What is Howie Dorough's Net Worth?
Howie Dorough is an American musician who has a net worth of $40 million. Howie Dorough is best known as a co-founder and member of the pop vocal group the Backstreet Boys. An international sensation, the group is the best-selling boy band in history with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. Beyond the Backstreet Boys, Dorough has a career as a solo artist.
The Backstreet Boys' first U.S. album, "Backstreet's Back", reached number four on the Billboard 200 and has since sold more than 14 million copies. Their 1999 effort, "Millennium", earned the top spot in a handful of countries and is one of the best-selling albums in music history.
Dorough embarked on a solo career with the release of his first album, "Back to Me", in 2011. He was part of Britney Spears' Femme Fatale Tour the same year. He has appeared in several TV shows and movies, including "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch", "Roswell" and "This Is the End". Dorough is the founder of Sweet D, Inc., a real estate developing company.
Early Life and Education
Howie Dorough was born on August 22, 1973 in Orlando, Florida to Puerto Rican mother Paula, a school worker, and Irish-American father Hoke, a police officer and real estate developer. He is the youngest of five siblings. Dorough began demonstrating his love of entertainment early on, performing as a kid in his church choir and in an adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz." Throughout his youth, he performed in many children's community theater productions, with credits including "The Sound of Music" and "Camelot." Dorough also took dance lessons in tap, ballet, and jazz at a performing arts academy. He continued to hone his performing skills in junior high and at Edgewater High School, where he participated in the drama club and sang at school talent shows. Dorough graduated in 1991 having been voted the "Most Talented" of his class.
Backstreet Boys
Through a mutual vocal coach, Dorough met fellow Orlando native AJ McLean in the early 90s. The pair soon teamed up with Nick Carter to form a music trio. Between 1992 and 1993, Dorough, McLean, and Carter, along with cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson, responded to an ad in the Orlando Sentinel posted by record producer Lou Pearlman, who was looking to create a vocal group reminiscent of New Kids on the Block. The five were ultimately chosen from hundreds of other young performers, and subsequently named themselves the Backstreet Boys, after the Backstreet Market in Orlando. After performing at various shopping malls and high schools, the group landed a recording contract with Jive Records in 1994. Two years later, the Backstreet Boys released their self-titled debut album, which became a major international hit, particularly in Europe. This was followed by the album "Backstreet's Back" in 1997, a slightly different version of which was released in the US as "Backstreet Boys." Like the first album, it was a huge hit around the world.
The Backstreet Boys had their biggest commercial hit in 1999 with their third album, "Millennium." Containing the hit singles "I Want It That Way," "Larger Than Life," "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely," and "The One," the album became one of the best-selling albums in music history and earned five Grammy Award nominations. To support the album, the Backstreet Boys held the wildly popular Into the Millennium Tour. The group next released "Black & Blue"; another massive hit, it spawned the singles "Shape of My Heart," "The Call," and "More Than That." Following the release of their greatest hits album, the Backstreet Boys took a hiatus before regrouping in 2003. They subsequently released the album "Never Gone" in 2005. This was followed by "Unbreakable," "This Is Us," and "In a World Like This." In 2019, the Backstreet Boys released "DNA," which became their first album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 since "Black & Blue" 19 years earlier.
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Solo Career
As a solo artist, Dorough released his debut album, "Back to Me," in 2011. It included the singles "100" and "Lie to Me." The following year, Dorough released the live album "Live from Toronto." His next album, "Which One Am I," came out in 2019; its singles were "No Hablo Español," "The Me I'm Meant to Be," and "Monsters in My Head."
Television and Film
Before the Backstreet Boys, Dorough appeared in an uncredited part in the 1989 Ron Howard film "Parenthood." The year after that, he was in the pilot episode of the Nickelodeon series "Welcome Freshmen." Dorough began appearing more on film and television after he was launched to stardom with the Backstreet Boys. In the late 90s, he appeared in an episode of the television sitcom "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and performed twice on "Saturday Night Live." In the early 00s, he returned to "Sabrina" and also appeared on such shows as "Roswell," "Arthur," and "Sesame Street." Among his other credits, Dorough appeared with the rest of the Backstreet Boys in the 2013 apocalyptic comedy film "This is the End," and later appeared in the 2016 post-apocalyptic zombie television film "Dead 7," costarring Nick Carter and AJ McLean.
Other Ventures
In 2004, Dorough formed the management firm HC Entertainment with singer CJ Huyer. Through the firm, he worked as a producer for artists Katelyn Tarver and George Nozuka. Dorough later started another management company, 3 Street Management, through which he manages the Canadian band Neverest.
Beyond the world of music, Dorough founded the Dorough Lupus Foundation in honor of his sister Caroline, who passed away from lupus in 1998. The Foundation raises money for lupus research through numerous charity events, and provides financial assistance to those unable to afford treatment for the condition. Dorough also founded the real estate development and consulting company Sweet D with his brother John.
Personal Life
In 2007, Dorough married Warner Bros. film producer and Backstreet Boys webmaster Leigh Anne Boniello, whom he had been dating since 2000. The couple has two sons named James and Holden.
