Joey Fatone - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Fatone was born in Brooklyn to an Italian family and lived in Bensonhurst. He attended Joseph B. Cavallaro J.H.S. (I.S. 281) located at 8787 24th Avenue, Brooklyn. He's the son of Phyllis and Joseph Anthony Fatone, Sr., the latter of whom is an actor and musician. He has two older siblings, Janine and Steven. At thirteen years, Fatone and his family moved to Orlando, Florida. There, Fatone attended and graduated from Dr. Phillips High School. Reportedly, at his graduation, Fatone sang a rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner", celebrated as a precursor to his future success.

Before becoming famous, Fatone appeared as a contestant on the classic Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade. However, Fatone and his partner on that episode did not proceed to the bonus round because of buzzing in and answering a question about Abraham Lincoln incorrectly.

After high school, Fatone worked as a performer at Universal Studios in Orlando, where he played "Wolfie" in Beetlejuice's GraveYard Revue. Soon after that in the summer of 1995, after befriending fellow Universal Studios stage performer, Chris Kirkpatrick, who was singing in a doo-wop group, they became the first two members along with Justin Timberlake, of what would become 'N Sync. In 2001, Fatone co-starred with *NSYNC bandmate Lance Bass in the Miramax film On the Line, He guest starred with N Sync on a 2001 episode of The Simpsons episode New Kids on the Blecch and also did voice work with Bass on the same episodes of Disney's Kim Possible and Adult Swim's Robot Chicken. He also performed in the 2002 dramatic comedy motion picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding as Toula's cousin Angelo and also appears in My Big Fat Greek Life The TV Sitcom., and acted in the critically acclaimed movie The Cooler. He has had minor roles in the experimental film, Red Riding Hood, and in Homie Spumoni, alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Fatone has also been on Broadway performing leads in Rent and in a revival of Little Shop Of Horrors.

Fatone hosted NBC's The Singing Bee as well as the Australian version of the show on Nine Network. On August 21, 2007, it was announced that Fatone, along with Lisa Rinna, will be replacing Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers as hosts of TV Guide's red carpet pre-shows for the 2007-2008 season. His hosting duties with TV Guide continued for the 2008-2009 season.

Fatone was also in an episode of Hannah Montana as a restaurant owner who used to be a baseball player and forces Hannah to sing in order to get a replacement signed ball for her brother. He is also the "ringmaster" for the new NBC celebrity reality series Celebrity Circus (which is based on the Australian version).

On November 30, 2007, he participated in the taping of the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade inside the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

On May 22, 2010, Fatone starred as a baseball player in an episode of Imagination Movers on the Disney Channel.

From July 6–18, 2010, Fatone played Franz Liebkind, the comedic Nazi soldier, in the musical "The Producers" at the Pittsburgh Benedum Center.

He has appeared as a voice actor in several episodes of Robot Chicken, starring as himself in a kung fu skit called "Enter The Fat One" and then in the show's Star Wars episode.

In 2011, he started hosting the Live Well Network series My Family Recipe Rocks.

In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. In 6 weeks he was eliminated, but he won $5000 for his charity, the Fat One Family Foundation (TFOFF). He's also hosting the Las Vegas show "The Price is right" at Bally's Las Vegas, as a celebrity guest host.