He became a household name after making it to the last ten of Pop Idol back in 2001.
But now Rik Waller has pivoted away from the music industry, finding a very new career away from the limelight.
The now 43-year-old wowed judges Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Nicki Chapman and Neil Fox with his vocal talents at just 20 years old.
However, he sadly had to withdraw from the reality show prematurely due to severe laryngitis, where he was replaced by Darius Campbell Danesh.
Despite his early exit, Waller signed a record deal with EMI believed to be worth around £400,000.
He got off to a good start with his first single, a cover of I Will Always Love You that made it to an impressive No.6 on the charts.
Rik Waller has pivoted away from the music industry, finding a very new career away from the limelight after making it to the last ten of Pop Idol back in 2001 (pictured)
The now 43-year-old wowed judges Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Nicki Chapman and Neil Fox with his vocal talents at just 20 years old (pictured at audition)
He also appeared on thefirst series of Celebrity Fit Club in 2002, alongside the likes of AnnWiddecombe and Coleen Nolan.
However, he was famously kicked off the reality show after he was caught binge eating.
Waller gave his singing career another go, after forming his own band and signing with Red Admiral Records.
But two months into the tour in 2004, three of his shows were cancelled due to low ticket sales.
In 2007, Waller declared he would no longer be performing professionallyafter deciding to marry star struck fan, Kelly Bliss.
He confessed: ‘I’m getting tired of singing and I can’t rely on it for 100 per cent of my income. I’ve got two people to think about now, and talent doesn’t always pay the bills.’
The couple were due to get married in a pagan ceremony, butit is unclear if they ever went through it.
At the time Waller said: ‘This is definitely the real thing and,although our pagan beliefs mean that ours isn’t an engagement in theconventional sense, we have bought rings as a gesture of love and commitment toeach other.’
Despite his early exit, Waller signed a record deal with EMI believed to be worth around £400,000 and got off to a good start with his first single, a cover of I Will Always Love You (pictured 2004)
He also appeared on the first series of Celebrity Fit Club in 2002 (pictured), alongside the likes of Ann Widdecombe and Coleen Nolan, but was famously kicked off for secret binge eating
But after being forced to abandon his singing career, he carved a new career for himself as an exam invigilator.
In 2013, he was working full-time overseeing secondary school exams for Piper Assessment, in Sittingbourne, Kent, where he lived with his mother Christine and father Kris.
He spoke to the Mail that year, where he explained he has changed his name to Richard and no longer wants to be referred to as Rik.
Waller also opened up about the trials he faced after becoming jobless following his failed singing career.
He said: ‘The most demoralising thing I’ve ever had to do was queue up at the job centre and have people look at me saying, “What a failure”.
‘When you’ve lost the ability to do the job you’ve always done, it’s an incredible stab in the back to find people are actually laughing at you.
‘It’s why I don’t make a lot of effort to talk to the press these days – it can be more trouble than it’s worth. I was never attacked physically but I had plenty of people come up to me and be particularly offensive.’
But after being forced to abandon his singing career, he carved a new career for himself as an exam invigilator and in 2013, he was working full-time overseeing secondary school exams (pictured)
He spoke to the Mail that year, where he explained he has changed his name to Richard and no longer wants to be referred to as Rik (pictured in 2004)
However, he was very upbeat now he’d embarked on his new career, saying: ‘If you’ve got a roof over your head and food on the table I don’t know how anyone can be truly unhappy.’
But rather than leaving music completely he revealed he was running a mobile karaoke and disco business which he tours venues with dad Kris in his spare time.
Kris, who remained his son’s manager, said Waller’s change in career was forced upon him due to his vocal problems which have left him yodelling rather than singing.
But Waller also found the time to run Starsearch Entertainment, a karaoke/disco firm, and said at the time he can foresee a future when he might try the world of politics.