Ashley Parker Angel is an American musician and actor who rose to prominence as a member of the boy bandO-Town. After the band dissolved, he had a brief solo music career, and was the only former band member who declined to go on a reunion tour with O-Town in 2011. Parker Angel has acted in several Broadway productions since 2007, and most recently appeared in Wicked as the lead male character Fiyero Tigelaar.
Ashley Parker Angel is the son of Darren and Paula Parker, who have German and Irish ancestry. He was named after the character Ashley Wilkes,[1] from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, and its subsequent film adaptation, which was a favorite of his mother. Following his mother’s marriage to Ron Angel, he legally changed his name to Ashley Parker Angel. He has two brothers, Taylor and Justin, and two sisters, Annie and Emily.[2]
From an early age, Ashley studied the piano, influenced by his mother Paula, who was a successful piano teacher. He exhibited an active and adventurous nature. At the age of 9, he accidentally set fire to his elementary school's football and soccer fields due to the explosion of a model rocket he launched on school property, resulting in a misdemeanor charge by local police.[3]
Career
O-Town and Making the Band
In 2000 Ashley Parker Angel achieved fame on the hit ABC series Making the Band, which tracked the formation of a pop music group.[4] The MTV production was the first reality show to be picked up by a major television network. Weekly, viewers saw Parker Angel, after first being plucked from tens of thousands of other auditionees,[5] survive each stage of the selection process to become one of the "final five" members of the new vocal group O-Town.[4]
Ratings were strong, and as a result O-Town quickly achieved success; by the end of the first season, the group had signed a record deal with music legend Clive Davis and became the debut act for Davis' new label J Records.[6] The album O-Town, boosted by the weekly TV publicity, debuted at No. 5 on Billboard and went on to multi-platinum status.[citation needed] "Liquid Dreams," the album's first release, crowned the SoundScan singles chart at No. 1, selling over 42,000 units in one week.[7] The group won the 2001 Teen Choice Award for Breakthrough Artist.
Because of O-Town, J Records made musical history as the first label in SoundScan history (1991 and on) to have its first single release debut at No. 1 on the sales charts. Also, O-Town is the first artist in SoundScan history to have its first single come in at No. 1, an achievement recorded in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records.[8]
In late spring 2001, the second single, "All or Nothing," and became the biggest hit of O-Town's career. The song reached No. 1 on the U.S. top 40 chart and was nominated for numerous awards, including Song of the Year during the 2001 Radio Music Awards.[6]
The group toured internationally, and went on to be the first reality show cast to remain unchanged for a second and third season.[9][non-primary source needed] Near the end of the third season, viewers watched O-Town striving to take their careers to the next level, writing their own music, earning the respect of industry peers, and marketing themselves as more than a "boy band." Unfortunately, by the time of the release of their second album, O2, the teen-pop genre had begun to fade, and they did not find the acceptance they sought. Despite moderate success, O2 got nowhere near the market impact of their first album. In November 2003 J Records dropped the band from the label.
In January 2011, O-Town confirmed their reunion plans,[10][non-primary source needed] four days after confirming the band had gotten back together Ashley released a statement via TMZ.com that he wouldn't be reuniting with the band causing an uproar with the fans and media due to Ashley being a key member during O-Town.
O-Town was one of the greatest chapters of my life, so when the idea of a reunion was brought to me, of course I was intrigued. However I have made the decision not to be a part of an O-Town reunion. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately necessary to move on with the next chapter of my career.[11]
Solo career
In November 2014,[12] Parker Angel joined the globally award-winning touring version of the musical Wicked, playing the part of the male lead character Fiyero Tigelaar. His debut on the tour was at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia for 16 shows, he has since gone on to perform at Detroit, MI, Durham, NC, Greenville, SC, Atlanta, GA and Miami, FL with the current Munchkinland Tour. He reprised the role in January 2016 in Charlotte for 3 weeks. He returned to the role once again on July 31, 2017, in the Broadway production and remained with the show through July 14, 2018.[13][14]
Acting (2009–)
On June 20, 2009, Parker guest starred as pop singer Danny Starr in the "Danny Starr / Quinceañera" episode of the children's cartoon Handy Manny on the Disney Channel. In this episode, he sang an original song called "Twisty Turn Twist", which he co-wrote for the show.[15]
Mansions of Arcadia (2012)
As of 2012, Parker has been working with Xandy Barry on a new joint band project titled MOA standing for Mansions of Arcadia.[16][non-primary source needed] He released a 20-second clip in January 2012 of their debut release "Don't Let Me Down".[17][non-primary source needed]
Turning down O-Town Reunion (2013)
In 2013, Angel's bandmates from O-Town decided to hold a reunion tour, however Angel declined to join: "It was a difficult decision, but ultimately necessary to move on with the next chapter of my career."[18]
In 2014, Parker Angel confirmed that he was songwriting whilst being signed to EMI Publishing, he will be releasing a second album in the future,[19] although the status of Mansions of Arcadia is currently unknown due to their official website and social pages no longer being active or online.
Other works
In 2023, Ashley Parker Angel competed in season ten of The Masked Singer as "S'more". He was eliminated on "Disco Night" during the Group A Finals and did an encore performance of "All or Nothing".[20]
^ abcd"Ashley Parker Angel (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved January 9, 2022. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
