Jung Eun ji

Early life and education

Jung Eun-ji was born as Jung Hye-rim in Haeundae, Busan on August 18, 1993. She has a younger brother named Jung Min-ki. She attended Hapdo Kindergarten, Shinjae Elementary School, Jaesong Girls' Middle School and Hyehwa Girls' High School. In 2004, Jung won the first place prize in the program Exciting Day Enjoyable Day (신나는 날 즐거운 날) hosted by the KBS network. In November 2010, Jung passed the auditions to become the main singer of Apink. She had not received any professional training prior to joining Apink, and had trained for only two months with the group.

Apink

In March 2011, Jung was revealed to be the fourth member of Apink via an online video of her covering Jennifer Hudson's "Love You I Do". Jung joined with the rest of the group to film Apink News prior to debut. On April 21, 2011, Jung made her debut as a main vocalist of Apink on Mnet's M Countdown with two songs, "Mollayo" and "Wishlist", from the debut extended play Seven Springs of Apink.

Solo works

Jung has collaborated with various artists for OSTs and promotional songs. For the project A Cube for Season #Green, Jung Eun-ji and fellow Cube artist Yang Yo-seob, sang the duet track "Love Day". In August 2012, Jung recorded two promotional singles, "All For You" and "Our Love Like This" with Reply 1997 co-star Seo In-guk for the drama's soundtrack. "All For You" became one of the best-selling singles of the year on the Gaon Single Chart.

In 2013 and 2014, Jung collaborated with label-mate Huh Gak for duets titled "Short Hair" and "Break Up To Make Up" respectively, which were well-received by listeners and ranked atop major online music charts in Korea. She released her first solo single titled "Its You" for the soundtrack of Three Days.

On 18 April 2016 (the day before Apink's 5th anniversary), Jung debuted as a solo artist with the mini-album Dream which consisted of 6 songs. The title song "Hopefully Sky" is written by Jung, which recounts the times she spent with her father. "Hopefully Sky" topped eight local music charts, and the album sold 30,000 copies upon release.

In April 2017, Jung released her second album The Space. The title track, "The Spring" and its accompanying music video was unveiled on 10 April, and debuted within the top ten spots on local music charts. From 3 to 4 June 2017, Jung held her first solo concert titled “Attic” at Ewha Womans University’s Samsung Hall.

Acting career

Jung made her acting debut in Reply 1997, a 1990s nostalgic dramedy which became one of the highest-rated Korean series on cable television. She played the female protagonist, a hardcore H.O.T. fan who becomes a TV drama writer. Jung was complimented by critics and audiences for her comedic and emotional acting, which was impressive for a newcomer, as well as for her authentic Busan dialect. The role won her several awards, including the 49th Baeksang Arts Award for Best New TV Actress.

Jung performed in a Korean staging of the Hollywood film-turned-musical Legally Blonde, playing the lead role of Elle Woods. The show ran from November 16, 2012 to March 17, 2013.

Jung was then cast in a supporting role in the 2013 melodrama That Winter, the Wind Blows. She won Best Performance at the 2nd APAN Star Awards and New Star Award at the SBS Drama Awards.

In 2014, she starred in another musical, the stage adaptation of 2004 series Full House. Afterwards, Jung starred in the romantic comedy series Trot Lovers, which depicts a female singer's struggles to become successful in the old-fashioned musical genre trot.

In 2015, Jung starred as the female lead in KBS2 high school drama Cheer Up! playing the role of a high school student who ranks at the bottom of her class.

In 2017, Jung was cast in JTBC's drama Untouchable which will premiere towards the end of the year.