Chris Trousdale

Chris Trousdale (born Christopher Ryan Trousdale; June 11, 1985) is an American actor and recording artist. He is a former member of the boyband Dream Street, working with Jesse McCartney, Frankie Galasso, Greg Raposo, and Matt Ballinger.

Early life

Christopher Ryan Trousdale was born in New Port Richey, Florida to Helena, who is of Irish American ancestry and Wayne Trousdale, who was of Greek American ancestry. He was raised in Manhattan, New York. ^[1] Wayne died of cancer in 1999. Chris has one older brother, Ronnie. In 2006, while working on music for his solo career, Chris's mother was diagnosed with skin cancer. Chris put his career on hold for the next few years to care for his mother. ^{[2] [3]}

Career

Trousdale began his Broadway career when he was eight years old, touring with the production of Les Misérables, where he starred alongside Ashley Tisdale and after a successful run, moved to New York City at the age of ten, to join the Broadway production of the play with Ricky Martin and Lea Michelle of Glee. While in New York, Trousdale joined the well known children's group The Broadway Kids (past members include Christy Carlson Romano, Jenna Ushkowitz, and Lacey Chabert) and performed in popular plays such as Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, to name a few.

Trousdale's ability to captivate audiences caught the attention of two producers who were putting together a boy band in New York City. Consisting of five members, including Jesse McCartney, Chris joined Dream Street in 1999. The group released their self-titled debut album in 2001 which was #1 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart its first week of release. The album went on to sell a million copies nationwide. After three years together, "Dream Street" parted ways and Chris decided to embark on a career as a solo artist as well as finish his schooling at the renowned Professional Performing Arts School.

Chris went on to record "Kissless Christmas" and "Wild Christmas" for School's Out! Christmas album ^[4] in addition to the popular duets with the girl group Play (rendition of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me") and solo artist Nikki Cleary (remake of the Grease track "You're the One that I Want"), which were huge hits on Radio Disney. However, shortly after his solo career started to take off, Chris put his career on hold in 2006 and moved back home to Michigan to take care of his ailing mother.

Trousdale appeared on the popular Disney show Shake It Up where he plays teen "it" boy "Justin Starr," who makes girl's hearts melt every time he sings Justin likes to think of himself as a "normal regular kid," a regular kid who has sold ten million albums, had a sold out concert tour and even his own lunch box, but there's more behind his mega-watt smile than meets the eye. ^[5]

On September 12, 2012, Trousdale appeared on season three of The Voice, singing "Glad You Came" by The Wanted. He was not selected by any of the judges. ^[6]

On June 30, 2014, Chris announced via Twitter that he has joined the Spectra Music Group to work on his solo album. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

References