Luna

Biography

Park Sun-young (Korean: 박선영; born August 12, 1993), known professionally as Luna (루나), is a South Korean singer, dancer, musical actress and television host. She debuted as a member of the girl group f(x) in September 2009. In May 2016, Luna released her solo EP Free Somebody. In November 2019, the single "Free Somebody" was listed in Billboard's greatest K-pop songs of the 2010s. In September 2019, Luna left SM Entertainment and joined Humap Contents. In February 2021, Luna established her own entertainment agency, Grida Entertainment. Aside from her music career, Luna has established herself as a musical actress, notably through her participation in the original and Korean versions of stage musicals including Legally Blonde (2010–2011), Coyote Ugly (2011), High School Musical on Stage! (2013), School OZ Hologram Musical (2014), In the Heights (2015–2016), Rebecca (2017), Rudolf (The Last Kiss) (2017–2018), Autant en emporte le vent (Gone with The Wind) (2018), Mamma Mia! (2019–2020), and The Days (2020–2021). She made her Broadway debut as the lead of KPOP (2022), a K-Pop-themed musical that featured several idols including herself. She also starred in the film The Lightning Man's Secret (2015). On television, Luna hosted the music program The Show (2011), the third season of the reality show Get It Beauty (2016). She also appeared as a regular cast member on the reality shows Strong Girls (2017), The Suitcase Man (2017), The Taming of the Shrew 2 (2017), Beauty Code (2017), and Dressing Table 3 (2017–2018).

== Early life == Luna was born as Park Sun-young in Seoul, South Korea on August 12, 1993, to a family of classical vocal singers. She has an older brother, and an older twin sister named Park Jin-young. Luna is the only member of her family to not major in classical music.

== Career ==

=== 2006–2010: Career beginnings ===

In 2006, SM Entertainment recruited Luna after seeing her perform on the SBS television program Truth Game. She later debuted as the main vocalist and lead dancer of South Korean girl group f(x) in September 2009. Outside the group's activities, Luna also made several solo appearances. In 2010, she appeared as a regular member of Star King and earned a Newcomer Award from the SBS Entertainment Awards for her appearance and effort. Later that year, Luna recorded the song "Let's Go" alongside labelmates Sungmin, Seohyun, and Jonghyun, for the purpose of increasing public participation in the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. She released a duet with Super Junior's Yesung entitled "And I Love You" for the soundtrack of the KBS2 drama The President and a solo single "Beautiful Day", which served as the OST for the drama Please Marry Me.

=== 2011–2015: Solo activities ===

In 2011, Luna was reported to make her musical debut, portraying the character Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. In April, she started hosting the music program The Show from MTV Korea along with Secret's Hyoseong. Luna was cast in the TV Chosun drama entitled Saving Mrs. Go Bong-shil as Seo In-young, a college student and youngest daughter of the title character, which first aired in December 2011. It was her drama debut alongside SS501's Kim Kyu Jong. In 2012, she appeared on Immortal Songs 2 as a contestant, performing Magma's "I Can't Know." Luna won first place for her performance. In the same year, she released a duet with Girls' Generation's Sunny for the SBS drama To The Beautiful You soundtrack and solo single "It's Okay" for the SBS drama Cheongdam Alice's OST. The following year, Luna returned to musical performance, portraying Gabriella Montez in the Korean version of High School Musical on Stage!. She also recorded duets with Super Junior members Ryeowook for the musical, and Kyuhyun for The Croods soundtrack, as well as solo single "U+Me" which was used as the theme song for the game Softmax TalesWeaver. In 2014, Luna was chosen to feature on "Dream Drive," the debut single of co-ed project team Play The Siren. In March, she was confirmed to be one of the hosts for MBC Music's new survival b-boy competition program Dance Battle Korea. Luna also starred as Diana in SM Entertainment's first hologram musical School OZ, alongside labelmates Changmin, Key, Suho, Xiumin, and Seulgi. In March 2015, she was announced to be acting in the web drama entitled Jumping Girl, alongside Block B members U-Kwon and B-Bomb. This would be her first time playing the female lead in an acting project. Subsequently, Luna was also cast as the main female lead in the children's movie, Thunderman's Secret. In the same year, she participated on MBC's King of Masked Singer and received widespread praise for her performance. Luna released the digital single "Don't Cry For Me", a remake of Lee Eun Ha's hit song from 1986, on May 10, to thank her fans and viewers of King of Masked Singer for supporting her during her run in the program. She also took part in the Anh Chi Hwan special for Immortal Song 2, and showcased her powerful singing ability with her cover of the classic hit "Salt Doll". In July 2015, it was announced that Luna would star as Nina Rosario in the Korean production of the Broadway musical In The Heights, which began in September of that year and came to a close in November. At the end of the year, she collaborated with Ailee, Apink's Eun-ji & Mamamoo's Solar at the 2015 SBS Gayo Daejun to perform a cover of Jinju's "I'm Okay" for the Limited Edition I - Diva Together section of the show, on December 27.

=== 2016–2019: Solo debut and musical theatre activities === In April 2016, Luna was appointed as a fixed presenter of OnStyle TV's "Get it Beauty" program. On May 6, 2016, she released a collaborative single with Amber, R3hab, and Xavi&Gi, "Wave", as part of the SM Station project. On May 17, 2016, it was rumored that Luna would debut as a solo artist with a mini album in mid June, which was confirmed on May 26. On May 31, 2016, she made her solo debut with the mini album, Free Somebody, complete with 6 songs, including a title track of the same name. In August 2016, Luna reprised her role as Nina in the Tokyo shows of In The Heights. Also that month, she launched her YouTube channel, Luna's Alphabet, on which she uploads vlogs twice a week. On October 2, 2016, Luna released another collaborative single with Amber, featuring Ferry Corsten and Kago Pengchi, as part of SM Station, titled "Heartbeat". On December 16, 2016, she collaborated with Shin Yong-jae to release "It's You", also as part of the SM Station project. On December 30, Luna collaborated with Yesung, Sunny, Red Velvet's Seulgi and Wendy, NCT's Taeil and Doyoung, and Lee Dong-woo, on "Sound of Your Heart", SM Station's final song of 2016.