HOLLYWOOD SINGER / ACTRESS DEMI LOVATO BORN 1992 AUGUST 20

HOLLYWOOD SINGER / ACTRESS DEMI LOVATO BORN 1992 AUGUST 20

Life and career

1992–2006: Early life and career beginnings

Lovato was born on August 20, 1992 in Albuquerque, New Mexico,[8] to engineer and musician Patrick Martin Lovato (1960 — June 22, 2013)[9][10] and former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Dianna De La Garza (nee Dianna Lee Smith; born August 8, 1962).[11] Lovato has an older sister, Dallas (born February 4, 1988);[12] a younger maternal half-sister, actress Madison De La Garza;[13] and an older paternal half-sister, Amber,[14] to whom she first spoke when she was 20.[15]





HISTORY

Lovato's parents divorced in the late summer of 1994, shortly after her second birthday.[16] Lovato's father was of Mexican descent,[17] while her mother has English and Irish ancestry.[18][19] Through her father, Lovato is a descendant of Civil War Union veteran Francisco Perea (1830–1913) and Santa Fe de Nuevo México governor Francisco Xavier Chávez.[20]

Lovato was raised in Dallas, Texas.[21][22] With Selena Gomez, she began her acting career on the children's television series Barney & Friends as Angela.[23] She began playing piano at age seven and guitar at ten,[24] when she also began dancing and acting classes.[25] Lovato told Ellen DeGeneres that she was bullied so badly that she asked for homeschooling,[26] and she received her high-school diploma through homeschooling in April 2009.[27] She later became a spokesperson for the anti-bullying organization PACER and appeared on America's Next Top Model to speak out against bullying.[28] In 2006, Lovato appeared on Prison Break, and on Just Jordan the following year.[8]

As of September 2015, Lovato's name appears on the "Unclaimed Coogan" list, which is a fund for child actors whose earnings were partially withheld, but which remain unclaimed by the former child performers.[29]

Demetria Devonne "Demi" Lovato (/ˈdɛmi loʊˈvɑːtoʊ/ dem-ee loh-vah-toh or lə-vah-toh; born August 20, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After making her debut as a child actress in Barney & Friends, Lovato rose to prominence in 2008 when she started in the Disney Channel television film Camp Rock and signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records. She released her debut album, Don't Forget, in September 2008; it debuted at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 530,000 copies. In 2009, Lovato received her own television series, Sonny with a Chance. Her second album, Here We Go Again, was released that July and debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, and it has been certified gold by the RIAA for sales of over 496,000 copies. Its title track became her first single to reach the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 15, and was certified platinum.

After the release of additional television films and their soundtracks in 2010, Lovato's personal issues put her career on hiatus and ended Sonny with a Chance after its second season. Her third album, Unbroken (2011), addresses several of her difficulties. Its lead single, "Skyscraper", became Lovato's second top ten single as well as first platinum single in the United States; its second single, "Give Your Heart a Break", was certified triple platinum. Lovato was a judge and mentor on the American version of The X Factor in 2012 and 2013. Her fourth album, Demi (2013), had first-week sales of 110,000 copies (the best debut week of Lovato's recording career) and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Heart Attack", became her third top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It also peaked at No. 3 in the United Kingdom, becoming her highest charting single and first to reach the top 10 in the UK. Lovato's fifth album, Confident (2015), debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. Its lead single "Cool for the Summer" peaked at number eleven on the Hot 100 and was certified platinum.

Musically, Lovato is considered a pop,[2] pop rock,[3][4] and R&B artist.[5][6] Lovato has won a number of awards, including an MTV Video Music Award, 13 Teen Choice Awards, five People's Choice Awards, an ALMA Award, and a Billboard Touring Award. In 2013, Maxim ranked her 26th on its Hot 100 list and Billboard ranked her second on its Social 50 Artists of the Year list. Outside the entertainment industry, Lovato is involved with several social and environmental causes. In May 2013, she was cited for her dedication as a mentor to teens and young adults with mental health challenges at a National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Washington, D.C. She has also become an advocate for the LGBT community. In 2014, she was announced as the Grand Marshal for LA Pride week, and that same year she became the face for Human Rights Campaign's Americans for Marriage Equality Campaign.[7]

Relationships


From early to May 2010, Lovato dated her Camp Rock co-star and musician Joe Jonas.

[195] They remain good friends.[196][197][198] 
















In 2010, Lovato began dating actor

Wilmer Valderrama.[199][200] They announced the end of their relationship on social media on June 3, 2016.[201]












Lovato had no interest in forging a relationship with her late father, Patrick, after his divorce from her mother.[202] Patrick died of cancer on June 22, 2013, at age 53.[10][203] After his death, Lovato said that he had been mentally ill, and in his honor she created the Lovato Treatment Scholarship Program.[165]

Personal struggles

Lovato had suffered from depression, an eating disorder, self-harm and being bullied before she went into rehab at the age of 18 in November 2010.[204][205] 

On October 30, 2010, Lovato withdrew from the Jonas Brothers Live in Concert tour, entering a treatment facility for "physical and emotional issues".[206] It was reported that she decided to enter treatment after punching female dancer Alex Welch; her management and family conducted a formal intervention after this incident to convince her she needed help. Lovato said she took "100 percent, full responsibility" for the incident.[204] On January 28, 2011, Lovato completed inpatient treatment at Timberline Knolls and returned home. 

She acknowledged that she had had bulimia, had harmed herself, and had been "self-medicating" with drugs and alcohol "like a lot of teens do to numb their pain".[207] She added that she "basically had a nervous breakdown" and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during her treatment.[208] Lovato later said that she had used cocaine several times a day and smuggled cocaine onto airplanes.[209]

In April 2011, Lovato became a contributing editor for Seventeen magazine, writing an article that described her struggles.[162] In March 2012, MTV aired a documentary (Demi Lovato: Stay Strong) about Lovato's rehab and recovery.[210] She began work on her fourth album the following month.[211] In January 2013, it was reported that Lovato had been living in a sober-living facility in Los Angeles for more than a year because she felt it was the best way to avoid returning to her addictions and eating disorder.[