Micheal McCary

Michael Sean McCary was born on December 16, 1971. He fits in somewhere amongst 15 brothers and sisters. He was raised only by his very loving and supporting mother, Omarnetta Thomas, which also made his childhood a struggle due to the limited income. "I would describe my childhood as happy, but it was definitely not relaxed. Since we were always struggling to make ends meet, it was very difficult to be releaxed." Also being raised in Logan, a very high crime area, didn't make it any easier. "Logan's one of the biggest crime ares in Philly. It was kind of hard coming out every day and going to different parts of the city to sing while all your friends are slinging' dope and doing all the things you were trying to stay away from." When you think of Mike, the words "cool, calm and collected" come to mind. But when he went to a traditional High School he remembers being teased and called a nerd. "As a teenager I tended to get laughed at in school because I was a nerd. I was in honour roll society, and I did the debate team for about a year. When I was in traditional HS I always liked music. Some people laughed and teased me because I wanted to sing." And as for Mike's now infamous cane? "Cane's came about because I'm a very, very clumsy person. In the early days I used to play alot of ball, I played basketball. I would mess up my ankles all the time, I messed up my knee in high school." He is now very rarely seen without it because "it became a fasion statement throughout the years because everybody was like 'look at that cool brother walking down the street with a cane'. I wasn't trying to be cool, I was trying to be careful, and not fall over and not injure myself any more. I love it, it gives you a new level of confidence 'cause you know you're not gonna fall over with a third leg." During interviews, you may notice Mike prefers not to say much. Don't disregard him because of this. It's not that he's not interested in the interviw, he is merely observing. He takes his time and examines the situation before commenting on it. But you've been warned - when he does say something it's best to listen 'cause it's bound to be prolific. Mike is also said to be so honest it hurts. He won't tell you something to insult you, but unless you can handle truth, honesty and criticism don't bother to ask Mike. Mike is the quiet one during interviews, but the motor-mouth during one-on-one conversation. Immediately recognisable by his signature-deep "Bass" voice, Mike has always wanted to get into the music industry, and will no doubt stay there for a very long time.

Wanya Morris

Wanya (pronounced Wan-yay) Morris was born on July 29, 1973, the eldest of four children. His mother, Carla Morris, and father, Dallas Thornton, never married and split up when Wanya was three. While Wanya today is cute, funny, playful, and oh so down-to-earth, his childhood was not full of such happy times, "My Mom was living with her boyfriend, who is my brother and sisters' father. I don't know why he didn't like me, but I do know that he used to beat the crap out of me for no reason whatsoever." Even his living conditions were far from recommendable. "I grew up in the projects. For a couple of years I grew up in the Richard Allen Projects in Philadelphia. I lived there until I was about eight or nine, then I moved to Germantown. In Germantown, the living conditions were not great at all. We had electricity sometimes, we had phone sometimes, we had water sometimes, and sometimes we just had cold water. Then we moved to Nicetown, which was another part of Germantown, where living wasn't much better." Wanya has always liked to have fun (and to make sure that everyone else around him is too), even throughout High School, but this eventually made an impact on his grades. "I would do all kinds of things to make the school year fun. The crazy thing was, after a while, I played so much that my homework didn't even matter to me anymore. By the time I found out that I should have been doing my homework, my grades were so bad that it was too late for me to care." After Wanya was expelled from the High School for Creative and Performing Arts, he switched schools a lot, until he found Willingboro High School, at which he graduated. Wanya never had plans to go to College, he joined Boyz II Men when he was just 15 years old. While he has always been able to sing, in his younger years, the focus was more on his drawing, but encouragement from family and friends made him realise his true talent. "Everybody basically wanted me to sing, but at the same time, they wanted me to have something to fall back on. That wasn't the idea that I had. I wanted to draw, and actually drew for a little while. I drew the logo and tour jackets for the last Boyz II Men tour. I also created the logo for our new album, II, using some creative suggestions from my brothers. Eventually, my only career goal was to sing, and with the exception of art, I didn't want to do anything else." Whatever the situation, Wanya can always find something funny about it - but never at anyone's expense. He always does it in the spirit of good, old-fashioned, clean fun. The one thing to remember about Wanya is that no matter how famous he is, he's still "Squirt" - one of the homies from around the way. He still cruises 'round Philly looking for friends whenever he feels the need. He's clean-cut (as are all members of the group). He doesn't drink, smoke, do drugs or believe in treating women badly. He's the youngest of the group, but by far the most outgoing.