Ross Lynch

Ross Lynch is an actor, singer, songwriter, and musician who was once part of R5, a band made up solely of his siblings. He is now one half of the band The Driver Era, the other half being his brother, Rocky. Ross got his start, like many young stars, with Disney on the Disney Channel. Though recently, when he isn’t making music, Lynch has ventured into more mature material. So, let’s see how Ross’s career started and where he is heading.

ROSS LYNCH IS 27 YEARS OLD AND GOT HIS START ON THE DISNEY CHANNEL

Ross Lynch was born on December 29, 1995, in Littleton, Colorado. He is the second youngest in the Lynch family which consists of four brothers and one sister. All of their first names begin with the letter “R” – brothers Riker, Rocky, and Ryland, and sister Rydel. Ross received most of his schooling at home beginning with the fourth grade, which was also when he began to sing and learned how to play the piano and guitar.

It is hard to say which came first, Ross Lynch’s acting career or his singing career, since he began to play and sing at such a young age. As far as acting goes, his very first taste came in 2011, when he appeared on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally as Austin Moon. The series starred Lynch opposite Laura Marano’s Ally and lasted four seasons.

HIS FAMILY MADE UP THE BAND R5

By the time Ross Lynch grabbed his role on Austin & Ally, R5 was already rocking. The band was put together in 2009 and consisted of Ross and three of his siblings, Riker, Rocky, and Rydel. Although Ryland showed interest in joining the band, he never did.

Now you may have noticed that Ross Lynch, Riker, Rocky, and Rydel only make four band members, while the band was called R5. That fifth member was Ellington Ratliff, the band’s drummer. The Lynches first met Ratliff at a dance studio and one year later asked him to join the band.

The band got its start in 2009 with their YouTube web series, R5 TV. There they would document the day-to-day antics of the band as their career was kicking off. It was on their web series that R5 debuted their first music video, “Without You,” which Ross Lynch’s brother Riker directed.

A few months later, in March 2010, R5 released a five-track EP whose songs were mainly written by Riker, Rocky, and Rydel. The early days of R5 consisted of releasing singles and touring around Southern California, performing short sets. Some of the gigs they played at were the San Diego County Fair, Orange County Fair, the Knitting Factory, and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California.

Ross Lynch and R5 were beginning to make some noise and by 2012, the group had signed a record deal with Hollywood Records. They said when they signed their deal that they were planning the very first mini tour that would take them out of Southern California and into cities such as Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, and Portland. They obviously had mastered the West Coast, so their big test would be when they went East.

The first East Coast tour for Ross Lynch and R5 was a quickie, taking place from December 15, 2012, through December 31, 2012. They hit places like Jamestown, New York City, Washington, D.C., Tampa, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston. It was all about building their fan base.

Throughout their time as a band, R5 released two full albums, five EPs (extended plays), and one video album. With their two full albums, R5 hit #24 with their first, 2013’s Louder, and then #6 with 2015’s Sometime Last Night. But while they were climbing the charts, not all was smooth sailing for Ross Lynch and his brother Rocky.

ROSS LYNCH LEAVES R5 BEHIND FOR THE DRIVER ERA

By the time 2018 rolled around, things behind the scenes for R5 were not stellar. On March 1, 2018, R5 changed both their Instagram and Twitter names to The Driver Era, and each and every one of R5’s posts were taken down. The following day, R5 announced that they would be stepping back and going on hiatus. Moving forward, The Driver Era would consist of Ross and Rocky Lynch.

It took some time, but both Ross Lynch and his brother Rocky finally opened up a bit on the Zack Sang Show in 2021 to talk about why R5 called it quits. It sounds like both brothers were more or less fed up with the lack of support the band gave each other. “’Preacher Man’ was the reason why, basically, R5 ended up stopping and becoming The Driver Era,” Rocky explained. “’Preacher Man’ came around and everyone on our team, everyone at Hollywood [Records] was like, ‘Alright, this is the radio song, we gotta make some change around now-ish.”

“That’s when, you know, there’s a couple (of) meetings where we were at Hollywood, like having a meeting about changing the band name,” Rocky continued. “There’s a meeting, and everyone was still there, and there was names thrown around. I can’t remember what they were. And then after a month or so of that process working out, I just got to a point where I was like, alright, we can’t just have the same band and be like, ‘Hey! We are now, whatever the name would have been.’ Then it got to the point it is now.”

Ross Lynch added to the frustration by saying, “Well, because we were the ones spending all the time [doing it].” This prompted Rocky to respond, “As we’re here now, it’s obvious that it should have gotten to this point because everyone has their own interests now.”

While it sounds as if there was a lot of family fighting going on, it may not actually be the case. Although R5 has gone away, and Rocky and Ross Lynch have moved forward with making music as The Driver Era, it doesn’t mean the other Lynches aren’t still involved from time to time.

According to Rocky, Riker and Ryland (who wasn’t an original R5 member) still go out as part of The Driver Era and the band rotates drummers, as Ellington has been keeping busy with his new marriage.

HE IS IN NETFLIX’S MY FRIEND DAHMER AND CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA

When Ross Lynch isn’t dealing with band drama or out making music, he still has one foot in the acting door. After introducing fans to Austin Moon in Austin & Ally, he appeared in one episode of the Disney Channel series Jessie, again as Austin Moon.

In 2013, Lynch made his first TV movie, Teen Beach Movie for the Disney Channel, something he would return to two years later with Teen Beach Movie 2.

Following that, Ross Lynch’s Austin Moon found time to hop over to another Disney Channel series, Girl Meets World. The following year would be the last time Lynch would play Austin Moon as his Austin & Ally series ended.

It was time for Lynch to jump into more adult-oriented projects, so in 2017 he appeared in My Friend Dahmer, where he played a young Jeffrey Dahmer in a film that followed Dahmer’s troubled high school days.

Ross Lynch moved back to television, this time on the Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. In it, Lynch played Harvey Kinkle, the boyfriend of Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka). The series lasted 4 seasons and marked the last time Lynch was seen on either the big or small screens.

ROSS LYNCH IS ON INSTAGRAM

Of course, you can’t be a star (rock, movie, or otherwise), if you don’t play the social media game and Ross Lynch does it well. Without any films or television series to push, Lynch has taken to his Instagram to promote The Driver Era and the fact that they just completed a 57-show tour that covered four continents and 18 countries.

He is also not shy about showing off his relationship with Jaz Sinclair who played Rosalind Walker on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The two look very happy together.

For now, it appears that Ross Lynch is focusing completely on his music with The Driver Era. It has been two years since Lynch’s last movie project, though that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in front of the camera. Since that time, Ross Lynch and his brother Rocky have put together numerous music videos as The Driver Era is slowly becoming one of the more popular rock bands.