Jang Keun-suk South Korean Actor Born 1987 in Seoul

Early life

Jang Keun-suk was born on 4 August 1987 in Seoul, South Korea. He started modelling as a young child after a talent agent noticed him, and he went on to take child roles on television. During his school years he studied in New Zealand, attending Nelson College until 2003, partly to learn English and Japanese. A role in a popular Korean sitcom brought him back to South Korea while he was still a student. He later enrolled at Hanyang University and completed his studies there in 2010.

Career

Television and film. Jang's first big-screen credit is the Japanese horror film One Missed Call: Final (2006), where he played a deaf boy. In 2007 he appeared in the music-themed film The Happy Life and, for several months that year, co-hosted the weekly live music programme Inkigayo. In 2008 he played a trumpet player in the drama Beethoven Virus and acted in the films Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do, Crazy Waiting and Baby and I.

His breakthrough came with You're Beautiful (2009), in which he led the cast as the frontman of a fictional pop band. The series found a following abroad, particularly in Japan. The same year he took on a darker part in the thriller The Case of Itaewon Homicide, speaking English for the whole film. He followed with the romantic comedy series Mary Stayed Out All Night (2010), the film You're My Pet (2011), the melodrama Love Rain (2012), in which he and his co-star played dual roles set in the 1970s and in 2012, and the series Bel Ami (2013).

In 2016 he hosted the survival programme Produce 101 and starred in the historical drama The Royal Gambler, a series that is seen as a turning point in the kind of roles he was offered. Later credits include Decoy (2023) and The Influencer (2024). Records list 15 screen credits in total, seven of them films and eight television series.

Jang has also directed short films. His debut was Camp (2015), made in collaboration with the director Yoon Hong-seung, and in 2016 he directed The Great Legacy, which was invited to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Music. Jang's recording career has been centred on Japan. His first single, Let Me Cry, came out in April 2011 and entered the Oricon singles chart at number one, which was a first for a non-Japanese act with a debut single. In 2012 he released the album Just Crazy, followed by Nature Boy in 2013. In 2015 he released Monochrome (in Japanese, モノクローム), marking five years of his activity in Japan, and in 2017 the album Voyage. He has also recorded as part of the duo Team H and has released material through Universal Music Japan and EMI Records.

Recognition

For Let Me Cry he received the Best New Artist prize at the 26th Japan Gold Disc Awards. A Chinese-language EP with Team H reached platinum sales, and the duo took Best Selling Album and Best Korean Album at the 2012 IFPI Hong Kong Record Sales Awards. In 2012 he became the first Hallyu star to appear on a Japanese postage stamp.

Public roles

In 2010 Jang was named a public relations ambassador for the city of Seoul, at the time the youngest person to hold the post. He later served as promotional ambassador for the 2011 Nuclear Safety Summit and as honorary ambassador for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and received a special medal for that service. In 2015 Hanyang University appointed him one of its first "Sharing Professors". He has also made a number of charitable donations, including contributions to disaster relief in Japan, the Philippines and Turkey.

Personal life

Jang began his mandatory military service in July 2018 as a social service worker and completed it at Seoul's fire and disaster headquarters in May 2020.