For nearly a decade, Mark was one of NCT’s most versatile members. He rapped, sang, danced, wrote lyrics and moved between vastly different concepts as a member of NCT U, NCT 127 and NCT Dream. In 2019, he was also selected for SM Entertainment’s supergroup SuperM, becoming one of the rare K-pop artists simultaneously associated with several of the agency’s major acts. Now, months after leaving NCT and the SM empire, the 27-year-old is trying to define himself much more simply. His first release

Who was the most talked-about individual K-pop idol in August? Not BTS' Jimin or Ive's Jang Wonyoung. According to the monthly individual idol brand reputation rankings published by brand analytics firm Brikorea, it was Woni of Rescene for the second consecutive month. The leader of the five-member girl group topped the August ranking with a brand reputation index of 6,951,891, ahead of Jimin at No. 2 and Jang Wonyoung at No. 3. The index combines data on consumer engagement, media exposure, onl

His father wanted him to give up ballet. The boy refused. "Can't you see that I'm happy when I dance?" It was a familiar argument, one that would play out in countless families with children dreaming of careers their parents considered too uncertain. Tears filled the boy’s eyes. His father worried that it would be difficult for a man to build a successful career in dance in Korea. The boy was doing well in school, the father reminded him. Why not keep ballet as a hobby and pursue a more stable c

It takes only a few seconds for Ateez’s San to command attention in “Bad.” Near the end of the group’s latest music video, the 27-year-old tilts his body sideways then snaps his upper body to the song’s Brazilian funk beat. With powerful movements and a provocative gaze, the fleeting sequence has become one of the most replayed moments of the boy band's latest promotions. Clips of the performance have swept across short-form platforms since Ateez released its 14th EP, “Golden Hour: Part 5,” on J

Lee Do-hyun has picked his next fight, and it's a big one. On Monday, production house Hive Media Corp. confirmed that the 31-year-old will star in "Nambeol," a hard-boiled martial arts epic set in the early Joseon era about a group of warriors sailing to a remote island to rescue captives taken by Japanese pirates. Lee will play the expedition's frontline commander and right hand to the warrior chief played by Lee Byung-hun, with "Alchemy of Souls" star Go Youn-jung rounding out the top of the

South Korea has its own John Wick now, and his name is So Ji-sub. Channeling a lethal, grieving man determined to save his daughter and exact revenge, the 48-year-old actor has emerged as a global sensation with "Agent Kim Reactivated," winning over audiences with his mix of paternal intensity and rugged appeal. But who is the man behind Kim, the relentless former operative at the heart of the hit? The name So Ji-sub may be new to viewers who only recently started streaming Korean shows, but So

By her mid-20s, Jung Ho-yeon was a fixture in New York high fashion. She had walked exclusives for Louis Vuitton in Paris, shot Chanel campaigns lensed by Karl Lagerfeld himself and sat on Models.com's ranking of the world's top 50. It was, by any measure, a modeling career firing on all cylinders. The paper version, as she tells it, was the problem. "People liked the shiny version of me, but I knew I was mostly made of other things," she said in a 2021 interview with W Korea. Worse, working ove

There's a particular man Korean directors keep asking Kim Moo-yul to play: rough on the surface, colder underneath, the kind of tough guy who solves problems with his fists and rarely needs to raise his voice. He's been some version of that figure for the better part of 15 years, often the live wire of the work and almost always the face you remember on the way out. So it makes perfect sense that a pulpy revenge fantasy about a government unit that beats the country's worst students back into li

Few actors ever portray a profession they actually worked in before finding fame, but Jin Ki-joo breaks the standard mold. International audiences currently know her as Im Ha-rim in the viral series "Teach You a Lesson," where she plays a fearless former special operative turned government inspector tackling troubled students head-on. Yet, long before stepping in front of the camera, the 37-year-old actress had already lived several distinct professional lives. Her resume eschews the traditional

For K-drama fans, "My Royal Nemesis" is the clear watercooler show of the season. The unlikely courtship between a woman from 300 years ago and a modern-day chaebol has pulled off a rare dual triumph, topping both domestic linear broadcast ratings and Netflix's viewership charts. But the drama's most notable success story may be the emergence of its leading man, Heo Nam-jun. A relative newcomer who has morphed into one of the market's hotly sought-after talents, Heo's rapid rise may suggest a bo