Joon Park

Joon Park (born Park Joon-hyung, Hangul: 박준형; born July 20, 1969) is a Korean-American singer and actor based in South Korea. As a singer, he is best known as the leader and rapper of the Korean pop group g.o.d.

Early life

Park was born in South Korea and raised in the United States, later becoming an American citizen.^[1] He had a lot of hobbies which consisted of surfing, skateboarding, water polo, drawing, martial arts, body building, dancing, rapping-singing, etc. He graduated from La Quinta High School in Westminster, California and attended California State University, Long Beach.

During and after his college years he was a graphic designer with his talented drawing background. In his college days he did some modeling but never really thought of himself as a model and one day was discovered in Hollywood by a casting agent for a Janet Jackson video in which he had his first 15 minutes of fame on TV.

Career

Early years and forming g.o.d

In 1997 through his sister's contacts in Korea, he packed up and moved to Seoul, South Korea to pursue his goal in the K-pop industry. He wanted to mix Korean music with a twist of western culture. From 1997 to 1998, he and songwriter and JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young began holding auditions for their new group. The first member he recruited was his cousin Danny Ahn,^[1] and then Danny's friend Son Hoyoung, Yoon Kye-sang and a female singer. The group was initially a six-piece mixed-gender group tentatively named "GOT6".^[2][3]

Park was cast for a Beer commercial "OB Lager" which was a complete success in which he held the title of "Lagerman". He landed his first role as himself on a SBS sitcom called "Soon Poon San Boo In Kua" as Song Hye-kyo's Boyfriend. With his quirky humor and imperfect, childlike grasp of the Korean language, in contrast to his Eurasian masculine looks and tanned chiseled physique, he won the hearts of all the viewers And through this show he gained mass appeal/recognition and was wanted on numerous magazines to show off his physique with his platinum blonde hair which was unheard of at the time for an Asian. Park then teamed up with songwriter and producer Park Jin Young ("JYP") and then shortly thereafter the last member Kim Tae-woo joined the group after sending in an audition tape.^[3]

1999–2005: g.o.d

g.o.d debuted on television in January 1999 but their performance of "To Mother" (어머님께) was not well-received by those in the music industry.^[3][4] Nevertheless, the song would go on to be one of g.o.d's most famous hits. It was partly based on Joon's childhood being raised by a widowed single mother. The group also gained attention due to the large age gap between Park and Kim (12 years) and Park being much older than most of their contemporaries, who were either in their late teens or early twenties.

The second album was released at the end of the year and was an instant hit selling more than 1.8 million copies and during the second Album g.o.d had their own reality television show that held the highest Korean record TV ratings for its whole 2-3 year duration on MBC called "Yoo Gwa Il Ki (An Infants Diary)" which was a reality show with the five g.o.d members and a one year old baby. Somewhat like 3 men and a baby, but reality based, it won the hearts of Korean households as it was a non-scripted show showing the funny stories of how five clueless young men would deal with a one-year-old baby.

The group nearly broke up in 2001 after Park was discovered to be dating, which was considered to be taboo for most pop stars in South Korea at that time. Their management had intended to force Park out of the group and have the remaining members continue as a four-piece. It was met with strong objection from fans, who threatened to boycott concerts, as well as Park's bandmates. Ahn, Yoon, Son and Kim held their own press conference to show their support for Park and their management eventually backed down.^[5]

2006–2014: Hiatus and acting

On the cover of KoreAm with Jamie Chung (right)

With Yoon having left the group in 2004, they decided to take a break in 2006 as the lead vocalist of the group Kim Tae-woo was required to perform his compulsory military duty. The other four members began their solo careers in the entertainment industry while Park returned to the United States. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, having a cameo on Speed Racer as the Platinum blond-haired Yakuza Driver and the role of Yamcha in the live-action film version of Dragonball Evolution in which he starred with Chow Yun Fat, Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung.^[6]

2014–present: Return to Korea

Park returned to Korea as the members of g.o.d had agreed to reunite for their 15th anniversary in 2014. He re-signed with SidusHQ, which also manages g.o.d.^[7]

Park and fellow K-pop stars Sunny from Girls' Generation and Jackson Wang from Got7 joined the cast for the second season of Roommate, a reality television series in which various celebrities share a house and are responsible for all household chores and meals.^[8] The show was not renewed for a third season due to low ratings despite the new additions being well-received.

Personal life

On May 4, 2015, Park's agency announced that he would be marrying his non-celebrity girlfriend, a flight attendant, whom he been dating for about a year.^[9] They married on June 25.^[10] On May 10, 2017, the couple welcomed a daughter into their family.

Filmography

Films

Drama

Variety shows

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Park Joon Hyung.

• Joon Park on Facebook
• Joon Park on IMDb