1. Zayn Malik was born on 12th January 1993 in St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford. He’s the second oldest member of One Direction behind Louis.
2. Zayn was brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Other famous Bradfordians include magician Dynamo, Kimberley Walsh from Girls Aloud, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson and Gareth Gates.
4. Zayn fancies the pants off Megan Fox and has a secret man crush on Justin Timberlake.
5. Zayn’s favourite book is Harry Potter.
6. Zayn has a soft spot for intelligent girls.
7. Zayn can’t swim and is scared of open water (also known as Aquaphobia). Despite this he likes sharks – especially hammerheads!
8. Zayn’s favourite band of all time is *NSYNC.
9. Zayn’s X Factor audition wasn’t broadcast on the main show. When he had progressed further it was shown retrospectively on spinoff The Xtra Factor.
10. Malik in Arabic means ‘king’ or ‘chieftain’.
11. Zayn’s name is actually spelt with an ‘i’ (Zain). He reckons ‘Zayn’ looks more original and adopted it as his stage name.
12. Despite living in Bradford, Zayn is a Manchester United fan – just like Louis and Harry.
13. Zayn attended Lower Fields Primary School as a youngster before moving on to Tong High School.
14. Zayn dated fellow X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson for four months but the relationship ended when they “drifted apart”. Rebecca is six years older than Zayn.
15. Zayn has three sisters but no brothers. They’re called Doniya, Waliyha and Safaa.
16. Zayn’s middle name is Javadd (often wrongly written as Javaad, Jawadd or Jawaad).
17. Zayn’s favourite song of all time is ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson.
18. Zayn was born to British Pakistani father Yaser and an English mother Tricia Malik (maiden name Brannan).
19. During his time on The X Factor, Zayn’s granddad sadly passed away. In tribute, Zayn has his granddad’s name Walter tattooed on his chest in Arabic.
20. Zayn is addicted to cigarettes and desperately wants to give up. He said at the start of 2012: "My new year's resolution is definitely to quit smoking. I need to do it." Come on Zayn, more willpower!
21. Zayn is currently dating Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards. They publicly announced their relationship in May 2012.
22. Zayn is a Muslim and recently tweeted "La ila ha ill lalla ho muhammed door rasoolalah", a common declaration of faith that means “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah."
23. Zayn says he’s totally flabbergasted by the success of One Direction in America. He told The Sun: "We thought it could be the same few hundred people tweeting us over and over again. Until we got to America, we didn't realise how crazy it was."
24. Zayn means ‘beautiful’ in Arabic.
25. Zayn has a bizarre pre-gig superstition – he always brushes his teeth before getting on stage. He admitted to The Hits Radio that his habit “is a little bit weird.”
26. Just like Harry Styles, Zayn is a cat lover. His favourite animal is a lion.
27. Zayn’s Twitter name is @zaynmalik. As of 13th July 2012 he has 4,274,799 followers.
28. Zayn has a total of EIGHT tattoos on his body. The most recent is a life-size microphone on his right forearm that he had done in Los Angeles in June 2012.