Joey Lawrence

Joseph Lawrence Mignogna III was born on April 20, 1976, in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The eldest son of Donna Lynn Mignogna, a personnel manager and former elementary school teacher, and Joseph Lawrence Mignogna Jr., an insurance broker, he is of Italian and British descent. His family adopted the surname Lawrence when he began acting as a child. He has two younger brothers, Matthew and Andrew, both actors. Lawrence graduated from Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, in 1994 and subsequently attended the University of Southern California.

Lawrence's professional career began at age five, when he appeared in a Cracker Jack commercial in 1981. Three weeks before his sixth birthday, he performed the song "Give My Regards to Broadway" and tap danced on the March 31, 1982, episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Following guest appearances on Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons, he was cast as Joey Donovan on the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break! in 1983, a role he held until the series concluded in 1987. His theatrical film debut came with Summer Rental in 1985, and in 1988, at age twelve, he voiced Oliver, the protagonist of the Disney animated film Oliver & Company. From 1991 to 1995, Lawrence co-starred as Joey Russo in the NBC series Blossom. He also appeared in the sitcom Brotherly Love alongside his brothers Matthew and Andrew, and later starred as Joe Longo in the ABC Family series Melissa & Joey from 2010 to 2015, opposite Melissa Joan Hart. Additional television credits include Run of the House, American Dreams, CSI: NY, and the 2009 television film My Fake Fiancé, which drew 3.6 million viewers on its ABC Family premiere. In 2006, Lawrence competed on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Edyta Śliwińska, and finished third. He appeared as "Walrus" in season eight of The Masked Singer in 2022, and in 2023 starred in VinFast's "Changing Lanes" advertising campaign, with a second installment following in December of that year.

Lawrence made his Broadway debut in Chicago in 1996, and returned to the production in May 2007, this time playing the role of Billy Flynn as a replacement. The musical marked his two Broadway appearances in the same production across more than a decade.

Music has been a consistent part of Lawrence's career alongside his acting work. His self-titled debut album was released in February 1993, when he was sixteen, and was produced by Steve Barri, Tony Peluso, Terry Lupton, and Ian Prince. Lawrence co-wrote several tracks on the record, including the single "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix," which reached number nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100, number six on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, number ten on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, number thirteen in the United Kingdom, and number sixty-eight in Australia. The song served as the end-title theme for the film Cop and a Half, and its music video received airplay on MTV and Canadian MuchMusic. Lawrence performed the single live on MTV Spring Break, The Arsenio Hall Show, and BBC's Top of the Pops in 1993. In June 2011, he released the single "Rolled" as a free download through ABC Family's website, followed by "Give It to Ya (Acoustic)" via Pledge Music in July of that year. In 2017, Lawrence formed a band called Still 3 with his brothers Matthew and Andrew, releasing the debut single "Lose Myself." In 2023, the three brothers launched the Brotherly Love Podcast through PodCo, a podcast studio founded by former Disney Channel actress Christy Carlson Romano.

Lawrence married Michelle Vella in 2002; the couple divorced in 2005. He met his second wife, Chandie Yawn-Nelson, while both were teenagers vacationing at Walt Disney World, and the two married there in July 2005. They have two daughters together. Lawrence filed for divorce in July 2020, and the divorce was finalized in February 2022. In July 2017, Lawrence and Yawn-Nelson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which was settled on April 6, 2018. In 2022, Lawrence married actress Samantha Cope, whom he met on the set of the Lifetime television film A Deadly Deed, directed by his brother Andrew and co-starring his daughter Charleston. The couple welcomed a daughter in 2023. Cope filed for divorce in August 2024, though in December 2024 the couple announced they had reconciled and had the filing dismissed.