Kevin Woo

Kevin Woo (born November 25, 1991),[1] also known mononymously as Kevin, is a Korean-American singer-songwriter, actor and television host currently based in Japan. Born and raised in California, he was discovered by South Korean entertainment agency XING Entertainment at the age of 15 and subsequently moved to South Korea. After a few months of training, Woo debuted as a member of boy group XING in 2006 and left the group two years later. In August 2008, he re-debuted as a member of boy group U-KISS. In March 2017, he left U-KISS after his contract expired.[2]

Kevin Woo
Woo with U-Kiss at the press conference for Dream Concert 2013
Background information
Also known asWoo Sung-hyun
Born (1991-11-25) November 25, 1991
Danville, California, United States
GenresK-pop
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • actor
  • television host
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active2006–present
Labels
Associated acts
Korean name
Hangul
우성현
Revised RomanizationU Seong-hyeon
McCune–ReischauerU Sŏnghyŏn
Stage name
Hangul
케빈우
Revised RomanizationU Ke-bin
McCune–ReischauerU Kebin

Life and career

1990–2012: Early life and career beginnings

Woo was born and raised in Danville, California,[3] where he lived with his parents and elder sister. His father is a CF director while his mother is a fashion model. His paternal uncle is Emmanuel Woo,[4] who is an actor and classical singer in Germany. At the age of 15, Woo was initially discovered through a XING Entertainment audition when he was on a holiday in South Korea. After he was accepted as a trainee, Woo and his mother moved to South Korea.

After a few months of training, Woo debuted as a first member generation of boy group XING in December 2006. After releasing three singles with the group, Woo left the group in April 2008. Following his departure, Woo signed with NH Media and re-debuted as a member of boy group U-KISS in August 2008.

In February 2009, Woo joined Arirang TV's[5] radio show Pops in Seoul as a host of segment "All About You" alongside co-host Kim Isak. In December 2009, Woo with fellow U-KISS member Alexander released a single "Finally", which was composed by Brave Brothers.

In July 2010, Woo with U-KISS members Soohyun, Kibum, Kiseop and Dongho became a part of the drama I Am Legend,[6] acting as a rock band. In August 2010, Woo with fellow members Alexander were selected as the new MCs for Arirang TV's music show The M-Wave.[7]

On January 5, 2011, Woo participated in the musical On Air Live as the lead actor. He acted in a total of 26 shows, his last stage appearance coming on February 14, 2011. On March 17, Woo with U-KISS members Eli and Alexander quit MCing for Arirang's Radio School due to the loss of U-KISS members Alexander and Kibum from the group. On October 12, Woo with U-KISS members Eli announced that they would have a collaboration with Japanese singer JAMOSA from Avex label for her single "Together". The single was released on December 7 and the trio held release events at Lazone Kawasaki Plaza (December 9), Osaka Senri Selcy (December 10) and Asunal Kanayama (December 11).[8] The song "Together" was then selected as the theme song for BeeTV's "sweetTV".[9] In November 2011, Woo and bandmate Eli were selected as MCs for Mnet's English-language version of M!Countdown, US MCountdown.[10]

In 2012, Woo and Soohyun remade UN's Remember for the drama Syndrome.[11]

2013–2017: U-KISS uBEAT and television roles

In April 2013, a U-KISS subgroup named uBEAT was formed with Woo and fellow members Eli and AJ. uBEAT debuted as the first U-KISS sub-unit. The sub-unit debuted with the release of an EP titled I Should Have Treated You Better with a title track of the same name, which was composed by hit-maker Brave Brothers. uBEAT made their debut stage at Mnet M!Countdown's special global edition in Taiwan.[12] Woo alongside bandmates Soohyun, Eli and Kiseop participated in the drama KPOP The Ultimate Audition, having small cameo appearances in three episodes as a senior idol group to the main cast.[13] Woo and Soohyun were selected to appear in the Korean adaptation of the musical Summer Snow alongside Super Junior's Sungmin, Supernova's Sungjae, SS501's Heo Young-saeng and FT Island's Seunghyun. Their appearances lasted from April 2013 to June 2013. This was Woo's second musical.[14]

On May 1, 2014, Woo was a guest on popular music talk show After School Club and from episode 43, he became a co-host alongside Eric Nam, Jae Park and Park Jimin. On April 4, 2018 Woo announced that he would graduate from the program as MC and his final episode was aired on April 10.[15]

On March 1, 2017, NH Media announced that Woo would officially leave U-KISS following the expiration of his contract on March 31, 2017. He decided to continue his promotion with U-KISS until mid-April.[16]

Personal life

In a Japanese survey through popular fortune-telling site Cocoloni, Woo was ranked as the number one luckiest Hallyu star for 2012. 100 fortune-tellers participated in the survey, predicting the stars' fortunes through zodiac, blood type and other methods. When Woo received the news, he stated: "I'm honored to be ranked first. I want to make this really happen this year. U-KISS will go on a Japanese tour and we will also release our album. Please keep supporting us and help us rank first on the Oricon chart." [17]

Discography
Main article: U-KISS discography

Extended plays
Title Details Peak chart positions Sales
JPN
Treasure
  • Released: July 31, 2019 (JPN)
  • Label: Japanese Music Entertainment
  • Formats: CD, digital download
Track listing
  1. "The Greatest Night"
  2. "SPARK!"
  3. "君と僕の約束"
  4. "What's up"
  5. "Beautiful Day" (Japanese)
  6. "Dreamer"
 TBA TBA

Singles
Title Year Peak chart positions Sales Album
JPN
Japanese
"Don't Break Us Down" 2015 — N/A Non-album single
"Make me/Out of my life" (feat. K) 2016 7[18] Make me/Out of my life
"Ride Along" 2018 — N/A Ride Along
"Freedom" 2019 — N/A Freedom
"Dreamer" 2019 — N/A Treasure
English
"Ride Along" (English version) 2019 — N/A Non-album single
Korean
"Beautiful Day" 2019 — N/A Non-album single

Collaborations
Year Title Album
2011 "Together" with Jamosa, Eli Kim Together
2019 "Over You" with Hollaphonic Non-album single
2019 "Falling" with James Lee[20] (former member of Royal Pirates) Non-album single

Soundtrack appearances
Year Title Album
2018 "Camouflage" Top Management OST

Filmography

Television dramas
Year Title Network Role Notes
2010 I Am Legend SBS Kiss band member Supporting
2012 K-POP Extreme Survival Channel A Himself as U-KISS member Cameo
2015 About Love Naver TV Cast Kevin Web-drama; Main role
Let's Eat 2 tvN Hye-rim's friend Cameo

Television shows
Year Title Network Role Notes
2010 The M-Wave Arirang TV Host
2011 US MCountdown Mnet Host
2014—2018 After School Club Arirang TV Co-host Left to focus on music career.

Musical theatre
Year Title Role Notes
2011 On Air Live
2013 Summer Snow
2014 On Air - Night Flight
2017 Maybe Happy Ending
2017 Altar Boyz
2019 Altar Boyz

References
  1. "Kevin Woo (케빈)". Han Cinema. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  2. KBS World. U-KISS. March 13, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
  3. Song Woong-ki (March 30, 2010). "U-Kiss to bring back `80s kitsch". The Korea Herald. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  4. "Emmanuel Woo". IMDb. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  5. Arirang. Arirang. February 8, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2009.
  6. Nate News. U-KISS become acting idols, 5 members to debut in drama. July 27, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
  7. MSN News. Alexander & Kevin chosen to be Arirang TV Music Show's MC's. August 2, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010
  8. oricon. JAMOSA, U-KISS First Collaboration. October 12, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
  9. musicman-net.com. JAMOSA+KEVIN&ELI(U-KISS), "Together" Selected as BeeTV's Theme Song. December 19, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
  10. @US_MCountdown. US_Mcountdown.
  11. korea.com. U-Kiss releases a beautiful ballad, “Remember” Archived November 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. February 29, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  12. "유키스 유닛 유비트, 오는 25일 대만서 첫 무대 '기대↑'". m.news.naver.com. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  13. news.nate.com. "KPOP Ultimate Survival" U-KISS. April 22, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. https://www.soompi.com/article/1150221wpp/kevin-woo-leave-mc-position-school-club-4-years
  16. "[공식입장 전문] 유키스 측 "케빈, 계약종료로 팀 탈퇴..5인조 재정비"" (in Korean). Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  17. korea.com. Japan predicts luckiest Hallyu stars for 2012 Archived November 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. January 18, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  18. "Make me/Out of my life". Oricon. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  19. "2016 Orion Chart - July Week 2". Oricon Chart. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  20. Murphy, Eryn. "James Lee and Kevin Woo Release 'Falling' Music Video". cheatsheet.com. Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
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