Zayn Malik had an early love for singing and performing, and at the age of 17, he appeared on the competition series The X Factor. He was teamed with four other male contestants to form the group act One Direction, which went on to become one of the most popular boy bands in music history. After leaving One Direction in March 2015, Malik made a splash the following year with the release of his debut solo album, Mind of Mine.

Early Life

Malik was born Zain Javadd Malik on January 12, 1993, in Bradford, a town located in the county of West Yorkshire in Northern England. He is of English and Pakistani descent. His father, Yaser Malik, is English-Pakistani and his mother, Patricia (known as Tricia), is English. He has one older sister, Doniya, and two younger sisters, Waliyha and Safaa. The Malik family belongs to the Muslim faith.

Malik grew up in East Bowling, located south of the Bradford city center. He attended Lower Fields Primary School and Tong High School in Bradford. As a teenager, he took performing arts courses and appeared in school productions.

'The X Factor'

In 2010, 17-year-old Malik auditioned in Manchester for the seventh season of the reality-television competition The X Factor. He sang "Let Me Love You" by rhythm-and-blues vocalist Mario as his audition song and was accepted into the next round. Malik was eliminated before the final round of the competition, but judges Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell grouped him with fellow competitors Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson to form a new act for the remainder of the show.

Performing as One Direction, this group became one of the most popular finalists in their season of The X Factor. Although they finished the competition in third place, they were immediately signed to Cowell's Syco music label.

One Direction

One Direction topped the pop music charts with their first single, "What Makes You Beautiful," when it was released in September 2011 in the United Kingdom. Their debut album, Up All Night, was a best seller in both the United Kingdom and the United States in 2012. Malik toured extensively with One Direction, meeting the band's young female fans around the world.

In March 2015, Malik surprised fans by dropping out of the group's world tour. A spokesperson for the band tweeted that "Zayn has been signed off with stress and is flying back to the UK to recuperate." On March 25, Malik announced that he was leaving One Direction for good. In a statement on Facebook, he wrote: "After five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band. I'd like to apologize to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart."

Solo Career

Not long after leaving One Direction, Malik launched his solo music career with a demo version of "I Don't Mind," which was leaked online by producer Naughty Boy. Official singles soon followed, including "Pillowtalk" and "It's You." Both of these tracks were featured on his first album, Mind of Mine, which debuted at No. 1 in both the U.K. and the U.S. in spring 2016. Malik also enjoyed commercial success later that year for his collaboration with Taylor Swift on "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," from the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack.

Beginning in April 2018, Malik released a string of singles from his upcoming sophomore solo album, including "Let Me," "Entertainer" and "Sour Diesel." The long-awaited album, Icarus Falls, finally surfaced in December and drew mostly positive reviews despite falling short of its predecessor's commercial success.

In 2019, Malik paired with Zhavia Ward for a version of "A Whole New World" from the Aladdin soundtrack. That year he also collaborated with Shaed for a remix of "Trampoline" and joined DJs R3hab and Jungleboi on the track "Flames."

Malik released his third solo album, "Nobody is Listening," in January 2021.

Fashion

Malik's departure from the confines of One Direction also gave him the opportunity to pursue his fashion interests. In early 2017, he teamed with footwear designer Giuseppe Zanotti to launch a men's shoe line. He also served as creative director for a Versace collection that debuted that spring.

Personal Life

While with One Direction, Malik was considered the "bad boy" of the group, due to his mischievous behavior, his many tattoos and his dyed, pompadour-like hairstyle. After first entering the spotlight, he dated Geneva Lane, Rebecca Ferguson and Perrie Edwards, all former X Factor contestants.

In August 2013, Malik got engaged to Perrie Edwards, a singer with the group Little Mix. The pair broke up two years later. Malik then began dating model Gigi Hadid in late 2015. After a split in March 2018, the pair reconciled in late 2019.

In April 2020, it was reported that Malik and Hadid were expecting their first child together. They welcomed daughter Khai in September.

Other ventures

Fashion

In 2016, Malik made his debut on The Business of Fashion's annual BoF500 index, which profiles the most influential people in fashion. In January 2017, he released a shoe line with Italian footwear designer Giuseppe Zanotti. The Giuseppe for Zayn capsule collection featured four shoe styles: two boots and two sneakers. In February 2017, the Versus (Versace) Spring Summer 2017 campaign featuring Malik and model Adwoah Aboah was released. In the same month, he co-hosted the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund's Americans in Paris annual cocktail during Paris Fashion Week. Donatella Versace, chief designer of Versace, appointed Malik as the creative director for a men's and women's capsule collection called Zayn x Versus, which was made available in May 2017.

In September 2018, Malik designed a backpack line for The Kooples. He modeled for Penshoppe in their Spring 2018 and 2019 campaigns. He also modeled for Martyre, which was founded by Anwar Hadid, the brother of Malik's then-girlfriend Gigi.

Philanthropy and activism

Malik is an official ambassador of the British Asian Trust charity group, which aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in South Asia. With his former group One Direction, he contributed to African fundraising events with Comic Relief. In April 2014, Malik donated his guitar to the Kean's Children Fund in Dundee, Scotland; the charity's founder, Charlie Kean, organised an online auction for the guitar and used the money raised to buy iPads for the children's ward at Ninewells. In March 2016, Malik bought a box at Bradford City for underprivileged children to watch football, named after his maternal grandfather Walter Brannan. In January 2020, Malik donated £10,000 toward a five-year-old girl's medical treatment through GoFundMe page her mother made to raise money.

In May and June 2020, Malik expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement by sharing links to petitions and donating to the George Floyd memorial fund. During the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Malik posted the message "#FreePalestine" on Twitter, causing him to receive angry responses and death threats online.

On 8 November 2022, Malik wrote a public letter to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, where he urged him to widen the access to free school meals during the cost of living crisis.

Public image

Malik was known as the "Bradford Bad Boy" of One Direction due to his mischievous behaviour, scandals, tattoos, graffiti art, and rock star hairstyles. Malik had been a fan of tattoos since before X Factor, stating that he likes getting them and enjoys "the whole culture behind them". He revealed his first tattoo on his Twitter account, his maternal grandfather's name in Arabic: والتر (Walter). Since then, Malik has gotten several more tattoos. Discussing his possible solo career after leaving the band, Billboard editor Joe Lynch described him as "the quiet one in the group ... never the one to grab the spotlight during interviews. He typically saved his words for the songs, not for media soundbytes."

In Pakistan, Malik is often listed among notable Pakistanis of the diaspora. In 2011, he was ranked number 27 on Glamour's "World's Sexiest Men" list. In 2014, Malik was voted British GQ's best dressed male. In 2015, he was voted the "Sexiest Male in Pop" in a poll by British radio network Capital, voted as the "World's Sexiest Asian Man" based on a worldwide poll by the British newspaper Eastern Eye, voted second place in a poll of the "World's top ten bachelors" by Manchester's Crown Clinic, and ranked number six on MTV's "50 sexiest men alive" list. In 2016, he ranked fifth on Glamour magazine's "100 Sexiest Men" list.

Filmography

Films

Television