User:ActuallyNHoran/sandbox

Early life
Horan was born on 13 September 1993 in Mullingar, County Westmeath. He has an older brother, Greg. His parents, Bobby Horan and Maura Gallagher, divorced when he was five years old, so he and his brother lived with their mother for a year. After spending a year apart from their father, they later decided to move in with him. He had asthma as a child. He attended St. Kenny's National School, a primary school, and Mary's College (Irish: Coláiste Mhuire), a Catholic boys school, which are both located in his hometown of Mullingar.

His brother got a guitar for his 15th birthday, probably played it once, and then it kinda sat around for a while and then Niall picked it up. Horan, then aged 11, taught himself how to play the guitar by following YouTube tutorials. He would sit there and just put on a video of a song I wanted to play and then, like, pause it when they had their fingers set in the spot. The first one he tried to do was Wonderwall. A minor, G, D, A. And he’s still writing songs with those chords today. They all do. His aunt discovered his abilities one day when she was in the car with Horan as he started singing, and she had initially thought that the radio was on. As a teenager, he performed at the Mullingar Arts Centre during a fund-raiser for the local football team, the Shamrocks. He also bagged a support slot with former X Factor contestant Lloyd Daniels at the Academy club in Dublin.

Career
See also: List of awards and nominations received by Niall Horan and List of awards and nominations received by One Direction

2010-2015: One Direction
In 2010, at sixteen years old, Horan auditioned for the seventh series of The X Factor in Dublin. He sang "So Sick" and received mixed comments from the judges. Louis Walsh was in his favour, but Cheryl Cole and guest judge Katy Perry felt that he needed some time to grow. Simon Cowell voted to let him through, Cole said no, Walsh said yes, and Perry decided to vote yes. Horan was then put through to bootcamp. At bootcamp, he sang "Champagne Supernova", but failed to qualify for the category. After a suggestion from guest judge Nicole Scherzinger, Horan was put in a group with four boys who also failed to move on in the competition, and since they were too good to let go, the judges decided to agree with Scherzinger. Horan along with Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik formed One Direction. Styles came up with the band name, which he thought would sound good when announcer Peter Dickson read their name out on the live shows. Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were Cowell's last act in the competition. They finished in 3rd place, behind runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle.

Personal life
Horan enjoyed playing a number of sports while growing up, including golf, football, and Gaelic football. In the summer of 2010, while playing football with friends, he injured his knee and was diagnosed with a floating kneecap. The problem recurred several times over the next couple of years, including a 2013 incident where he dislocated his knee onstage during a concert in Antwerp, Belgium. He has a genetic thing where his kneecap doesn't sit into its groove properly. Horan went to the United States for major reconstructive surgery in January 2014, after the tour ended. After the surgery, he was invited to do physical therapy with Chelsea by their manager, José Mourinho. Horan went through more than seven weeks of physical therapy with the members of the team and their physical therapist at their training ground in Surrey.

In 2016, Horan and Mark McDonnell founded Modest Golf, a golf management company.

In April 2018, Horan opened up on his diagnosis of mild OCD and his anxiety. Horan started dating American actress/singer Hailee Steinfeld from late 2017 to 2018. Horan began dating account manager Amelia Woolley in 2020. He splits his time between Los Angeles and South London.