Riley Conor Hamilton is an English singer-songwriter and is a member of Australian-British-Irish boy band Weekend. He was born on 28th July 1994. Weekend have received critical praise for their musical style, vocals, energetic live performances and also their colourful image. With the group Riley has achieved five consecutive top 5 singles, two of which were number ones ('Smile About It' & 'Lock It Up), a sellout world tour, two number one multi-platinum albums and one of the biggest and dedicated followings music has ever seen. He is currently engaged to singer/songwriter Michelle Green and the pair live together at the Weekend complex in London. Riley is well known for being the 'quiet boy' who rarely swears at all, being vegan and also for his work with animal charities. He is now experimenting with acting and although just a 'newbie', Riley has already bagged himself a voice role on the infamous and widely popular animated comedy, 'Family Guy' and that's not all. Mr Hamilton has even landed the main role in a brand new TV show.

A WELCOME MESSAGE FROM RILEY


BIOGRAPHY
Riley Conor Hamilton was born on 28th July 1994 to Beverly Jackson and Thomas Hamilton in Beeston, Leeds. Hamilton is the youngest of four siblings. He has two older sisters, Leah (26) and Victoria (22) and an older brother, Michael (20). Riley was raised in Beeston all of his life and despite it being a notorious area he claims that he didn't have any trouble all throughout his time there. Due to Riley's angelic nature, many have joked about the contrast between Hamilton's nature and the nature of his home town. At the age of 17, he then moved to London where he still currently resides with his fiancee, Michelle Green.

His mother, Beverly, currently owns a chain of beauty salons; 'Sparkle'. The chain originated in Beeston and has since spread across the UK and profits made have rocketed since it was discovered that the chain of salons is run by the Hamilton family. Beverly was also a singer, just like Riley. She was a founding member of 1980's UK girl band; 'The Willows'. The group released two albums and eight singles before disbanding in 1996 when Riley was only two years old. His father, Thomas, was a construction worker and had been all of his life.

Riley attended Hugh Gaitskell Primary School where he would first discover a love for sports. Due to not having much room to do in the residential town, Riley would just stay at home and didn't have many hobbies as a young child. However, upon attending primary school Hamilton discovered a strong passion for sports. Taking part in mandatory PE for the first time, despite not having the best sense of balance or hand-eye coordination like anyone at that age, for a five year old boy Riley seemed to have a strong natural ability for any physical activity. The weekly session of gymnastics seemed to be the highlight of his school week and was the activity that really got him hooked. The school would run a multitude of afterschool sporting activities such as football , gymnastics , athletics, basketball, swimming and cross country running all of which Riley attending. Sports was not all he excelled in. Mr Hamilton was without a doubt one of the smartest pupils in his school if his reports and test results are anything to go by. At the age of 8 he was advanced to work on a higher level of mathematics that an 11 year old would be expected to work through. A 'child genius' would be a very acceptable term to use when describing young Riley as he outsmarted everyone in his year and even some above him when it came to basically any area of school work. Hamilton then went on to attend Farnley Park High School. This is where he discovered a love for literature and a true knack for writing. In his English class he would be studying, analysing, critically evaluating and deconstructing texts that would prove struggling to even some with an English degree. He was never one to gloat and his kind and caring personality made him a very popular student in his school. During the PE sessions in his high school, Riley was handed a tennis racket for the first time and from that day on he would be known as a notorious player. Playing tennis seemed like it was an inbuilt, natural ability and even though he had no interest in the sport before hand let alone played it before, Riley would easily win a game against anyone you put him against, even the PE teacher! He still plays the sport to this day and claims he remains undefeated. It came as a shock to many when the intelligent boy suddenly dropped out of school. He had originally expressed a desire for going to university to do an English degree and becoming an English teacher but he seemed to abandon these plans abruptly but little did his fellow students and teachers know that it was because he was about to change his life forever and go onto even bigger and better things.

Riley had joined a local band during his time in school after one of their founding members and vocalists quit. Riley had no real desire to ever perform musically but did adore listening to it and was raised in a household with a variety of musical tastes. He had been told before that he could sing and although he seems shy and reserved, he does have a lot of confidence so therefore joined this group with no hassle whatsoever. In autumn 2011, Riley had been told by a friend that there were auditions being held to find five boys who would then be put together to form a boy band. They were being held by Lyrica Ocha of G2L fame and due to the hype surrounding the auditions, it was clearly something very serious and not just auditions for a small time band. With the member of a girl band and record label owners judging you and deciding whether or not you're good enough meant that no one was messing around and this thought initially put Riley off. After some persuading Riley finally decided to give it a go to see what happens. He didn't really mind if he was rejected as he had his life plan already figured out, he just wanted an opinion. If he made the band, great! If he didn't then he'd just go back to happily studying English. Riley successfully auditioned with his beautiful rendition of 'Haven't Met You Yet' by Michael Bublé and became the 5th and final boy to join the band on that day. Riley's bus was held in traffic and arrived 40 minutes late for the auditions, however, by luck Lyrica and the others still gave him the opportunity to audition for the group.

The success the group endured during 2012 changed Riley's life forever. He managed to come out of his shell a little more and being able to move away from a notorious area to travelling the world and seeing wonderful sights and amazing people really moved Riley. Out of all the people he has met so far in his superstar journey, the most important is without a doubt Michelle Green. Two sweet, kind, selfless and unbelievably cute pop stars meeting and falling in love really is the stuff of trashy girl magazines but Riley and Michelle's bond seems so strong and their relationship has so far seen no shake ups, scandals or bumps in the road. The couple are now engaged.

On June 11th 2012, Riley traveled to his old home in Leeds to visit his father, Thomas Hamilton. Upon arrival, Riley discovered his father's dead body in the living room. The body had its throat cut and hadn't been dead for long. The police are currently investigating the case. A few months later, Riley's brother, Michael, was found dead at his home too. He was found with his neck broken after a fall down a flight of stairs. These tragic events put Hamilton in a dark place for a while as the sudden shock and the closeness of the deaths overwhelmed him. Riley proved to many though that it takes a lot to derail him and despite being all shy and retiring, he can cope with a whole lot more than most people can.




MUSIC CAREER
Since October 2011, Riley and his four new friends, known together as 'Weekend' had been recording their debut album; Fired Up. This proved as a bit of a shock for Riley as he hadn't been around any famous, well known artists and producers before and the chance to even get in a 10 mile radius of one proved difficult in his home town which didn't have much to it. The first single the group would release would be; 'Everything About You'. It was released in January 2012 and peaked at No.2 in the charts. This suddenly propelled the quiet and meek boy into the limelight and the only way from there was up. Despite not reaching the top spot their debut single became one of the biggest selling singles of all time and one of the longest charting on the charts. The second single would draw even more attention to Ri as 'Smile About It' would go on to be their first ever number one and had heavy rotation around radio stations not only in the UK but across the globe. Their debut album was then released and went on to top the charts in several countries and was certified platinum in many regions within a matter of weeks. Weekend released their third single; Fired Up on 5th June 2012 to positive reviews. It entered the top 10 worldwide and despite selling less than the previous singles, it still achieved platinum status and continued their string of consecutive top 5 hit singles in their home country.

The high life proved to be a struggle for certain members of the band but Riley remained level headed and grounded. Things were about to get even more chaotic in July 2012 when Weekend embarked on their first ever world tour. It was simply titled 'Weekend World Tour' or just, 'WWT'. The tour was sold out in a matter of minutes and the demand for tickets caused many online ticket offices to actually crash. The immense noise and hype that the group created really made Riley thankful for what he has and it was on that tour he realised what he had actually achieved at such a tender age. The tour received glowing reviews from critics who praised the boys outstanding live vocals and the choreography in each show. They were supported by Jacob Estrada, The Zone, Mercedes Payne and Serenity Scott. Whilst touring, they recording a number of songs during their days off of the tour. Weekend decided to put together a re-release of their debut album so that fans have something to listen to whilst they take a break from recording after the tour. The first single from this re-release was 'Lock It Up'. This track became their biggest selling to date and Riley Hamilton had the privilege of singing the first verse to this now classic pop song and Weekend's most signature track. The re-released album also shot to No.1 and was certified platinum in a matter of days. One more song 'Turn Up The Volume' was released and peaked at No.4.


ACTING CAREER
Riley surprisingly landed a voice acting role in controversial animated TV show, Family Guy. The news was confirmed in late 2012 and his first appearance will be aired in a brand new season in 2013. The role is not just a special guest star/cameo appearance, Riley will actually play a recurring character in the controversial show and insists that if the character is kept on, he will happily continue to portray the role for as long as possible. Signing up for Family Guy shows him following in the footsteps of his fellow band mates. Dustyn Blue received critical praise for his acting abilities in hit Sci-Fi TV series 'Echo', Billy Khan has also recently signed up for upcoming horror flick 'Secrets In Suburbia'.......and Oscar Ward isn't camera shy either.....
Riley, who is known for his shy, reserved personality and also for his strict vegan diet and not believing in sex before marriage may seem like the last person to appear in such a show filled with crude humour and offensive jokes [The show has been taken off air in the past due to complaints from The Parent TV Council and has also came under scrutiny for poking fun at an array of sensitive matters]. However, it seems like the golden boy of the band is still going ahead with it and can be expected to make his voice acting debut in the first episode of season 12 which will air next year. Riley will voice the character of Tyler Willis who moves into the town of Quahog and also moves into Meg's year at school. Tyler is set to become a love interest for Meg however is too shy to confess an attraction. What we all want to know is, how will the voice of a teenage male from Beeston, Leeds fit in with the familiar and iconic voices of the Griffin household?

The singer turned actor has also managed to bag himself a main role in a raunchy new drama. He was unexpectedly approached by upcoming director, Emily Aitken and asked to star in a new TV show for ITV. Riley had no previous experience in acting at the time of being asked nor did he really think if it as a possible career path then. He was contacted basically due to his looks as they fit the part of the character. Originally, he rejected it as Riley is known as the quiet member of the group and shies away a lot. He also doesn't like to swear nor show off his body which this 'certificate 18' show would require. After some thought, he accepted and began filming in late October. The show is titled 'Diary Of An Escort' and revolves around the antics of a male escort (basically a male prostitute) in London and his struggle leading a double life. Hamilton will play the lead role in the racy show; Patrick Lewis who already has a nice life; a girlfriend, loving family, a great flat in a posh part of the city and a job in a very expensive hotel.....well that's what everyone thinks. Really, he's out doing the dirty under the name 'Valentine' and living a completely secret life. The show is a spin off of the successful 'Secret Diary Of A Call Girl' which was a smash in the UK and featured Billie Piper.The eighteen year old singer/actor is set to show a whole lot more of himself (really A WHOLE LOT MORE)


GALLERY

UPDATE: 'DIARY...' INFORMATION!



PLOT
The show is set in London, England and revolves around the life of a seemingly normal teenager, Patrick Lewis (Riley Hamilton) who lives a secret life as a male escort or 'gigolo', under the pseudonym Valentine. The series focuses on his professional and private life and the complications that arise. However, he receives help and advice from his friend and co-worker Shauna, who works at the hotel that Patrick works part time in. Patrick is close friends with fellow employees at the Escort agency, Angel & Pixie, the latter being a female. Patrick, as the main character, also narrates the show, sometimes through voice overs but more frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience.

RI'S CHARACTER

PATRICK LEWIS/VALENTINE
Patrick s a university graduate living in London and – unbeknownst to his family – is also the high class escort known as "Valentine". Only 19 years old, he is the youngest at the agency and is the most demanded and sought after escort. Patrick is well educated and intelligent but his laziness and love for partying are the main factors for him not having a 9 to 5, stressful and boring white collar job. Patrick has developed a very expensive taste since working as a high paid escort and acts snobbish when he comes home to his parents' small council flat at the end of the day and he leaves his secret life behind. This disgust for a basic and 'common' way of life is something he has to mask and finds it extremely hard to. He adores his job as an escort as he is being paid handsomely to do something he does very well and gets a kick out of. He comes from a working class family who live in London and are finding it hard to pay rent (something Patrick doesn't even consider helping out with as his pay goes towards his own expensive taste). He is close to his mother, sister and little brother however it is shown that there are awkward moments between him and his father as they barely have anything in common.