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 mygrandparents
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 utmost 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. Then in my freshman
year, I did a commercial for MGM and I became really
close to the producer. His niece came down to visit and
we hit it off. The problem was she lived in Ohio. That
didn't work out, because she couldn't accept the
situation. Kevin kept
talking about this cousin he had in Kentucky. We were
trying to find guys from around the area, but we couldn't
find anybody. So we sent a plane to get Brian; he was
picked up in a limo. He came to the band house,
auditioned for us, we liked him. A week and a half later
was his first performance in front of 5,000 kids at Sea
World's Grad Night, 1993. Everything kind of blew up from
there. I got taken out of high school before Christmas of
1992. Nick and I
were being tutored at the time and he was living locally
with his mom, because it was [too far] to drive from
Tampa. Brian and Kevin were living together and the rest
of us were living with our parents. Soon we met with the
head of SADD. There were a couple of important people
from Jive in the audience and that's how we came over to
the Jive record company. They said they loved us and
wanted to sign us! We went up there, sang a capella and
they signed us. I've been looking for something like
this, and it's the one thing I want to live for: to get
up on a stage and make an audience smile. If I can do
that, I've done what I'm meant for. My advice
to young people going into the business is, if you've got
it in your heart and deep in your soul, there's a reason
for it. Don't think, 'Well, I'm going to be called
[names], because I wear tights sometimes. Actors are
sometimes misunderstood. They are just portraying other
people. I think anyone who wants to get into this
business should definitely do it. They have to be willing
to be competitive. It's a very competitive business. But
I think the more people who are involved in it, the more
people will understand us. Follow your dreams, your
hearts and your souls! That's pretty much what I've done.
Born January 9, 1978
West Palm Beach, Florida
Astrological Sign Capricorn
Nickname Bone
Pets 2 black and white Shih-tzu's named Panda and Bear
Pastimes Dancing, basketball, golf, bowling, writing
poetry, shopping, shooting pool
Musical Instrument Bass Guitar
Favorite Color Yellow
Favorite Food McDonalds
Favorite Movie Pulp Fiction
Favorite TV Show Seinfeld
Favorite Stars Dustin Hoffman & Geena Davis
Favorite Cologne Joop! for Men
Favorite Foreign City Paris
Favorite School Subject English
His Ideal Lady "I like their eyes. Honestly. I know most guys would not agree with me, but the first thing that I look at is eyes. I have to look into her eyes because if I could look deep past those eyes it's like WOW ! And I like long hair. Short hair is just as nice, but I like long hair. I don't care if they are fat, skinny, tall, short."
Jobs Playing Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in grade school.
"Side Note" AJ is a puppeteer who worked on the Nickelodeon show "Welcome Freshmen"
He's Most Likely to... ...dare you to buy that crazy dress. His sense of style is outrageous.
Goals To get a college degree.
BAD BOY AJ'S Bio
