Nick Jonas Has Had Quite The Transformation
Pop star, actor, businessman, family man — these are all titles that multi-talented star Nick Jonas has maintained over his decades-long career. The performer has spent most of his life performing in some aspect. From his time as a child actor on Broadway to sharing the stage with his brotherly band, The Jonas Brothers, to creating his own product lines, and everything in between, he has never shied away from the spotlight.
"My goal is to be the kind of performer that can be in movies and television shows," Jonas shared with Time in 2014. "A lot of people feel like you have to focus on one at a time, but I want to be greedy and do both ... There's a million examples of people who have made the transition from one to the other, but I'd love to be able to do both and make an impact in both." He revealed that he looks up to Elvis Presley's career, transcending genre and labels.
Over the years, Jonas went from teen heartthrob to married man and father, and it's clear that the singer has put time and effort into his own personal evolution.
Nick Jonas discovered his passion for performing early on
Nicholas Jerry Jonas was born on September 16, 1992 in Dallas, Texas and was, at the time, the youngest of his three brothers (his younger brother Franklin, aka Frankie, was born in 2000). Despite being born in the Lone Star state, Jonas grew up in Wyckoff, New Jersey for most of his life.
The future "Jealous" singer began performing at a young age and was eventually discovered at a barbershop when a fellow patron referred Mother Jonas to a talent agent. The rest, as the story goes, is history. "My whole attitude from the time I was young was 'I want to do this,' and it felt like it was already a part of me," Jonas told New Jersey Monthly in 2011. The young performer began making his rounds on Broadway in shows including "A Christmas Carol" in 2000, "Beauty and the Beast" in 2002, and "Les Misérables" in 2003.
Jonas also signed his first record deal with INO Records and spent time recording his own music with his father and brothers' help. He eventually released his debut record, "Nicholas Jonas," in 2005 when he was just 12 years old. "I'm very excited about this new experience and I am so blessed to have a family that is so loving and supportive of what I'm doing," Jonas said in a press statement at the time of release. "The hope of this record is to make people feel good and happy inside. I'm excited to see what comes next."
The Jonas Brothers broke big with the House of Mouse
It wasn't long until Nick Jonas was ready to make an even bigger splash on the music scene, but this time, it would be with his older brothers, Kevin and Joe. In 2005, the brothers signed with Columbia Records and released their debut album, "It's About Time," the next year. But their original plans with the record label didn't prove to be fruitful; the initial release of the album only sold around 40,000 copies and the band was eventually dropped from Columbia.
"We were sort of guided toward being a bit of, like, an inauthentic version of ourselves musically," Nick told SiriusXM in 2023 of their less successful debut. "And we actually spent that time in our little home in New Jersey, in the basement, really grinding and writing music that we really connected with."
The trio found a new creative home and signed with Hollywood Records, home of Disney Channel favorites like Aly & AJ, the Cheetah Girls, and Miley Cyrus. The Jonas Brothers made a splash early on with songs like "Year 3000" becoming instant earworms across Radio Disney and beyond. By 2007, they released their self-titled second album, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The album spawned hits like "Hold On," "S.O.S.," and "When You Look Me In The Eyes." They even made a guest appearance on "Hannah Montana" and toured with Miley Cyrus in the "Best of Both Worlds" tour in 2007.
The band headed out to Camp Rock
By 2008, the Jonas Brothers were inescapable in all areas of the House of Mouse. The brothers starred in their own Disney Channel original movie, "Camp Rock," opposite a newly discovered Demi Lovato. The film, which premiered in June 2008, became the third-most watched DCOM at the time, only behind juggernauts "High School Musical 2" and "Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie."
The film starred the brothers as the fictional singing group, Connect 3, who came to their uncle's summer camp to find their sound again, but end up finding friends (and love) along the way. While his character wasn't a main focus of the original film (that was left to Joe Jonas and rising star Demi Lovato), Nick's character found his own musical muse in the film's 2010 sequel, "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam."
As for the future of the series? Nick is actually down for another sequel, but perhaps on the darker side. "If the right thing comes together, I think that'd be fun," the singer/actor told People in 2017. "It's a really delicate thing because [they're two films] really beloved by fans. So I think for it to work, it'd have to be some creative new version where we get a writing team and do something special."
Nick created his own Disney Channel love triangle
While older brother Joe was romancing his "Camp Rock" co-star, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas was in the throes of a back-and-forth love triangle with two other Disney Channel starlets: Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. Jonas and Cyrus started dating first after he and his brothers appeared on "Hannah Montana" and performed with her on the "Best of Both Worlds" tour in 2007.
But things seemed to have soured by 2008 when Cyrus released the teenage break-up anthem, "7 Things," which featured damning lyrics and even a torn-up picture of Cyrus and seemingly Jonas with a drawing covering his face. The cause of this scorned public display? Jonas started courting "Wizards of Waverly Place" star Selena Gomez, who also appeared in the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin' Up" music video as Nick's love interest.
The back-and-forth nature of the three-sided love affair seemed to go on for a bit before all three eventually moved on with their lives. But that doesn't mean that Nick's exes haven't publicly reminisced over their teenage trysts every once in a while. Even the media has had a blast poking fun at his dramatic Disney love life. Nick, however, credits his first love with helping him dig deeper in his songwriting. "I started writing about love and actually knew what it felt like," he revealed in the brothers' 2019 documentary, "Chasing Happiness" (via Capital FM).
He became a bona fide pop star with his brothers
After a summer full of "Camp Rock," the Jonas Brothers landed themselves on top of the world (and in the middle of Times Square) with the release of their album "A Little Bit Longer" in 2008. Their third album, which included timeless JoBros anthems like "Burnin' Up" and "Lovebug," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, their first project to do so. Another of the album's standout songs is the title track, which Nick wrote about his life with diabetes. "[It] was a song I was really happy to write," Jonas told EW. "Probably in a lot of ways, it's been therapeutic for me."
The brothers' pop stardom continued the next year with their follow-up album "Lines, Vines and Trying Times." The album became their second straight No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 and featured singles including "Paranoid" and "Fly With Me." When the brothers were in between touring, promoting, and recording, they were also starring in their own Disney Channel series, "Jonas."
Despite their various successes, Nick later admitted that the show (which included the second season, "Jonas LA") was not something the brothers looked back on fondly. "We shouldn't have done [a second season]," he shared in the group's "Chasing Happiness" documentary (via JustJared). "It really stunted our growth ... Literally, we couldn't evolve because of it."
Nick returned to his Broadway roots
When he wasn't touring the world and releasing No. 1 albums with his brothers, Nick Jonas took time for himself and his solo passions in the early 2010s. He kicked off the new decade by releasing a solo record, "Who I Am," with his own backing band, the Administration. He even squeezed in a month-long mini tour with the Administration in January of that year.
"With this tour we're going to try to accomplish the same thing we did in the studio," he said on the band's MySpace blog (via MTV). "That's capturing some heart and soul in the music, and having fun doing it."
Jonas also made his return to the stage in a number of roles in stage musicals. In 2011 when he was 18 years old, he starred in the leading role in the Broadway revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He also appeared as teen heartthrob Link Larkin in a limited engagement of "Hairspray" at the Hollywood Bowl that summer. He also returned to "Les Misérables," this time in the role of Marius, in time for the musical's 25th anniversary concert. "It is nice being back on stage," Jonas told On Demand Entertainment. "It's been a dream of mine for a long time [to play Marius] and to see it coming true is an amazing thing."
He parted ways with his record company and his brothers
By 2013, Nick Jonas moved into a transition period in his professional career. The Jonas Brothers parted ways with Hollywood Records that year, signaling the end of an era that saw three hit albums, several massive world tours, and teen heartthrob superstar status. "This was a decision that we made as a group," he explained to The Hollywood Reporter at the time. "We've been blessed to have a lot of success with Hollywood and with Disney, but speaking on behalf of my brothers and our team, we're all looking forward to this next chapter. We're ready for that next step as a group, and being able to take our work with us was so important."
The Jonas Brothers were readying a new era of music, and even filmed a music video for the planned first single from a new album, when they suddenly canceled their 2013 tour just days before it was scheduled to kick off. Reports of a "deep rift" between the band members began to make headlines, and the band of brothers ultimately broke up – something that Jonas later confirmed was his fault.
"To call it creative differences is almost too simple," Jonas told "CBS This Morning" in 2020 (via People), emphasizing their need to go on their "individual journeys." "We were making music that I don't think we were all super proud of, and it wasn't connected ... So I had a very tough conversation with them where I laid it out for them."
Nick goes solo (and gets super buff)
Nick Jonas took time after the Jonas Brothers' split to focus on his solo music career. In 2014, he released an album, called "Nick Jonas," which included the single "Jealous," his highest-charting solo single to date. "I came in really wanting to make a record that was different from anything I'd done in the past," Jonas told Time. "That whole vibe of alternative R&B/pop. It just fell into a really natural place really early ... I came in really sure of what I wanted to do." He continued to release solo music over the new few years with albums "Nick Jonas X2" and "Last Year Was Complicated."
It wasn't just Jonas' jams that were picking up at this time. Starting in 2014, the singer began to bulk up, showing off his muscles in music videos, magazines, and in television shows. "[There's] a ton of different sports that I play and traditional workout stuff [too]," he shared with E! News in 2014. "I work out with a great trainer and he has a great gym. We do sort of circuit training and strength and conditioning."
While his training sometimes went to extremes (especially when he starred as a competitive fighter in the series "Kingdom"), Jonas was always sure to stay mindful of his diabetes, which he was diagnosed with at age 13. "I really got into living a really healthy lifestyle and physical fitness last year," he told E! News. "I saw pretty quickly how it improved my health and [my] diabetes. I've stuck with it."
He stepped up his acting game
Nick Jonas spent much of the 2010s balancing both music and acting. One of his most demanding roles was as a troubled MMA fighter on "Kingdom," an experience that tested both his body and his brain over its three seasons. "[It] was a really kind of bizarre time in my life," Jonas told Entertainment Weekly about the post-band-breakup period. "The brothers and I [had] split up, and at 21 years old I was kind of looking at my life, taking stock of my career and wondering if I was going to be a washed-up has-been at 21."
Jonas beat those claims to a pulp not only in the "Kingdom" ring but also with roles across television and film alike. He appeared in the 2015 horror series, "Scream Queens," alongside fellow former child stars including Emma Roberts, Abigail Breslin, and Ariana Grande. Both "Kingdom" and "Scream Queens" had Jonas playing an LGBTQ+ character, something he shared he was "honored" to do. "I've been so honored to play some really strong gay characters [this year]," he shared with ET in 2015. "Whatever I can do for the community is just a blessing for me."
Apart from sending thrills and throwing punches, Jonas has appeared in films like "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and the animated feature "UglyDolls," the latter of which he appeared on the soundtrack. Speaking of soundtracks, Jonas even scored a Golden Globe nomination for "Home," a song he co-wrote and performed for the 2017 animated film "Ferdinand."
Happiness returned with the Jonas Brothers reunion
In 2019, Jonas Brothers fans worldwide rejoiced when Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas reunited for the first time since their breakup in 2013. It was Nick himself who the brothers credited with getting the band back together, although he was the one to suggest the split in the first place. "I would look over [while performing] and they weren't there," Nick told NPR in 2019. "And I felt like there was a magic missing in those things that I was doing on my own that I wanted to feel again with the brothers."
The group released their comeback album, "Happiness Begins," whose first single "Sucker" became the group's first-ever No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. "My heart is so full of gratitude," Nick posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "There was a time I wasn't sure if I was ever going to be able to make music with my brothers again, let alone have a No. 1 song on the Hot 100 on @Billboard."
Along with a massive worldwide tour and the 2019 documentary "Chasing Happiness," Nick and his brothers were well on their way to yet again changing the trajectory of their careers. "This still feels like a dream, and the best part [is] that it's just the beginning of this incredible new chapter," Jonas continued on X.
He turned a new leaf as a coach and businessman
If there's one thing that Nick Jonas knows how to do, it's balancing his duties as a Jonas Brother with those of his solo ventures. In between the Brothers' promotional schedule for 2019's "Happiness Begins," Nick became a coach on the NBC reality competition show "The Voice." "I'm so excited to be a part of 'The Voice' family," Jonas said in a statement (via Variety). "It's such an awesome group of individuals, and I can't wait to help these artists really build and hone in to find their unique voices." Nick even brought his brothers on as advisors during the show's 18th season.
Beyond being a performer, Jonas has also become a businessman in his own right. He partnered with designer John Varvatos on a number of projects, including Villa One Tequila, along with a co-branded fashion line and fragrance collection. "With anything, you have to continue to evolve and that's the most exciting thing about our collaboration," Jonas shared with People about the fragrance launch in 2019. "[John and I] are both probably in the craziest moments of our life and career ... and this scent has that energy."
But even with a professional life as busy as Nick's had become by 2019, he credits the successes he found with investing in his personal life. "It's more about the personal relationships I've built and the experiences I've had to connect with people closest in my life," he revealed to People. "I was craving that before this year."
He settled down and started a family with Priyanka Chopra
Nick Jonas found his own personal happiness beginning with actor Priyanka Chopra, who he married in two elaborate ceremonies at the end of 2018. The two stars, who were first linked after appearing at the 2017 Met Gala together, held the lavish celebrations in Chopra's native India.
"Everything that I do right is because of her, everything I've done right is because of her," he gushed about his wife on his father Kevin Sr.'s "Legendary" podcast. "It's truly that thing where you become one with the person and that extends beyond your relationship and the home you build but also into your creative life and business and everything else."
The two found even more happiness together with the birth of their daughter, Malti Marie, in 2022. But that happiness didn't come without trials, as baby Jonas spent the first few months of her life in the NICU. "The weight of everything is much more intense [as a father]," Jonas shared with Variety that year. "I think it's now about trying to be as present as possible and as thoughtful as you can be for your family, but also for other people's journeys. I'm so grateful for [my daughter] and the wonderful perspective of being a parent."
A full circle moment for the Jonas Brothers
2023 proved to be a monumental year for Nick Jonas and the Jonas Brothers. The trio was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January, where family and friends alike joined to celebrate the group's accomplishments. "It's nice to reflect on this nearly 20-year journey and to commemorate it here today," Nick shared during the ceremony (via Extra).
Later that year, the brothers released "The Album," which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and launched a massive worldwide tour. "The Album" was a chance for Nick and his brothers to again approach their artistry from a new perspective. "It was really apparent to all of us that we needed to meet each other where we were at, which is very different than it was even four years ago when we released 'Happiness Begins,'" Nick shared with Billboard about creating the album. "Our experiences have grown quite a bit, and the biggest one of those is the lessons of parenthood."
While Nick, Joe, and Kevin prepare for "The Album" tour in 2024 and beyond, the youngest of the Jonas Brothers has reflected on how his trajectory as an artist and bandmate has shifted in the past few decades. As he told Billboard, "It seems that when we're being true to ourselves and what's relevant to us and what's truly authentic, then it seems to resonate with our fans, which means the world to us."