Park Ji-yeon

Biography

Park Ji-yeon (Korean: 박지연; born June 7, 1993), known mononymously as Jiyeon, is a South Korean singer, actress, model, host and entertainer. She debuted as a member of girl group T-ara in July 2009, which later went on to become one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Apart from her group's activities, she has also starred in various television dramas such as Soul, Master of Study, Dream High 2, Triangle, she also starred in various films such as Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp. She debuted as a solo artist with her first EP, Never Ever, on May 20, 2014, the first T-ara member to debut as a solo artist.

== Early life and education == Park was born in Seoul, South Korea, on June 7, 1993 to an ethnic Korean family. She briefly attended Hyehwa Girls' High School and graduated from Lila Art High School in 2012. She didn't attend university to focus on her career.

== Career ==

=== 2007–2009: Career beginning and T-ara === She and Hahm Eun-jung are the only two members of T-ara to be trained in acting. Instead, the two switched over to singing despite their original intentions. Park has expressed an interest in modeling. In 2008, when she was 15 years old, she was featured in several pictorials and advertisements for clothing company Smart with Korean boy band SHINee. She collaborated with Davichi and SeeYa on the digital single "Women's Generation", which was released in May 2009, making her the first member of T-ara to appear in public. She appeared in SG Wannabe's music videos "I Love You" and "Crybaby" from their 2009 album, Gift from SG Wannabe. Early on, the Korean media dubbed her as "Little Kim Tae-hee" due to her close resemblance to Kim. Park auditioned at the Mnet Casting System and joined the company in 2008. She subsequently debuted with T-ara on July 29, 2009.

=== 2007–2013: Acting debut and breakthrough === In 2007, Park starred in Lobbyist. The following year, she starred in Ae-ja and Min-ja. On May 22, 2009, it was announced that Jiyeon would make her film debut with a supporting role in Gas Station 2. However, on June 22, her label, CCM, confirmed that she had withdrawn from the project due to scheduling conflicts. In 2009 Park starred in Soul. The same year, Park starred in High Kick! 2, In 2010, Park starred in Master of Study, a Korean screen adaptation of Japanese manga Dragon Zakura. That same year, she played the leading role in horror film Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp and starred in the youth drama Jungle Fish 2. On December 29, 2009, the actress was rushed to the emergency room in Seoul due to schedule overload.

In October 2010, Park became the host for MBC's Show! Music Core, alongside Bae Suzy, Choi Min-ho and Onew. She also became a cast member of SBS's variety show Heroes. In 2011, Park was cast in the Korean dub of the animated film, Gnomeo and Juliet. In 2012, she was cast in the teen drama Dream High 2, starring Kang So-ra, Got7's JB and Jin-young, 2AM's Jinwoon, Sistar's Hyolyn, and Park Seo-joon.

=== 2014–2017: Solo debut === Park made her solo debut in May 2014, releasing the title track "Never Ever" (also known as "1 Minute 1 Second"). The music video ranked number one on China's largest music video platform YinYueTai for two weeks straight. In June, Park was cast in MBC's television series Triangle, starring as the potential wife for Yim Si-wan's character. The same month, she began hosting SBS M's The Show: All About K-pop alongside Lee Hye-ri. In May 2015, Park was cast in the Korean-Chinese film Encounter alongside actor Lee Dong-gun. Due to unknown reasons, the film was never released. In July 2015, she collaborated with 2BiC's Jun-hyung on the song "Summer Love". In 2016, Park was cast in the web drama My Runway alongside Kang Dong-ho. The drama was released on Netflix in December 2016. In February 2017, it was announced that Park would be making her solo comeback after three years with a new album. However, album preparations were later cancelled due to T-ara's controversy resurfacing.

=== 2018–present: Continued acting and Senpass === In early 2018, Park and her fellow T-ara members departed from MBK Entertainment following the expiration of their contracts. She later signed with Chinese agency Longzhen Culture Development in May 2018. Park and Vietnamese singer Soobin Hoàng Sơn have released music video for their collaboration track, "Between Us" exclusively on VLive, then on YouTube. However, the music video along with the audio video were deleted for unexplained reasons and were never uploaded again. Jiyeon signed with Partners Park in November 2018 for her domestic activities. On November 26, it was revealed that Park would release a digital single in mid December, as a thank you gift for fans. On December 22, 2018, Park released the music video for her winter ballad track "One Day". On April 2, 2019, Park was cast in the KBS2's mystery, romantic comedy drama I Wanna Hear Your Song alongside Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Se-jeong and Song Jae-rim. On December 26, 2019, Park released her second EP SENPASS, a portmanteau of "Sense" and "Compass". The EP consists of five-track including the title track "Take A Hike". On October 7, 2020, it was announced that actress Park will star in a new web drama called Next Door Witch J. She'll take the role of Seo Je Yi as a beauty creator. In that same month of 2020, the news had been revealed that the actress will star another TV series called Imitation alongside Jung Ji-so, Lee Jun-young, Jeong Yun-ho which will air on KBS2 in the first half of 2021. On July 12, 2021, Park left Partners Park after her contract expired. On February 18, 2022, Park signed an exclusive contract with AnB Group. On July 13, 2022, it was announced that Jiyeon will hold her first solo fan meeting, RE:BLoom at 7 pm on the 30th at Yundang Art Hall. On July 15, it was announced that Jiyeon would be releasing the 2022 version of the song "Rolling", which she sang 12 years ago for the OST of God of Study.