Niall Horan

Niall James Horan -  born 13 September 1993 (age 19), is from Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. Born to mother Maura Gallagher and father Bobby Horan, he has an older brother named Greg. Their parents divorced when he was five. He and his brother lived between each of their homes for a few years before eventually deciding to live with their father in Mullingar. Horan was a pupil at Coláiste Mhuire, a boys' Christian Brothers school. He was in the school choir, performing seasonally around Christmas.

In 2010, at sixteen years old, Niall auditioned for the seventh series of The X Factor UK in Dublin. He sang "So Sick", and received mixed comments from the judges. Louis Walsh was in his favor, but Cheryl Cole and guest judge Katy Perry, felt he needed some time to grow. Simon voted to let him through, Cheryl said no, and Louis quickly added in his yes, and left Niall's fate up to Katy. She decided to vote yes, and Niall was put through to bootcamp.

At bootcamp, Niall sang "Champagne Supernova", but failed to qualify for the "Boys" category. After a suggestion from guest judge Nicole Scherzinger, Niall was put into a group with four other boys, who also failed to move on in the competition, but since they were too good to let go the judges decided to agree with Nicole. Niall, along with Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik formed One Direction. Harry Styles came up with the group name. They began competing every week until the finals where they received 3rd place, closely behind Rebecca Ferguson, who came 2nd and Matt Cardle who won the competition.