa / "No Doubt About It"	8 No 10	8 Extra 10	8 Points 10	Last to be called safe
11	Jive / "Runaway Baby" Freestyle / "Larger than Life" Salsa & Tango Fusion / "Turn Up the Music"	10 10 10	10 10 10	10 10 10	Runner-up
1 Score given by guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro. 2 For this week only, as part of "Partner Switch-Up" week, Carter did not dance with Burgess, and instead danced with Witney Carson. Burgess danced with Andy Grammer. 3 Score given by guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy. 4 Score given by guest judge Olivia Newton-John.

Charity work

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.

Personal life

Carter proposed to his long term girlfriend, Lauren Kitt, a fitness expert/trainer, WBFF Fitness Competitor and actress, whom he met through his brother and sister, on February 23, 2013, in Florida. They were married on April 12, 2014, in Santa Barbara, California. On October 27, 2015, it was revealed by multiple sources that Nick and Lauren are expecting their first child together. On November 2, the couple found out live on Dancing with the Stars that they are expecting a baby boy. On April 19, 2016, Kitt gave birth to a son, Odin Reign, after 30 hours of labour.

On January 13, 2016, Carter was arrested in Key West, Florida and booked on misdemeanor battery after he was denied entry to a bar due to "high levels of intoxication".

Health problems

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 with drugs and alcohol addictions.

In 2013, he published his first book titled Facing the Music And Living To Talk About It.

Discography

See also: Nick Carter discography and Backstreet Boys discography

• Now or Never (2002)
• I'm Taking Off (2011)
• All American (2015)

Collaborative albums

• Nick & Knight (2014)

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards received by Backstreet Boys

Filmography

TV series & Movies
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Sabrina The Teenage Witch	Himself	Episode: "Battle of the bands"
1998-1999	Saturday Night Live	Himself and Musical guest	"Julianne Moore/Backstreet Boys" (Season 23: episode 16) "Sarah Michelle Gellar/Backstreet Boys" (Season 24: episode 19)
2002	American Dreams	Jay Black	Episode: "Soldier Boy"
2002	Arthur	Himself	Episode: "Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll" Guest Voice
2002	All That	Himself	Sketch Performance
2002	Sesame Street	Himself	appeared with Aaron Carter
2003	8 Simple Rules	Ben Hatcher	Season 1: Episodes 17 and 18
2003	Punk'd	Himself	Season 2
2004	The Hollow	Brody	ABC TV Movie
2005	The Ellen Degeneres Show	Himself	Musical Guest With The Backstreet Boys
2006	House of Carters	Himself	Reality show
2010	Kill Speed	Foreman	direct-to-video
2010	The Pendant	Barrett	Actor and director
2011	Dr. Phil	Himself	Interview and a performance of "Burning Up"
2012	90210	Himself	Special guest
2012	Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	Himself	Musical Guest with Backstreet Boys
2013	This Is the End	Nick Carter	With the Backstreet Boys, performing "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
2014	I (Heart) Nick Carter	Himself	Main cast
2015	Dancing with the Stars	Himself	Contestant on season 21
2016	Dead 7	Jack	Actor and writer

Charities

Nick Carter supports the following charitable causes: Alzheimer's, Children.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]