Topics: W : West, Eric
Eric West (born May 18, 1982 in New York, NY USA) is a pop singer and actor. In 1996, he made his acting debut in Movies Money Murder; in 2004, two more movies followed, Lords of Dogtown, and a movie with pop idol Lindsay Lohan and Nick Cannon currently in production. Eric has appeared on CNN People In The News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Eric started recording music at the age of 12 much like his uncle Grammy winner Smokey Robinson of Motown fame, in 1995 West released his debut single End Of The World in Asia, it achieved Top 10 status on the Tokyo Hot 100 singles chart, right before he turned 15 he had finished recording a full-length album that was never released. In the summer of 1998 Eric took his voice to radio, at age 16 he was the youngest DJ in history on FM radio in New York City, when he became a CO-host of the Top 9 at 9 on WBLS with radio diva JC Jordan. After nearly 3 years out of the spotlight Eric returned briefly in 2001 with Can You Help Me? his first single in over 5 years, produced by Stay-C Hogan and written by Eric West it became an international hit topping the B-Radio Latin American radio charts for 2 weeks, rivaling songs by Justin Timberlake and Madonna for the No. 1 spot, while hitting Top 5 in Chile, Bolivia and Mexico, rumors of an album being released floated around on the Internet, but were untrue at the time. In 2002 Eric got together with Grammy winning producers David Foster (Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston) and Carole Bayer Sager (Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Neil Diamond) to write a song for Pop icon Cher for her forthcoming album. Eric once again disappeared until early 2004 but returned bigger than ever. He signed a deal with Artist Against Racism to appear in their TV commercial's in America. Artist Against Racism is an organization that also includes superstars like Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Sarah McLachlan, Mike Myers, Bush and Aerosmith. He made his acting debut in the new show In My Lifetime directed by Devin Hampton and Little X who has directed music videos for Sean Paul, Usher, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly and Nelly. Eric then received a top honor from the OCTN; he was awarded the Humanitarian Award : Youth Of The Millennium. He received the award for the charity work he's done in his community over the years. On September 21st, 2000 Eric joined Rich Cronin of the platinum selling band LFO, in Brooklyn, New York to help lead the Light The Night Walk with 12 year-old leukemia survivor Kimberly Thach, the Society's National Youth Ambassador. Eric, Rich and Kimberly lead approximately 1,000 leukemia survivors, friends, and family members carrying illuminated balloons over the Brooklyn Bridge to commemorate lives touched by cancer. In 2004 Eric also appeared in his own fashion spread in Marie Clarie Japan. He was featured as one of fashion's top new models and singers, and that was just early 2004. On August 28th, Eric made media headlines worldwide when he wore a "I Support Janet Jackson" T-shirt to the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. Which was a bold statment in regard to Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime controversy. Eric told Teen People USA, "It was my way of showing Janet support after being blacklisted by so many media outlets". The T-shirt earned mentions in the NY Daily News, New York Post, Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times to name a few. Janet Jackson and her fanclub sent the singer a thank you message for his support. Eric started work on his debut album Half Life due in early 2005. Eric was scheduled to tour the UK as opening act for European superstar Matt Goss famous for UK hits When Will I Be Famous, Try and I'm Coming With Ya, but the tour was canceled due to Goss' recent ill health.
Articles and Interviews
Directory with relevant past articles and interviews on the actor and singer.
More »