''Ultimately in the end, it's the director's choice.''

Wahlberg developed an interest in music early on, and was only ten years old when he joined his first band, a local group called Risk. Wahlberg had a strong interest in black music and became a passionate hip-hop fan, learning how to breakdance and write his own raps; a few years later, Wahlberg joined an R&B-styled group called the Kool Aid Bunch, which also featured singer Danny Wood.

At age 15, Wahlberg joined New Kids On The Block and in a few years they went from playing at high school parties to becoming the pop music sensation. Donnie was known as the "bad boy" of the group and was known to curse during live performances on awards shows. Following the group's disbanding in 1994, Wahlberg made a decision to go in another direction, focusing on writing and producing for his younger brother, Mark.

As an actor, Donnie Wahlberg's first film appearance was in the 1996 film Bullet with Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur, a project that lit a spark in him, motivating him to continue to work on his craft. Also in 1996, he appeared as a kidnapper in over his head in Ransom with Mel Gibson. Wahlberg received attention for his role in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense, playing the distraught patient of Bruce Willis's character in the opening sequence. This role was originally intended for a 13-year-old boy until Wahlberg met with writer and director M. Night Shyamalan to inquire about obtaining the rights for a theatre production and ended up getting this pivotal role.

In 2001 Wahlberg co-starred as 2nd Lieutenant C. Carwood Lipton in the Emmy Award-winning television miniseries Band of Brothers. Wahlberg also starred in the 2002?2003 NBC drama series Boomtown as Joel Stevens, an intense Los Angeles police detective struggling to keep his troubled home life private while remaining dedicated to facing the challenges of his daily work life. Graham Yost, executive producer and writer of Boomtown, had worked with Wahlberg in Band of Brothers and was so impressed by his performance that he wrote the role of Joel Stevens specifically for him.

2003 was also the year that Wahlberg starred along side Timothy Olyphant and Jason Lee as the mentally challenged Duddits in William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan's adaptation of the Stephen King alien-invasion thriller, Dreamcatcher. Many see this as one of Wahlberg's most demanding roles.

In 2005 Donnie starred as the main detective in the second installment of the Saw series.

In September 2006, he will star in the lead role of the new TV series Runaway on the upcoming CW Television Network.

Courtesy of ThoseWahlbergMen.Com