Chase Hampton

Chasen Cord Hampton (born January 12, 1975) is an American actor, performer, singer, songwriter, musician, and mentor.

Early life and career
Born of Cherokee and Sac-Fox descent in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hampton is the only child of Bill and Kenyan Hampton and is a 5th generation American roots soul singer. He has been singing since age 2, and by age 15 signed his first recording contract with Disney's Hollywood Records. Hampton has performed his music on stages all over the world, as well as appeared on MTV, VH1, E! channel's The E! True Hollywood Story, A&E's Biography, and starred on serial television shows such as Fox's The X-Files and HBO's Big Love, among others. As co-founder of the Buzzfly Records record label with producer Mike Vizcarra, Hampton has had the freedom to write and perform with some of the most celebrated musicians in the industry.

Hampton began his career as a student of the circus arts, working in childhood as a professional clown and later becoming a trained juggler and fire-spinner. In the mid-1980s, he made his acting debut in a guest appearance on the Oklahoma City-area version of Romper Room. Shortly after, Hampton won a small role as a mischievous little boy who called himself "Ben Dover" in the independent slasher film Offerings.

In 1988, Hampton and his parents answered the casting call for a Disney-produced TV movie, one that was to serve as a reunion of the original 1950s Mouseketeers from the Mickey Mouse Club. The project, titled ''Why? Because We Like You'', was looking to cast a crop of new child Mouseketeers to join the elder ones in the film's plot. Hampton was chosen as one of the child Mouseketeers, but the project would soon go through many changes. Rather than producing the project as a TV movie, Disney decided instead to turn it into an actual revival of the original Mickey Mouse Club series for The Disney Channel, featuring an all-new child cast of Mouseketeers. With that, Hampton and several other children selected for the TV movie were retained to star on the forthcoming The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. He appeared on the show initially for four seasons between 1989 and 1992, before returning to the show as a co-host (with former castmate Tiffini Hale) for its final season in 1994–1995. However, Hampton remained contracted to The Walt Disney Company and to The All-New Mickey Mouse Club during the seasons he did not appear on the show.

Near the end of the second season in 1990, the producers of MMC sought to assemble a teen pop group in light of the current popularity of New Kids on the Block. Wanting to extricate such a group from the MMC cast, the producers chose Hampton, along with cast members Damon Pampolina, Albert Fields, Deedee Magno and Tiffini Hale, to compose the new pop act. A viewer voting contest would soon name the group The Party. Hampton went on to release four albums with The Party on Disney's Hollywood Records, charting five hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The remake of the Dokken track "In My Dreams" was the highest-charting single, reaching #34, and is perhaps the best known hit from The Party.

Hampton has acted in several serial television shows and feature films and has been the vocalist of the rock band Buzzfly, as well as a solo artist. He has been employed as a performing artist, mentor, and performance coach, mentoring and grooming talent at a leading Performing Arts school in the Los Angeles, California, area; he held residency as the music director for two of the school's locations.

Hampton has shared the stage with some of the biggest talents and names in the entertainment industry. His music has been produced by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Teddy Riley. Over the years, he's appeared with film stars including Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, and Jessica Biel, and music artists including Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Taylor Dayne, Color Me Badd, and most recently (2010) Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson of the Elton John Band, and guitar icon Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver.

On May 16, 2007, Hampton independently released his first solo effort album, the eight-song Something to Believe EP, on his own Buzzfly Records label.

On August 20, 2010, Hampton independently released his second solo effort album, the four-song Drugstore Girls EP, on his own Buzzfly Records label. The cover model appearing on the EP is American model, actress, and former adult film star Kendra Jade Rossi. Hampton enlisted Orlando, Florida-based Serenade Entertainment Group to secure a series of live shows and on-air in-studio radio appearances to promote & support the EP. Beginning in October 2010, Hampton set upon a tour of the southeastern U.S., opening with an intimate club performance in downtown Orlando, where he offered an "up close & personal" extended set performing solo acoustic and as a trio, being joined by musicians Matt Adkins & Jay DiBella who later signed on as performing tour support.

Beginning 2011, Hampton served as co-creator and producer of the live concert performances of children's recording artist Riff Rockit, the alias & character of singer/songwriter Evan Michael. Hampton additionally served as a writer and voiceover artist on the 2013 direct-to-DVD release Riff Rockit: The Power of Music, in which he voiced the character of Ben Jammin. To provide additional voices for the project, Hampton hired a few of his former The All-New Mickey Mouse Club co-stars, including Damon Pampolina, Deedee Magno Hall, Marc Worden, and Rhona Bennett.

In 2014, Hampton teamed with Boston-area rap artists Reks and Dutch ReBelle for the recording of the hip-hop single "I Can't Breathe", which featured Hampton on vocals, Reks and ReBelle on rap verses, and production by American Antagon1st. "I Can't Breathe" addressed the then-recent cases of racial profiling by police, namely the infamous incidents that occurred in Ferguson, MO, and Staten Island, NY; it is the latter event that inspired the song's title, as victim Eric Garner was recorded to have spoken the phrase "I can't breathe" as he was apprehended by police. Accompanying the song's somewhat graphic music video, Hampton states on his website, "In light of the recent police violence and the need for our press to feed the fire. This was made to start conversation, promote understanding & healing, and awaken the blind. This is three artists views on the feelings felt after so many have needlessly fallen." Released March 20, 2015, the well-received single reached #7 on iTunes hip-hop/rap charts within a week of its debut.

On April 12, 2019, Hampton released a cover of the P.M. Dawn song, "I'd Die Without You," performed with vocal collaboration from former bandmate Deedee Magno Hall.

On May 28, 2021, Hampton released the digital-single, "Nobody".

Personal life
On July 28, 2012, Hampton married Lisa Cinelli, a former girlfriend from his teenage years with whom he had recently reunited. The two originally met in 1989 on the set of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club when Cinelli was a visiting audience member. Their initial courtship lasted into Hampton's tenure as a member of The Party. The couple divide their time between Hampton's home in Los Angeles and Cinelli's residence just outside Boston, Massachusetts. They have two children, daughter Everly Love (born on October 20, 2016) and son Hayes Deacon (born March 12, 2018).

With The Party

 * The Party (1990)
 * In the Meantime, In Between Time (1991)
 * Free (1992)
 * The Party's Over...Thanks for Coming (1993)
 * Greatest Hits (1997)

With Buzzfly

 * "Wicked Ocean" (feat. Tony Lucca & Mike Vizcarra) – Digital Single (February 1, 2012)
 * "Believe" (feat. Nathan Worden & Mike Vizcarra) – Digital Single (March 1, 2012)

Solo

 * Something To Believe EP (May 16, 2007)
 * Drugstore Girls EP (August 20, 2010)
 * "I Can't Breathe" (feat. Reks, Dutch ReBelle & American Antagon1st) – Digital Single (March 20, 2015)
 * "I'd Die Without You" (feat. Deedee Magno Hall) (P.M. Dawn cover) – Digital Single (April 12, 2019)
 * "Nobody" – Digital Single (May 28, 2021)