Baby D

Howie Dorough was born on August 22, 1973 in Orlando, Florida to Hoke, a police officer, and Paula, a housewife. When he came home from the hospital, baby Howie found he was adding to an already crowded living arrangement, with four older siblings (Angela, Caroline, Polly Anna and Johnny) already happily in place.

"My parents have been together for well over 40 years," he related in a autobiography written for the press. "There's 10 years difference between me and the youngest sibling; I came to parents a little later in life."

But despite the ecompetition of his brother and sisters, Howie soon discovered his love for the spotlight.  "When I was about three or four years old," he said, "I used to get up on Grandma's bed and sit with my little guitar and sing baby 'Baby Face'."

A few years later, he took his act to the masses thanks to his sister Polly Anna. When she was a senior in high school, she got the part of Glinda the Good Witch in her school's production of The Wizard of Oz. She brought Howie along for the audition, and he scored himself a role himself, as a member of the Lollipop Guild.

"I remember having these pants that were like two sizes too big and I'd be dancing around holding my pants up," Howie reflected.

His encounter with the Great Oz was enough to ignite his passion for performing. Throughout elementary school, he took acting and voice lessons, and got involved with as many musicals as he could. This continued into junior high, where his ambition proved a stumbling block to getting in good with the opposite sex. He worried about falling in love, he says, because he feared he'd end up "spending all my time thinking about her" instead of his goals as a performer. "A lot of times," Howie explains. "I'd end up having a girlfriend for two to three weeks, if I was lucky."

Free of the daydreams of the love-afflicted, Howie had the time to hone his trademark falsetto style. In the children's choir at his church, "I would sing higher notes than the girls next to me," he said. By the time he reached high school, he was really ready to shine... and he entered a local talent show.

"When I finished singing, I got a standing ovation." he told Teen People. "When I was done... they were ready to give me the award." That would sound like arrogance from most people, but from sweet-natured Howie, it isn't - it's just the honest response of a guy who'd already been working at his craft for years.

Ever versatile, he also countinued acting. And as a native of Orlando, where an active film and TV community was growing up around Disney World and Nickelodeon, he was in the right place to get started in the business. At 14, Howie served as an extra in the film Parenthood, and he landed a small role in the Burt Reynolds action-comedy, Cop and a Half. Several commercials for Disney World followed, and then a starring role for a TV pilot called Welcome Freshman, which failed to get picked up by the network. It was a busy time for the teen. He graduated from high school and even attented college, but his classroom commitments never curtailed his performing.

Beginnings

Then fate stepped in. Ninteen-year-old Howie met AJ McLean through a mutual vocal coach. The two of them became fast friends, and they soon met Nick Carter, an electric talent who was only 13 at the time.

The three of them "kept running into each other all the time at audtions," Howie said at a press conference. "We all did stuff for Nickelodeon, Disney, MGM Studios. We met through acting and found out we had a passion for singing. So we put a little group together and then took it to a small record label in Orlando."

Lightning didn't strike for the three teens, but the seeds has been planted for the Backstreet Boys. They soon found a manager, and through auditions, they picked up the final two pieces of the puzzle, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell. Within a few years, they were international stars.

Unlike many other young groups, the Backstreet Boys were not overnight sensations, and those difficult early years playing at malls, high schools and overseas have helped Howie keep his sudden fame in perspective.

"Backstreet Boys isn't about us," Howie's said. "It's about the fans." To Big Bop magazine, he added. "Every place I go, at the end of every show, I will always say, 'Hey, the Backstreet Boys will never break your heart.' We want them to know that we're not planning to just come and go like some boyfriend may do - or some other group. We care about our fans. Meeting people, getting a chance to perform for them and seeing them enjoy our music is one of the better parts of the job. One of the most gratifying things is seeing people sing our songs out in the audience along with us."

Still, success has been an adjustment. "I think we all hoped and dreamed about it," Howie said at a gathering of the foreign press. "You can never expect it. But I think it's a blessing. We thank God everyday for helping us. We've gotten a chance tp travel around the world, to see new places, see new cultures. Of course, the worst thing is being away from our families."

Family First

Family is an important part of Howie's life. And one of the reasons he sees his success as a blessing is because it allows him to do things for his family, who supported him all along. "The first thing I did with my money was put in central heating in my parents' house," he told Big Bop. "It's about 100 years old and it has nice hardwood floors and stuff, but no central heating. So I put it in throughout the whole house. Now I'm fixing up their place through landscaping the backyard and the front yard. We've got a lot of plants in there now and I got my mom and elephant water fountain, because her biggest thing is elephants." At a press conference, he added, "I'm Mr. Souvenir Man. My mom collects elephants, so normally wherever I go I get her an elephant. My little nieces like the little dolls dressed up. By the time I go home, I have an extra suitcase."

Nothing makes Howie happier than being around the people who know and love him. "For me," he told Teen Beat, "my best memories were always Christimas time at home with all my family."

Much of his feeling for family undoubtedly comes from the nurturing environment he grew up in, particularly from older siblings who were always looking out for him. "They would take me around to their high school and show me off to all their friends," he's said. "They didn't tell me what to do, but I would always go to them for advise on girls and school and all this grown-up stuff. I felt grown-up mentally when I was pretty young thanks to them."

So what about the future? Financially, of course, he's in good shape. He's been very smart with his money, investing it in his company called Sweet D. Inc., which develops condominiums on Florida's east coast. Family members run it. Creatively, he still wants to give acting a try. "For me," he told 16, "it's like I'm always acting - acting and singing are like one for me. It's all one - it's all entertainment. My favorite actor is Tom Hanks because I really like the way he switches from drama to comedy, and that's what I'd like to be able to do."

Which brings us back to the future of the Backstreet Boys. Everytime the group reaches another plateau, many doomsayers in the press insist that their time as a group is almost up, that their success will ultimately break apart. Howie doesn't see this as a possibility, especially after he went on a South American promotional tour without the others last year.

"It was a great experience, but weird without the others around, he told press. "That's when it hit me, the loneliness of not having the four other guys around with me. You appreciate things you take for granted . It is good to have five of us bonded with each other. It's good to be with the guys, who are like brothers to me, and to be so close."