Donnie Wahlberg Biography

Donnie Wahlberg launched his entertainment career in the 1980s as one of the original members of the boy band New Kids On The Block. He is the older brother of actor/producer Mark Wahlberg.

Donnie Wahlberg grew up in Dorchester, a predominantly Irish suburb of Boston, but he went to school in Roxbury, a predominantly African-American Boston suburb. That’s where, as a young teenager, he learned to rap, and in 1984 he successfully auditioned for the boy band New Kids On The Block.

After some false starts, the band hit the top of the charts in 1988, with singles such as “Please Don’t Go, Girl” and “You Got It (The Right Stuff).” They broke up in 1994 and Donnie, like his younger brother Mark, pursued an acting career. He first gained notice in a small role in The Sixth Sense (1999, directed by M. Night Shyamalan), but then he became better known on television, usually playing cops or soldiers.

His credits include the mini-series Band of Brothers (2001) and the series Boomtown (2002-03), Runaway (2006) and, starting in 2010, playing Detective Danny Reagan in the cop drama Blue Bloods (co-starring Tom Selleck). Beginning in 2014 he also appeared at times on Wahlburgers, a reality show about the chain of restaurants run by his brother, Paul Wahlberg.