Alexander James "A.J." McLean (born January 9, 1978) is an American musician, singer, dancer, actor, and entertainer. He is a member of the Backstreet Boys.McLean was born in West Palm Beach, Florida to Bob and Denise (née Fernandez) McLean. He is of Cuban and German ancestry on his mother's side and Scottish, Irish and Portuguese on his father's side. His parents divorced and his father left the family when A.J. was two years old, and he was raised by his mother and her parents, Ursula and Adolph Fernandez. In January 1986 at 8 years old, he acted in his first role as Little Mike in the 1986 film Truth or Dare.
In 1990, he moved to Orlando, Florida with his mother and grandparents to concentrate on his acting and singing career. After numerous auditions for various Nickelodeon and Disney projects, including the Nickelodeon show GUTS, he landed a role in Nickelodeon's Welcome Freshmen, and in a comedy series called Hi Honey, I'm Home! on which he played a character named "Skunk".
McLean created a character, whom he named "Johnny NoName", to use as his alter ego. He uses it as his name when not performing with other members of the Backstreet Boys. The character has similarities to McLean; for instance, both had single mothers, and lived with their grandparents from a young age. There are also differences - Johnny has been to prison whereas McLean has not. McLean has occasionally performed in rock/metal clubs around New York as Johnny No Name. He established a foundation called the JNN Foundation to raise funds for diabetes research and other causes like keeping music programs in schools. McLean also did a nine-city tour to support VH1 Save the Music as Johnny No Name. Originally McLean's alter ego was named Johnny Suede. It shared its name with a character played by Brad Pitt and when the studio threatened to sue McLean, he changed the name to Johnny No Name.
