Howard Paul Donald was born on April 28 at home in Droylsden, Manchester. His parents split up when Howard was 8. His dad taught Latin-American dancing and his mum used to be a singer, so you could say that Howard was born to be a performer. Like Jason, Howard has a big family. He has two older brothers, Michael and Colin, a younger brother, Glenn, and a younger sister, Samantha.

His first school was Moreside Junior High School in Jorsdan, Manchester. From there on, he went to Little Moss High School for boys. Howard was not very good at studying - he only passed three subjects: English, maths and geography. School didn't really interest him, he was more into riding his BMX bike and break-dancing.

Howard has always had ambitious ideas. When he was 13 he wanted to be a pilot but when he left school, he got an apprenticeship at Knibbs in Manchester, a company that specialises in spraying cars. After completing his Apprenticeship and learning the trade, he got his first real job at Wimpole Garages doing up cars. However it was break-dancing that was his true passion. Before joining Take That, he was part of a crew called the RDS Royal. He met Jason at the Apollo, a club where they used to go break-dancing. Howard was very impressed with Jason's dancing and they got talking. They later teamed up to form Streetbeat, which led them to Nigel Martin-Smith. He introduced them to Gary and Mark.

When Take That split up, Howard embarked on a solo career. He recorded a song called Speak without Words, for which the video was shot in Cuba. Unfortunately, due to some trouble with his record company, the song was never released. Howard also proved his songwriting skills when he wrote the song Crazy Chance for Kavana - one of Nigel's other acts.

In 1999, Howard and then girlfriend Victoria became the proud parents of a baby girl called Grace. Since then Howard has given up on a singing career and has turned back to his love of DJing. He is now a very successful DJ, going under the name of DJ HD. His style is described as "uplifting, soulful house and chunky grooves". He plays regularly at Garlands in Liverpool and the major student Universities. He is also very popular in Europe, playing all over Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He has also played on the party island of Ibiza. Under the name of DJ HD, Howard has already released his first record 'Take Control'.