Joseph Anthony Fatone, Jr. (born January 28, 1977) is an American singer and actor. He is best known as a member of the boy band, N Sync, in which he sang baritone. In 2007, he came in second place on the ABC reality show Dancing With The Stars.
Joey Fatone was born in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York to Italian American parents, Joe and Phyllis. He has two older siblings, Janine and Steven. At age 13, Fatone and his family moved to Orlando, Florida. There, Fatone attended and graduated Dr. Phillips High School.
After high school, Fatone worked as a performer at Universal Studios in Orlando, where he played "Wolfie" in "Beetlejuice's GraveYard Revue". While working at Universal, Fatone befriended Mickey Mouse Club cast member Jennifer McGill, who introduced him to her castmate, JC Chasez. Fatone also became friends with fellow Universal employee Chris Kirkpatrick. Years later, Chasez and Kirkpatrick would bump into Fatone dancing at a nightclub, and ask him to join their vocal group.
In 1995, Fatone joined Mickey Mouse Club alumni JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake, along with Chris Kirkpatrick, in N Sync. The band originally included Jason Watkins, who Fatone recruited for the group after he befriended him at Dr. Phillips. However, Watkins dropped out just weeks before the group's first showcase, which prompted Timberlake to recruit Lance Bass as the group's bass singer. 'N Sync toured Germany throughout 1996, before hitting it big in the States two years later. In 2000, the group released the fastest-selling record of all time, No Strings Attached, and in 2001 followed it up with their Celebrity album, which scored the second highest first-week album sales ever.
Joey has had a dramatic run on Broadway. In Little Shop of Horrors he played Seymour, and in Rent, he played Mark.
Joey performed in the 2002 dramatic comedy motion picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding as Toula's cousin Angelo. He also acted in the critically acclaimed movie The Cooler. His experience as "Wolfie" during Beetlejuice's GraveYard Revue prepared him for the dramatic placement of another "Wolfie" within the experimental film musical version of Red Riding Hood. Then, returning to the genre of situation comedy seen during the Nia Vardalos classic, he is "part of the family" in a comedy with an ethnic twist called Homie Spumoni.
Joey often works with best friend and former bandmate Lance Bass. The two starred together in the 2001 Miramax film On the Line, and also did voice work together on the same episodes of Disney's Kim Possible and Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.
It was announced that Joey Fatone will be the host of NBC's new game show The Singing Bee, which is set to debut in July 2007.
Fatone married his long-time girlfriend Kelly Baldwin on September 9, 2004 in Long Island, New York. They have a daughter together named Briahna, who was born on March 21, 2001.
On February 20, 2007, the ABC television network announced that Fatone would participate in season 4 of the American version of Dancing with the Stars, which debuted March 19. He competed with professional partner Kym Johnson. They received a score of 24 out of 30 for their Cha Cha, and were the highest-scoring couple during the first week of the season. In the second round of competition, Joey and his partner received a score of 24 out of 30 once more for the Quickstep, for a two-week total of 48 out of 60. On the fourth week, the dance team received the first 10 of the season giving them a total score of 28 out of 30. He received a perfect score of 60 in the semi-finals along with Laila Ali. Joey and his partner, Kym, competed against Laila and her partner Maksim, and Apolo Ohno with his partner Julianne Hough in the finale. They received a score of 56 out of 60 in the finals and a perfect 30 for their freestyle routine. Also on the final results show, he did the exact same tango he did earlier in the season, and scored a perfect 30. Joey ultimately placed second, behind Ohno, in the finale of Dancing with the Stars on May 22, 2007. After the completion of Dancing with the Stars, Joey and partner Kym celebrated by going on the inaugural Mediterranean cruise for the Disney Cruise Line. The two performed for the ship's guests on June 2, 2007 and the performance can be watched here.
Len Goodman (the head judge on the show) claimed he would give an 11 on his freestyle in the final round if he could.
Joey and Kym had the most standing ovations of the audience, and judges, of any couple on any season of Dancing with the Stars in any country
If there were no fans voting on Dancing with the Stars, Joey and Kym would have won
This years final results was closer than any season, anywhere on Dancing with the Stars
