Entertainment career
O-Town and Making the Band
In 2000 Ashley Parker Angel achieved fame on the hit ABC series
Making the Band
, which tracked the formation of a pop music group.
[1] The MTV production (whose title contained a pun on “making”: Who would
make
the band that was being
formed
?) was the first reality show to be picked up by a major television network. Weekly, viewers saw Angel, after first being plucked from tens of thousands of other auditionees,
[2] survive each stage of the selection process to become one of the “final five” members of the new vocal group O-Town.
Making the Band
was the brainchild of boy band manager
Lou Pearlman, who had been responsible for the formation of groups such as The
Backstreet Boys and
’N Sync [3] (the show’s concept and title have since been adopted by Puff Daddy).
Ratings were strong, and as a result O-Town quickly achieved success; by the end of the first season, the group had inked a record deal with music legend
Clive Davis and become the debut act for Davis’ new label
J Records.
[4] The album
O-Town
, boosted by the weekly TV publicity, debuted at #5 on
Billboard
and went on to multi-platinum status.
[5] “Liquid Dreams,” the album’s first release, crowned the
SoundScan singles chart at #1, selling over 42,000 units in one week.
[6] The group won the 2001
Teen Choice Award for Breakthrough Artist.
Because of O-Town, J Records made musical history as the first label in SoundScan history (1991 and on) to have its first single release debut at #1 on the sales charts. Also, O-Town is the first artist in SoundScan history to have its first single come in at #1, an achievement recorded in the 2002
Guinness Book of World Records
.
[7]
In late spring 2001, the second single, “All or Nothing,” and became the biggest hit of O-Town’s career. The song reached #1 on the U.S. top 40 chart and was nominated for numerous awards, including Song of the Year during the 2001
Radio Music Awards.
The group toured internationally, and went on to be the first reality show cast to remain unchanged for a second and third season.
[8] Near the end of the third season, viewers watched O-Town striving to take their careers to the next level, writing their own music, earning the respect of industry peers, and marketing themselves as more than a “
boy band.” Unfortunately, by the time of the release of their second album,
O2
, the teen-pop genre had begun to fade, and they did not find the acceptance they sought. Despite moderate success,
O2
got nowhere near the market impact of their first album. In November 2003 J Records dropped the band from the label.
[9][unreliable source?]
Solo Music Career and There & Back
(2004–2006)
In 2004, Ashley Parker Angel had secured a record deal with
Blackground/
Universal Records, and later that year MTV began filming
There & Back
, a reality series tracking his pursuit of solo stardom. The show documented Angel’s struggle to transcend his mostly teen idol image, showcasing him as a serious songwriter and musician who co-wrote every track of his album. The series was backlit by the relationship between him and his then-pregnant fiancée (the engagement has since been broken off) and the obstacles of early fatherhood, and also captured the drama and birth of his son Lyric.
In April 2006, Angel was selected to be a contestant on
NBC’s
Celebrity Cooking Showdown
, produced by entertainment mogul/rapper Diddy; Angel placed second, even though he is seen severely lacerating his finger during one of the timed cooking challenges. Shortly thereafter, he competed in the
Kelly Slater Celebrity Surf Invitational
,in which he had another severe injury, this time a foot
laceration.
In May 2006, his solo album
Soundtrack to Your Life
was released, debuting at #5 on
Billboard
and receiving many positive reviews.
Billboard
’s review called it “great melodic rock … falling somewhere between the earnest balladeering of the
Goo Goo Dolls and the driving rock of the
All American Rejects.” The first single release, “Let U Go,” was a hit; its video spent weeks at #1 on MTV’s
TRL and the single had the third-highest-selling debut of 2006. In spring of that year, Angel toured throughout North America with
Ashlee Simpson (the two had been linked romantically in the past).
On Broadway
In January 2007, Ashley Parker Angel joined the eight-time
Tony Award–winning musical
Hairspray
, playing the lead character’s love interest, teen heartthrob Link Larkin. The
New York Post
assessed Angel’s performance as “an absolute charmer.” Angel’s presence on
Broadway also led the
New York Times
to do a feature on the singer/songwriter turned actor. The
Hairspray
producers asked Angel to extend his contract four times. In early 2008, Angel sustained a back injury onstage, forcing him to leave the show for a few months, but he returned to finish the last few weeks of his latest contract, giving the actor a successful run in the show for more than a year.
During his stay in New York, Angel performed at several other Broadway-related events, including
Broadway in Bryant Park
and
Broadway on Broadway
.
Acting
He is known in the early years as the voice of the main character Alex in the video game
Lunar: The Silver Star and
Lunar: Silver Star Story.
In June 2009, signed on for the role of Sam Lombardo in a new movie that will be a remake of
Wild Things by Sony.
On June 20 Angel played pop singer Danny Starr in the "Danny Starr / Quinceañera" episode of the children's cartoon
Handy Manny
on the
Disney Channel.
[10]
Personal life
Angel was Engaged to Model Tiffany Lynn after a 5 year relationship in 2008 the couple broke up. They remain good friends due to the birth on their son Lyric Lennon Parker-Angel.
[11]
References
- http://www.buddytv.com/articles/making-the-band/what-are-they-up-to-ashley-par-8589.aspx
- http://www.broadway.com/Ashley-Parker-Angel/broadway_news/543934
- http://www.answers.com/topic/lou-pearlman
- http://www.bluecoupe.com/pop/otown.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Town
- http://all4otown2.tripod.com/otown/id23.html
- http://www.angelfire.com/pop2/hototownbabes/news.html
- www.myspace.com/otownfans2007
- www.lyricsfreak.com/o/o-town/biography.html
- http://www.stitchkingdom.com/2009/06/09/handy-mannys-sensational-summer-saturdays-all-new-episodes-b
- http://www.usmagazine.com/ashley-parker-angel-calls-off-engagement