Liam James Payne, more popularly known as Liam Payne is one of the members of the well-known, British boyband, One Direction that has won the hearts of teenage girls across the globe.

Liam Payne was born on the 23d of August in 1993, in the town of Wolverhamptons in the West Midlands of England. He was born to Geoff and Karen Payne who already had two daughters before him, Nicole and Ruth.

Liam was born a premature baby, and he had to face significant health problems and major issues while growing up. Liam showed signs of an interest in singing from a young age only. At the age of 12, he signed up with a performing arts company called Pink Productions to further develop his singing abilities.

He initially auditioned for X-Factor, the popular British show, in 2008 but didn't make it too far. He was told by Simon Cowell, one of the judges, to try again after a couple of years. In 2010, at the age of 17, he again auditioned for X-Factor with his rendition of Cry Me A River that received a lot of praise. Although he was eliminated before the final round, the judges grouped him together with four of his fellow competitors who were also solo artists in the X-Factor Bootcamp to see how well they complemented each other in a group.

The five, which included Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, returned to the stage as One Direction (commonly abbreviated as 1D) and ended up securing the third place.

After the competition, the band signed a contract with SyCo records, Simon Cowell's label and went on to become of the world's most famous boybands. The band released their first single What Makes You Beautiful in 2011, which reached No.1 in the charts before becoming a global hit. They have since released four albums; Up All Night, Take Me Home, Midnight Memories and Four which were chart toppers in most major markets.

Their achievements include 5 Brit Awards, 4 MTV Video Music Awards, 11 MTV Europe Music Awards, and many others. After the release of Four, One Direction was named as the first band in U.S. Billboard 200 history to have their first 4 albums debut at No.1. In 2014, according to Billboard, One Direction was the top artist of the year.

In March 2015, Zayn Malik announced his departure from the band, no doubt causing a huge blow to the band's status, though they continued without him.

Payne has often been admired as being the level headed, and more sensible member of the group. He has been romantically linked to Danielle Peazer, a dancer he met on The X Factor, Leona Lewis, and is currently in a relationship with a former classmate, Sophia Smith.