THE TRUTH ABOUT AJ

Sports: Basketball,pool,golf

Food: McDonald's,pizza

Drink: OrangeJuice

Color: Yellow

Hobbies: Movies(especially horror), shopping, writing music and poetry, playing bass guitar, talking on the phone

Cologne: CK One

Designers: Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, DKNY

Tv show: Seinfeld, Boy Meets World

Movie: Pulp Fiction, Devil's Advocate, I Know What You Did Last Summer

Biggest Fear: Clowns

Poets: Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Elliot

Outfit: His silk pajamas (!! how adorable !!)

Candy: Hershey's Cookies 'N Cream Chocolate Bar

Ice Cream: Mint Chocolate Chip

Song: "I Swear" All-4-One

Places: Paris, FR; Spain . . .

 "I'm a big ham and I gotta be out there and doing crazy stuff for no apparent reason, especially on stage..." admits A.J. But then, one might have guessed that there was something brewing when, as a youngster in his very first acting job, A.J. brought the house down as Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

     In fact, by sixth grade, Alexander James McLean had appeared in 27 classics such as The Nutcracker, The King And I and Fiddler on the Roof. While attending junior high, A.J. won a part in Nickelodeon's Hi Honey, I'm Home and began an ongoing relationship with both Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. A.J. sang, trained extensively in dance, and took acting classes.    

When he's not working, A.J. , who's a skilled puppeteer, spends time cartooning, writing poetry that inspires his songwriting, playing basketball, volleyball and shooting pool. His take on the tracks of the Backstreet Boys' debut album? "In my mind, they're gonna be hits!" . .

. .

          "My full name is Alex James McLean. I was born January 9, 1978 in Bethesda Memorial Hospital, it was a big 'ole pink, Pepto Bismol-colored hospital in Palm Beach. I was born with a hernia. Here's a bit of trivia: I'm not sure, but I think four out of the five Backstreet Boys, everybody but Nick, were born with hernias. It's really strange!

          Anyway, I lived in a complex on Rosemary Circle in Boynton Beach, a subdivision of West Palm Beach. Most of the friends I grew up with lived on the corner or across the street. I went to Unity Elementary School in Boynton through sixth grade. At the time, my father was working for IBM - he was a genius when it came to taking apart computers… he was brilliant. He'd fix them and deliver them back to their owners. My mother was working with my grandmother, Ursula, at the Breaker's Hotel right on the water of West Palm. My parents got divorced when I was about four.

        Back then I would try to mow the lawn, but I couldn't actually do it until I was six or seven. The lawnmower was the kind where you pull the lever and it would go by itself and you'd just direct it. And it would take me for a ride and I'd be like, 'Woooooah'! So I'd fix the hedges, clean the pool… I never cleaned my room though, that was my mom's job. I'm an only child and it's fun, fun, fun! I had more privileges than I would if I had any brothers or sisters. I was spoiled, they spoiled me rotten, but I never did get an allowance.

          When I was around five, my mom got me into modeling and I started doing J.C. Penny's catalogs and runways. I was seen at a runway show at a mall. There was a director there who worked at the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre. She asked my mom if I was interested in doing any plays. So my first part was Dopey, as in the Seven Dwarfs. I had no lines, but I was the biggest hit of that show… I ended up doing about twenty-seven plays in the course of two years! Sometimes it was chorus stuff and sometimes it was leads.

          Around the end of my 6th grade year, my mother and my grandparents decided to move to Orlando. They had heard that actors do very well there, so we made the move. At that time, I was going into 7th grade and I really wanted to go to a performing arts school for drama. A couple of people we met in the community told me about this one school called the Masters Academy. I was only there until 8th grade. At that time we were living in Fern Park.

          My first audition was at Nickelodeon and I got the part of a character named Skunk on a sitcom called Hi Honey, I'm Home. The character I played had his head shaved and hair dyed blond down the middle; they shaved my head and I had a Mowhawk, a rat tail and bleached blond hair. Now this school I was going to, you couldn't have hair past the collar and I come in with this whacked-out hairdo. They were like, 'What's up with your hair?' So that show lasted about two weeks, and then I got fired because I was too tall. Basically, I made some money and got exposure.

          Then I moved to Kissimee, Florida and went to Denn John Middle School. Nickelodeon kept calling me back for extra work, so I did Welcome Freshman, Fifteen and then I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club. I never became a Mouseketeer, but I may have appeared as an extra. I had known Howie since the 8th grade, and he auditioned for Disney too, but he was too old. I was too close to the age where they stopped signing kids, which is 17.

   When I was younger, I wasn't quiet - I had a big mouth! I was constantly running my mouth and I was also a big-time flirt - I'm still one! Since my mom raised me, I was always taught to treat girls with respect. In fact, I would always treat every girl with the utermost respect. That's why I was always hanging out with girls when I was younger. Girls don't bore me: I love shopping, they love shopping. I love clothes, they love clothes. They're more interesting. With guys it's just like sports. I would always talk to girls, pull their chairs out and get them things in the cafeteria. Some girls would get jealous, because I would do it for everyone.

          The first time I really started dating was in the 8th grade, and that didn't really work out too well.

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