In His Own Words -
"My full name is Alex James McLean. I was born January 9, 1978 in Bethesda Memorial Hospital, it was a big 'ole pink, Pepto Bismol-colored hospital in Palm Beach. I was born with a hernia. Here's a bit of trivia: I'm not sure, but I think four out of the five Backstreet Boys, everyone but Nick, were born with hernias. It's really strange!

Anyway, I lived in a complex on Rosemary Circle in Boynton Beach, a subdivision of West Palm Beach. Most of the friends I grew up with lived on the corner or across the street. I went to Unity Elementary School in Boynton through sixth grade. At the time, my father was working for IBM - he was a genius when it came to taking apart computers... he was brilliant. He'd fix them and deliver them back to their owners. My mother was working with my grandmother, Ursula, at the Breaker's Hotel right on the water of West Palm. My parents got divorced when I was about four.

Back then I would try to mow the lawn, but I couldn't actually do it until I was six or seven. The lawnmower was the kind where you pull the lever and it would go by itself and you'd just direct it. And it would take me for a ride and I'd be like, 'Woooooah'! So I'd fix the hedges, clean the pool... I never cleaned my room though, that was my mom's job. I'm an only child and it's fun, fun, fun! I had more privileges than I would if I had any brothers or sisters. I was spoiled, they spoiled me rotten, but I never did get an allowance.

When I was around five, my mom got me into modeling and I started doing J.C. Penny's catalogs and runways. I was seen at a runway show at a mall. There was director there who worked at the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre. She asked my mom if I was interested in doing any plays. So my first part was Dopey, as in the Seven Dwarfs. I had no lines, but I was the biggest hit of that show... I ended up doing about twenty-seven plays in the course of two years! Sometimes it was chorus stuff and sometimes it was leads.

Around the end of my 6th grade year, my mother and my grandparents decided to move to Orlando. They had heard that actors do very well there, so we made the move. At that time, I was going into 7th grade and I really wanted to go to a performing arts school for drama. A couple of people we met in the community told me about this one school called the Masters Academy. I was only there until 8th grade. At that time we were living in Fern Park.

My first audition was at Nickelodeon and I got the part of a character named Skunk in a sitcom called Hi Honey, I'm Home. The character I played had his head shaved and hair dyed blond down the middle' they shaved my head and I had a Mowhawk, a rat tail and bleached blond hair. Now this school I was going to, you couldn't have hair past the collar and I come in with this whacked-out hairdo. They were like, 'What's up with your hair?' So that show later about two weeks, and then I got fired because I was too tall. Basically, I mad some money and got exposure.

Then I moved to Kissimmee, Florida and went to Denn John Middle School. Nickelodeon kept calling me back for extra work, so I did Welcome Freshman, Fifteen and then I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club. I never became a Mouseketter, but I may have appeared as an extra. I had known Howie since the 8th grade, and he auditioned for Disney too, but he was too old. I was too close to the age where they stopped signing kids, which is 17.

When I was younger, I wasn't quiet - I had a big mouth! I was constantly running my mouth and I was also a big-time flirt - I'm still one! Since my mom raised me, I was always taught to treat girls with respect. In fact, I would always treat every girl with utmost respect. That's why I was always hanging out with girls when I was younger. Girls don't bore me: I love shopping, they love shopping. I love clothes, they love clothes. They're more interesting. With guys it's just like sports. I would always talk to girls, pull their chairs out and get them things in the cafeteria. Some girls would get jealous, because I would do it for everyone.

The first time I really started dating was in the 8th grade, and that didn't really work out too well. Then in my freshman year, I did a commercial for MGM and I became really close to the producer. His niece came down to visit and we hit it off. The problem was she lived in Ohio. That didn't work out, because she couldn't accept the situation.

Kevin kept talking about this cousin he has in Kentucky. We were trying to find guys from around the area, but we couldn't find anybody. So we sent a plane to get Brian; he was picked up in a limo. He came to the band house, auditioned for us, we liked him. A week and a half later was his first performance in front of 5,000 kids at Sea World's Grad Night, 1993. Everything kind of blew up from there. I got taken out of high school before Christmas of 1992.

Nick and I were being tutored at the time and he was living locally with his mom, because it was (too far) to drive from Tampa. Brian and Kevin were living together and the rest of us were living with out parents. Soon we met with the head of SADD. There were a couple of important people from Jive in the audience and that's how we came over to the Jive record company. They said they loved us and wanted to sing us! We went up there, sang acapella and they signed us. I've been looking for something like this, and it's the one thing I want to live for: to get up on a stage and make an audience smile. If I can do that I've done what I'm meant for.

My advice to young people going into the business is, if you've got it in your heart and deep in your soul, there's a reason for it. Don't think, 'Well, I'm going to be called (names), because I wear tights sometimes'. Actors are sometimes misunderstood. They are just portraying other people. I think anyone who wants to get into this business should definitely do it. They have to be willing to be competitive. It's a very competitive business. But I think the more people who are involved in it, the more people will understand us. Follow your dreams, your hearts and your souls! That's pretty much what I've done."