Dorough was born August 22, 1973, in Orlando, Florida,[1] where he met his friend and bandmate AJ McLean through a mutual vocal coach at the Latin carnival in 1989.

[2][3] His mother Paula Flores-Dorough, a school worker, is Puerto Rican, and his father, Hoke Dwaine Dorough, a police officer, former army soldier, real estate developer[4] and bank security,[5] was Irish American.

[8] He started performing around age six or seven, thanks to his sister Polyanna, singing during mass in the church choir and having his first role in the musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz as a singer and actor.

[9] Throughout elementary school, his mother enrolled him in children's community theaters and he performed in many community theater productions of top musicals, among them "Sound Of Music," "Showboat" and "Camelot"[10] and got him in singing/voice and acting lessons by putting him in a performing arts academy where he also took dance lessons in classical ballet, tap, and jazz.

[20] Despite the extreme embarrassment, he got right back on his horse and began performing again when he sang 'Unchained Melody' at his school talent show, and got a standing ovation.

[22] He was also involved in a peer counseling group called Friends, where he talked to other kids about living "a clean life, having fun, going to school, avoiding drugs.

[27] After high school, Dorough auditioned for Backstreet Boys under his stage name, but they lost his headshot and contact info; however, after six months, they were able to track him down, thanks to AJ, and was already in the group.

[28] He got a scholarship, and attended both University of Central Florida and Valencia College with an Associate of Arts Degree with *NSYNC member, Chris Kirkpatrick.

[29] Lou Pearlman created the Backstreet Boys in 1993, selecting Howie Dorough along with AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, and Kevin Richardson.

Dorough is most known for his infamous fart, which was recorded and used as a part of the beat for the song "The Call" from the Backstreet Boys' fourth album, Black And Blue.

Dorough worked as a producer for singer/songwriter George Nozuka and Katelyn Tarver as part of his management partnership with former 3deep member CJ Huyer, called HC Entertainment, formed in 2004.

Appearing in Roswell, ABC's television series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in the episode "The Big Head" as an egotistic rock star named Strum, and voiced Santa Claus on the Nick Jr animated series Dora the Explorer in the Christmas episode "A Present for Santa" and did a skit on Saturday Night Live on May 15, 1999.

On February 5, 2021, Dorough appeared on Long Island Medium: There in Spirit to receive a psychic reading from Theresa Caputo about his father and sister.

[38] On February 7, 2024, Dorough appeared on the Fox Network show Name that Tune, competing against Drew Lachey of the band 98 Degrees.

According to "Entertainment Tonight", he dated his singing partner Jennifer during his final year of high school, but they broke up due to his career in 1994, leaving him heartbroken.

"[52] On December 6, 2000, Dorough met Leigh Anne Boniello, a film executive producer for Warner Brothers and DreamWorks, who was working as the webmaster for the official Backstreet Boys website at the time.

[56][57] Dorough helped his wife launch her first line of eco-friendly handbags called Eslla, a luxury company she designed and founded with her friend of more than a decade, Charlotte Wienckoski.