Tom Parker

Tom Parker was an English singer best known as a member of the boy band The Wanted. Born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, he developed an interest in music as a teenager and taught himself to play guitar at age 16. He went on to audition for The X Factor but did not pass, instead briefly studying geography at Manchester Metropolitan University. He later left to pursue a career in entertainment.

Parker’s breakthrough came in 2009 when he was selected by Jayne Collins to join The Wanted alongside Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes. The group quickly became one of the U.K.’s most successful boy bands, scoring hits including “All Time Low,” “Glad You Came,” “Chasing the Sun” and “I Found You.” The group’s releases The Wanted (2010), Battleground (2011) and Word of Mouth (2013) helped establish the group’s mainstream presence internationally.

Outside of music, Parker appeared on the reality show The Wanted Life, competed on Celebrity MasterChef and starred in a stage production of Grease in 2017. The Wanted went on hiatus in 2014 but he returned for their greatest hits project in 2021.

Parker married Kelsey Parker (née Hardwick) in 2018 after nearly a decade together. They welcomed two children: daughter Aurelia Rose Parker (born in 2019) and son Bodhi Thomas Parker (born in 2020).

In 2020, he revealed he had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He died on March 30, 2022, of complications from glioblastoma.