A.J. McLean
A.J. McLean
Alexander James McLean (born January 9, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and model. He is a member of the vocal group the Backstreet Boys. McLean is also a contributor for the It Gets Better Project.
As a child, McLean had a speech impediment, which gave him a lisp and a tendency to stutter.
He discovered his love for performing and started to pursue a career in acting, dancing and singing. When he was four, McLean began to focus on his love for dance, so his mother signed him up for dance lessons every day for two hours. He took ballet for four years, jazz, tap, hip hop, rhythm tap, rhythm hip-hop, contemporary, ballroom, salsa, merengue and gymnastics. His mother then got him into modelling when he was around five for a few years, doing J.C. Penny’s catalogues and runways. At age six, McLean was part of a school play, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in which he played Dopey, at Unity of Delray Beach church and school. He also appeared in more traditional musicals such as The Nutcracker, The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof before the age of 11. By the time he was 12, he had performed in many classic school plays.