James Conrad Verraros (b. February 8, 1983) is an American singer/entertainer and native of Crystal Lake, Illinois who is most notable for being one of the top 10 finalists in the first season of American Idol. Because he was raised by deaf parents, he is fluent in American Sign Language. Jim is of Greek (father) and German, Irish, French and English (mother) descent. Verraros released his first internationally-released album Rollercoaster in 2005, which garnered a couple dance floor hits, including the Top 25 Billboard Dance Chart hit "You Turn It On." The album was produced and co-written by Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Gabe Lopez and features four songs co-written by American Idol semi-finalist Angela Peel. On May 27, 2009, Verraros released two new singles "Touch (Don't U Want 2)" and "Electric Love" from his forthcoming album Do Not Disturb (release date TBA). Both songs were produced and written by Gabe Lopez. As an actor, Verarros is a star of the 2004 gay-themed comedy Eating Out directed by Q. Allan Brocka and produced by Ariztical Entertainment, as well as its 2006 sequel, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds. Verraros was considered for a role on the Here! series Dante's Cove. Verraros has appeared four times on The Feast of Fools podcast - once in November and December 2006 and twice in January 2007. The first openly gay contestant ever to be on the competition, Verraros quickly became a celebrity in the American gay press because of a controversy that erupted when Fox Broadcasting Company made him remove gay-friendly comments from his network-sponsored American Idol web site in the summer of 2002. While Verraros was out to fellow contestants and Idol employees, he did not mention his homosexuality on air. Following the end of the show and the subsequent tour, Verraros came out publicly in an article in The Advocate. On September 6, 2009, Verraros married his boyfriend Bill Brennan in a small ceremony in Illinois. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.