Kevin McHale

Kevin McHale was a living testament to the sentiment, "When one door shuts, another one opens." The actor and singer had initially launched his showbiz career with the boy band NLT, which scored two hits in 2007 with the sugarcoated singles "That Girl" and "She Said, I Said (Time We Let Go)." Yet before the group reached its full pop music potential, lukewarm record label support and differing career interests between band members ultimately led to NLT's 2009 split. McHale used this misfortune to switch gears toward acting and immediately landed a featured role on "Glee" (Fox, 2009-15), a musical comedy series about a high school glee club who are bullied for their social status rather than praised for their talent and school spirit. McHale played Artie Abrams, a wheelchair-bound teen who plays guitar like Jimi Hendrix and sings like Paul Simon. The producers of "Glee" received mild criticism for casting the non-handicapped actor in the part, yet it did not take long for audiences to fall in love with McHale. His genuine portrayal of the soft-spoken and charismatic Artie was arguably the show's most courageous performance and proved there were no limits to natural born talent.