Lee Ryan

Lee Ryan (born 17 June 1983) is an English singer, songwriter and voice actor.

He is best known as a member of the boy band Blue.

Lee Ryan was born in Chatham, Kent.

His parents split up when he was six years old.

Ryan mostly lived with his mother, sister Gemma and his grandmother.

Ryan went to Bedonwell School before attending performing arts schools, including Welling School and the Independent Performing Arts School Belcanto London Academy (BLA), where he first developed his talent, then independent fee-paying theatre schools Sylvia Young Theatre School and Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

Ryan is a member of boy band Blue along with Simon Webbe, Duncan James and Antony Costa.

The group has sold over 14 million records worldwide.

In 2001 the group were in New York during the September 11 attacks after which Ryan commented that "This New York thing is being blown out of proportion" and asked "What about whales? They are ignoring animals that are more important. Animals need saving and that's more important."

The other members of the group tried to silence Ryan, but he went on.

This caused a huge media backlash that resulted in Blue losing a record deal in the United States and campaigns to sack Ryan from the line up.

Lee was gunged during an episode of Live and Kicking in August 2001 as part of the Stop The Snot segment.

In August 2005, Blue split up to pursue solo careers under the advice of Sir Elton John.

Ryan released his first single "Army of Lovers" in July 2005.

It debuted at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and hit No. 1 in Italy.

In August 2005, Ryan released his debut album, Lee Ryan, to mixed reviews.

The album reached No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart and No. 3 in Italy.

"Turn Your Car Around" was the second single lifted from the album which had moderate success.

In late 2005, Dolce & Gabbana signed Ryan up to be the UK face of their new line of clothing.

After the relative success of his first solo album, Ryan started planning his second solo album.

In January 2006, Ryan released his third and final single in the UK "When I Think of You".

The song reached No. 15 in the UK.

"Real Love" was used for the end credits of the film Ice Age: The Meltdown which later led to Ryan voicing the part of an elk in the UK version of the film and Eddie in the Italian version.

The single "Reinforce Love" was released in December 2007.

The single was being released for Great Ormond Street Hospital and CLIC Sargent, which were the two charities that Ryan was touring for in November and December 2007, with young voices.

The album was then postponed, and finally cancelled.

He appeared in the video for the single "Red Light" by a British girlband named Fe-Nix.

In September 2007, he appeared as one of the contestants in Hell's Kitchen.

However he rowed with Marco Pierre White about White's use of the term "pikey", and subsequently left the show.

In August and September 2008, Ryan acted alongside Natalie Casey in The Pretender Agenda at The New Players Theatre in London.

In June 2008 Ryan was found guilty of assaulting a taxi driver in Oxted and ordered to pay compensation to the victim.

Blue reformed on 28 April 2009.

Ryan has had three number one hits while with Blue.

He had previously co-directed the video for Blue's single "Breathe Easy", which he also wrote and which was shot in Prague.

In March 2010, Ryan confirmed that he had signed a new record deal with Geffen Records, due to last until 2013.

Later that month, it was announced that Ryan's first album on his new record label, Confessions, was due to be released in October 2010.

The first single from the album, "Secret Love", was released as a double A-Side with "I Am Who I Am" on 4 July 2010.

The single peaked at number 33 on the UK Singles Chart.

Following this, it was announced that Geffen were set to drop Ryan from the label, before work on his album had been completed.

Ryan announced in January 2011 that there was no deal to release his album.