Donnie Wahlberg

About Donnie Wahlberg

Donald Edmond Wahlberg, Jr. (born August 17, 1969) is an American singer, actor and producer. He was a member of the popular 1980s and 1990s boy band New Kids on the Block and is the older brother of fellow actor Mark Wahlberg. With a background that includes music, feature films, and television, Wahlberg is now working as a producer.

He was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, as the eighth of nine children, with older siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, and Tracey, Michelle, Debbie, and younger sibling Mark. His mother, Alma Elaine (née McPeck), was a bank clerk and nurse's aid, and his father, the late Donald Mark Edmund Wahlberg, was a teamster who worked as a delivery driver; the two divorced in 1982. His paternal grandfather was of Swedish descent, while the majority of his other ancestry is Irish. His mother is also French Canadian.

Wahlberg began performing in plays as early as the first grade. In high school, he attended a fledgling arts program and became involved in theatre, acting, writing, and directing plays.