Nickolas Gene "Nick" Carter (born January 28, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, entertainer and actor. He is best known as a member of the pop group, Backstreet Boys. He went on to release a solo album called Now Or Never during their hiatus. He has made occasional television appearances and starred in his own reality show, House of Carters. As a solo artist he sold over 570,000 records worldwide. He gained fame in the late 90s and early 2000s as a teen idol. He is also the older brother of singer Aaron Carter.
Carter was born in Jamestown, New York, where his parents Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter owned a bar called the Yankee Rebel. Several years later, the family moved to Ruskin, Florida and managed a retirement home, Garden Villa Retirement Home, where they added his younger siblings to their family. His siblings are Bobbie Jean Carter (born January 12, 1982); Leslie Barbara Carter (born June 6, 1986); and twins Aaron Carter and Angel Charisma Carter (born December 7, 1987). Carter also has an older half-sister, Virginia Marie Carter (born October 16, 1972) from his father's first marriage, a half-brother Kaden Brent Carter (born June 7, 2005), and a stepsister, Taelyn Carter from his father's third marriage. His parents divorced in 2003 and his father remarried in 2004 to Ginger Elrod.
The family has had a number of fractions over the years. In 2003, Aaron alleged that his mother, Jane, had removed more than $100,000 from his bank account without permission. In 2004, Jane Carter was arrested and charged with battery for assaulting her ex-husband's girlfriend (whom he later married), Ginger Elrod.
Carter began auditioning for acting roles in the early 1990s, and appeared in many commercials. He later made a tiny background appearance in the 1990 Johnny Depp film Edward Scissorhands, as a kid playing on a slip and slide. Nick covered a number of songs made popular by other artists in the late 1980s including "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do", "Uptown Girl" and "Hard to Get". Some of these early recordings were released in 2002 on the CD titled Before the Backstreet Boys 1989–1993 by Dyenamic Discs, Inc. It is said that through several auditions, Nick met AJ McLean and Howie Dorough and they became friends.
Carter attempted a career as a solo artist in 2002, when he released Now Or Never. The album reached #17 on Billboard 200 and was certified gold, both in the United States and Canada. The lead single, "Help Me" achieved considerable worldwide success while the other single, "I Got You" was a minor hit in Europe. The album made the charts in many countries as well. He also launched a worldwide tour in support of the album. He was named Cosmogirl Magazine's 'Sexiest Man in the World' in 2002, beating out rival pop star Justin Timberlake for the title, launching a media-hyped "rivalry" between Timberlake and Carter. Carter holds the record for the most In Style Magazine 'Sexiest Male Musician' titles, with five, winning in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2008. Rival Justin Timberlake has won the award twice, often landing in 2nd place behind Carter. In 2009, Carter beat Timberlake in an armwrestling match when both were guests on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. By the end of the tour, Nick's first solo album sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.
Nick began work on his second solo album in 2003, but the recordings were aborted when the Backstreet Boys returned to the studio. One of the tracks from the earlier recording sessions was used as the theme song to the television series House of Carters in 2006. "Let It Go" was written by Nick Carter, Matthew Gerrard, and Bridget Louise Benenate.
Carter recorded a duet with pop singer Jennifer Paige called Beautiful Lie in 2009. In 2010, Nick Carter started recording new songs for his second solo album, working with Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk, Toby Gad, Josh Hoge, Claude Kelly, among many others. Carter's new album titled I'm Taking Off, was released on February 2, 2011 in Japan, in Germany on June 3, 2011 and in the USA via iTunes on May 24. As of June 2011, Nick's second solo album reached #8 in Japan, selling over 17,000 copies.
