Biography

Gary Barlow was born on January 20th 1971 in Frodsham, Cheshire, UK, the second and youngest son of Marge and Colin Barlow. He has an older brother named Ian. His first school was Weaver Vale Primary School, and he moved on to Frodsham High School in 1982. He was the founding member of successful pop group Take That, who split up in 1996. His acting debut came in 2000 when he starred in Heartbeat, shortly after his marriage to Dawn Andrews, and shortly before the birth of son Daniel. Their daughter Emily was born in 2002. He now works as a record producer.

- IMDb mini biography by: Diane Butler <butlerd2000@yahoo.co.uk>

Gary was born in Frodsham, Chesire. He developed an early interest in music and taught himself piano at the age of 10. He spent his teens touring and gigging around the north of England, and teaching himself all he could about pianos, keyboards and production. He began writing songs at age 15. When he was 19, he was approached by manager Nigel Martin-Smith to front a new boy band - Take That - as lead singer and songwriter. Between the period of 1990-1996, Take That had 8 UK number 1s and many top 10 singles, the vast majority of which were written by Barlow, including the worldwide smash hit "Back For Good", which reached no.1 in 31 countries and peaked at no.7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Since the reformation of Take That in 2005, they have gone on to have continued success, breaking records with their album tour ticket sales (many of which were set by them). Their groundbreaking 2011 Progress tour consisted of an unprecedented 8 nights at Wembly Stadium. Barlow has won many awards, including 5 Ivor Novellos, and as part of Take That. As of 2011, Gary also accepted the role of head judge on the UK version of "The X Factor".

Gary first met his wife Dawn when they were teenagers, but the pair never got together until she became a dancer on Take That's 1996 tour. They married in 2000, and now have 3 children - Daniel, Emily and Daisy.

Gary has done and organised many large projects for charity, including gathering a team of celebrities to climb Mt. Killimanjaro in 2009 for Comic Relief and organising charity concerts for Children in Need in 2009 and 2011, entitled "Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall" and "Children in Need Rocks Manchester", all raising millions. He also appears regularly to lend support to other, smaller charity events organised by others, and makes donations himself.

Despite his charity works, Barlow was heavily criticised in 2014 when it was revealed he had invested millions of pounds in a tax avoidance scheme. Prime Minister David Cameron, who won Barlow's backing at the 2010 General Election, publicly rejected calls from Labour politicians for Barlow's OBE to be removed, arguing that he had done great things for Britain, but stated that he should pay all taxes due.

- IMDb mini biography by: shivydoherty@yahoo.co.uk