Louis William Tomlinson

Louis William Tomlinson (born Louis Troy Austin; 24 December 1991)[1] is an English pop singer and songwriter, and actor, known as a member of the boy band One Direction. In 2014, he attempted to jointly purchase Football League One side Doncaster Rovers,[2] but the deal fell through[3] when the crowdfunding part of the deal failed.

Tomlinson began his career as an actor, initially appearing in ITV drama Fat Friends as an extra. He also went on to appear in another ITV drama film If I Had You and the BBC drama Waterloo Road. In 2010, he became a founding member of the pop band One Direction which went on to finish third in the 2010 series of The X Factor. In 2013, he was signed as a footballer by Doncaster Rovers of the Football League Championship on a non-contract basis.

Tomlinson, along with two of his siblings, had extra roles in Fat Friends.[7] After Fat Friends, he attended an acting school in Barnsley.[7] He had small parts in an ITV drama film If I Had You and BBC's Waterloo Road.[7] As a student at Hall Cross, Tomlinson appeared in several musical productions.[9][10] Taking the lead role of Danny Zuko in the Hall Cross musical production of Grease motivated him to audition for The X Factor.[9][11]

In 2010, Tomlinson auditioned for the seventh series of the singing competition The X Factor.[12] He failed to progress to the "Boys" category at "judges' houses" but, after a suggestion from Nicole Scherzinger, a guest judge,[12] during the "bootcamp" stage of the competition[13] at Wembley Arena, London in July 2010, he was put together with Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Harry Styles to form a five-piece boy band, thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to know each other and to practise.[14][15] Styles came up with the name One Direction.[15] For their qualifying song at "judges' houses" and their first song as a group One Direction sang an acoustic version of "Torn".[16] Simon Cowell later commented that the performance convinced him that the group "were confident, fun, like a gang of friends and kind of fearless as well."[17] Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were Cowell's last act in the competition.[citation needed] The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.[17]

One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final their song "Forever Young", which would have been released if they had won The X Factor, was leaked onto the internet.[18] Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract.[19][20]

One Direction

Propelled to international success by the power of social media, One Direction's first two albums, Up All Night

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