Jang Keun-suk

Jang Keun-suk
In April 2011
Born	(1987-08-04) August 4, 1987 Seoul, South Korea
Education	Hanyang University (Theater and Film)
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	1992-present
Agent	TreeJ Entertainment
Website	http://www.princejks.com
Korean name
Hangul	장근석
Hanja	張根碩
Revised Romanization	Jang Geun-seok
McCune–Reischauer	Chang Kŭnsŏk

Jang Keun-suk (Hangul: 장근석; Hanja: 張根碩; born August 4, 1987) is a South Korean actor and singer, He is best known for starring in the television dramas Beethoven Virus (2008), You're Beautiful (2009), Mary Stayed Out All Night (2010), Love Rain (2012), Pretty Man (2013) and Jackpot (2016).^[1][2][3]

Early life

Jang started working as a child model at the age of five after he was discovered by a talent agent. At that time, Jang's parents were selling their house and the agent, who was a prospective buyer, saw Jang. Seeing his potential, the agent advised Jang's parents to allow him to try a career in modeling.

In junior high school, Jang went to school in New Zealand, where he attended Nelson College in 2003, to learn English and Japanese.^[4]

Career

Pre-debut

Jang made his acting debut in the 1997 HBS (now Channel CGV) sitcom Selling Happiness. He then continued to work in television as a child actor. Studying in New Zealand at the time, a role in the popular MBC sitcom Nonstop 4 brought him back to South Korea.

2005-2008

In 2005, Jang's portrayed the president's son in the SBS drama Lovers in Prague.

In 2006, Jang debuted in the big screen for the Japanese horror film One Missed Call: Final where he played the role of a deaf boy. He next played the first love of famous gisaeng Hwang Jini (played by Ha Ji-won) in the period drama Hwang Jini.

In 2007, Jang was cast in the rock music-themed film The Happy Life, directed by Lee Joon-ik. Jang then co-hosted SBS's weekly live music show Inkigayo from February 25 to October 7, 2007.

In 2008, Jang would go on to act in two more music-inspired projects with the film Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do and the MBC drama Beethoven Virus opposite Kim Myung-min, in which he played a trumpet player in an orchestra. He also starred in the KBS drama, Hong Gil-dong as the fictional brother of King Gwanghae who vies for Joseon's throne. Afterwards, he starred opposite Moon Mason in the movie Baby and I.

2009-2011

Jang's took on his first villain role in the 2009 thriller The Case of Itaewon Homicide. The film is based on the real-life Itaewon murder case in which a young Korean-American was accused of stabbing a Korean student to death. Jang spoke his lines in English throughout the entire film, and Beyond Hollywood praised him as having "performed very well" in the role.^[5][6]

In You're Beautiful (2009) Jang played the leader of fictional K-pop band A.N.Jell, who falls in love with a fellow band member who is a girl pretending to be her twin brother (played by Park Shin-hye).

In 2010, he starred opposite Moon Geun-young in the romantic comedy series Mary Stayed Out All Night. Jang and Moon attended four fan meetings in Tokyo and Osaka in 2011.

Jang's first single as a singer, "Let Me Cry," was released by Pony Canyon in Japan on April 27, 2011. "Let Me Cry" debuted at number 1 on Japan's Oricon single charts, selling 119,149 copies on its first week of release, making him the first non-Japanese act to have the debut single to debut at number 1 on the charts.^[7] This won him Best New Artist in the 26th Japan Gold Disc Awards.^[8]

On October 26, 2011 Jang Keun-Suk released a direct-to-DVD titled Budapest Diary in Japan. Budapest Diary has Jang Geun-Suk as the primary actor and also Jang Geun-Suk participated in writing the screenplay and selecting the locations for filming.^[9] In September 2011, Jang's first Chinese album, an EP titled The Lounge H Vol.1, was released in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and throughout Southeast Asia.^[10][11] The album, which also included the music video for "Gotta Getcha" and backstage clips, eventually reached platinum sales. Team H later won Best Selling Album and Best Korean Album at the 2012 IFPI Hong Kong Record Sales Awards.

Jang's next film You're My Pet was released in November 2011. It was adapted from the Japanese manga Kimi wa Petto in which a younger man willingly becomes the "pet" of a career woman (played by Kim Ha-neul).

2012-present

In March 2012, Jang released a new album Lounge H (The First Impression) exclusively in Japan.^[12] The album was different from Lounge H Vol.1, which Team H had released the year before, and contained seven tracks of rock and electronic genre, including "Gotta Getcha."^[13]

Jang then worked with TV director Yoon Seok-ho on the melodrama series Love Rain, in which he and costar Im Yoon-ah played dual roles in the 1970s and 2012.

In May 2012, Jang released his first full-length Japanese album, titled Just Crazy.^[14] It debuted at No. 1 on the Oricon daily singles chart with 53,000 copies sold, and again topped the weekly singles chart with 88,009 copies sold.^[8] This made Jang the first male international (non-Japanese) solo artist to reach the top of both the Oricon daily and weekly charts, and the second overall to accomplish this feat after BoA's "Listen To My Heart." He is also the first artist in over 17 years to have topped both charts with the first single ("Let Me Cry") and the first studio album.^[15]

In June 2012, Jang released a Japanese cookbook titled, Love Recipe. It featured twenty recipes, essays, and photo shoots.^[16] His song, "200 Miles," was also featured in Fairy Tail the Movie: The Phoenix Priestess.

This was followed in 2013 by another series adapted from a manhwa, Pretty Man opposite IU.

Jang filmed the reality show Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village with Cha Seung-won and Yoo Hae-jin, which was supposed to air on January 2015.^[17] But a supposed tax evasion controversy in which a fine was paid of ₩10 billion (US$9.27 million) for his agency under-reporting taxes led to him dropping out of the program. Though Jang was found not guilty as it was his agency's unintentional accounting mistake, he decided to leave the program and his scenes were edited out.^[18][19][20]

On 25 February 2015 Jang Keun Suk released his third solo album ‘Monochrome’ and won the third place on ‘Oricon’ album daily and weekly chart.^[21][22] He also launched 2015 "Jang Keun Suk The Cri Show 3" around Japan. The tour, which began with the Osaka concert on March 14, has completely sold out tickets for the 12 hall concerts in six cities (Osaka, Niigata, Fukuoka, Okayama, Shizuika, Hokkaido) and four arena concerts in two cities (Kobe, Tokyo), for a total of 16 concerts.^[23] On March 14 short film CAMP, starring Jang Keun Suk and directed by him, was officially released as a DVD (full name Jang Keun Suk Special short Film DVD CAMP), and it debuted #1 on Oricon Weekly Film chart.^[24] CAMP was filmed entirely in Jeju Island in October 2013.^[25][26]

On 5 September 2015 "Jang Keun Suk Live in Seoul 2015" was held at Jangchoong Stadium in Seoul. It was Jang's first solo concert in Korea in three years.^[27] On October 24 Jang held a concert in Shanghai which was a comeback concert in China since 2013,^[28] followed by 4 concerts in Japan in the end of November.^[29] On 20 October the same year, Jang was appointed as one of the as the first domestic university "Sharing Professor" by Hanyang university.^[30] On 10th and 19 December 2015 held his first special lectures.^[31] On the 7th of December it was announced that Jang accepted to be MC and a mentor in the new musical survival show of Mnet Produce 101.^[32] Its 11 episodes premiered on 6 January 2016.^[33][34]

Jang starred in historical drama Jackpot which started airing on 28 March on SBS for 24 episodes.^[35][36]

On 2 July 2016, Jang kicked-off his Asia tour "It's Show Time", performing in Seoul, Japan and China.^[37] The concerts held in Shenzen and Shanghai were streamed online by various platforms. On 18 August starred in the new reality show of tvN's My Ear's Candy.^[38]

Filmography

Drama Series

Films

TV Shows

Music Videos

Discography

Chinese

2011

The Lounge H Vol. 1 (Regular Edition)

by Team H (Jang Keun-suk and Big Brother)

• Victory
• Gotta Getcha
• Shake It
• Run Away

Japanese

Korean

Accolades

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jang Keun-suk.

• Official website (Korean)
• Official website (Japanese)