Kim Hee chul

Early life

Kim Hee-chul was born in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, on July 10, 1983. He has one older Sister, Kim Heejin.

Education

2002-05: Pre-debut, Model, Actor, MC

In October 2002, he auditioned to become a singer through the Starlight Casting System, and was initially placed in a four-member group called "Four Seasons" along with Jaejoong, Yunho and Kangin. While Jaejoong and Yunho went on to debut as TVXQ in December 2003, Heechul and Kangin joined ten other trainees under S.M. Entertainment to form the group "Super Junior 05", the first generation of Super Junior.

His first acting role was in teen drama Sharp 2 alongside bandmate Kibum on 2005 before the debut of Super Junior. Shortly afterwards, he appeared in an episode of the series Loveholic and was a regular MC for the cable music show Show! Music Bank Tank. He also appeared on entertainment programs such as Heroine 6.

In December 2016, he confessed, He was preparing to debut as Trax main vocalist. He also revealed that he had frequent clashes and misunderstandings with the person in charge at SM at that time. Therefore, he became frustrated and abandoned his Trax debut and returned to his hometown in Gangwon Province. With Trax's Jungmo and Jay, TVXQ's Yunho and Donghae encouragement and positivity, he returned to SM.

2005–11: Debut with Super Junior, Super Junior-T, DJ

On November 2, 2005, "Super Junior 05" made their official debut as a twelve-member group on SBS's Popular Songs, performing their first single "TWINS". Their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) was released on December 5 and debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.

In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. Following the addition of thirteenth member Kyuhyun, the group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group's first CD single "U" was released on 7 June 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.

Following their debut, Heechul again appeared alongside Kibum for the sixth season of Nonstop (2005–06), and also starred in Bad Family (2006), Golden Bride (2007–08). He also appeared on entertainment programs such as Vitamin, Sponge, X-Man, Love Letter, and was a radio DJ on SBS Power FM Youngstreet with Park Hee-von until mid-2006.

On February 23, 2007, he debuted as part of Super Junior sub-group, Super Junior-T , performing trot single "Rokuko!!!". That year Super Junior released their second album Don't Don, which became Super Junior's best-selling album and Korea's second best-selling album of the year. toured with the Super Show, and filmed the movie Attack on the Pin-Up Boys.

He's Minihompy top Cyworld's Cystar ranking (ranks top 10 most visited CY) for the period of (1 January - 30 June 2007) with a visitor count of 22,455,755 visitors.

He appeared as a presenter on SBS music programme Inkigayo as a substitute for Andy of Shinhwa, going on to become a permanent host with Ku Hye-sun (23 April 2006 – 18 February 2007), Jang Keun-suk (25 February-7 October 2007) and Song Ji-hyo (11 November 2007 – 4 May 2008). He co-MC 4 straight years the Dream Concert (2008–11).

In 2008, he appeared in the S.M. Entertainment production of the musical Xanadu, playing the role of Sonny in rotation with bandmate Kangin. The production ran between 9 September-23 November 2008 at the Doosan Art Center, Yeonji-dong, Seoul. Casting was carried out via a reality television programme, To Be Kangin and Heechul. He also appeared on the TV Programmes 8 vs 1 (2008), Good Daddy (2008–09), Band of Brothers (2009). His first solo single, "First Star" ("초별"), was released on November 6, 2009, as part of the OST for the drama Loving You a Thousand Times. The song is written by Song Jong-ho and composed by Choi Myung-hoon.

In 2009, Heechul became depressive due to the lawsuit between SM Entertainment and Han Geng, leading to Han's departure from the company and the group, who Heechul considered his best friend. He didn't participate in any of the stage shows, including the end-of-year award shows For 3 months.

He returned as a radio DJ for the first time in four years on SBS's Heechul's Young Street from March 29, 2010 until mid-2011. In May 2010, he became a regular cast member on the series Family Outing 2, but the show was cancelled two months later due to low ratings. On October 9, he created a personal Facebook account which received 5,000 friend requests within five minutes. He became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter for four days after the account's creation.

2011–15: M&D, Military Enlistment, League of Legends

In 2011, he formed a project group with label mate Jungmo of TRAX called M&D (meaning "Midnight and Dawn" or "Miari and Dangae-dong", after the members' hometowns). They released their debut single, "Close Ur Mouth", in June. Heechul wrote the lyrics and directed the music video for the song, while Jungmo produced and performed the instrumental. Their first live performance was at Mnet’s summer awards ceremony 20’s Choice on July 7.

Kim Hee-chul carried out mandatory military service between 1 September 2011-30 August 2013. At the time that he enlisted, he had been appearing on KBS's Secret (시크릿) as well as the Radio Star main segment of MBC's Golden Fishery, for which bandmate Kyuhyun took over the role.

On July, Lady Gaga appeared on 9th’s episode on KBS2’s Entertainment Weekly for an exclusive interview and mentioned that she was amazed by Heechul's imitation of her. He's appeared “Lady HeeHee” throughout Super Show 3, as well as SM Town in Paris. Lady Gaga has seen his imitation and praised him, saying: “He looks amazing! Look at the hair bow.”

Shortly after he had completed his military service, he featured on Kim Jang-hoon's single "Breakups are So Like Me". During live performances of the song on Music Bank and Show! Music Core, his part was performed by bandmates Yesung, Eunhyuk and Shindong.

Orange Caramel continued the "One Asia" project with the release of "Shanghai Romance" on October 13, 2011, which peaked at No. 8. The song's lyrics were written by him.

In September 2013, he became a regular cast member on the JTBC's variety program Ssulzun War of Words but on July 2014 he posted a photo in his personal Instagram account and poured his heart and thoughts regarding his last appearance in the program. In Heechul’s last recording for the show, he mentioned about having the pressure of talking about the people close to him.

In January 2014, he appeared on the Global Edition spinoff of MBC reality television programme We Got Married, as an on-screen couple with Taiwanese girl group member Puff Guo. That year, he also played the role of a detective in the tvN drama Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit.

In February 2015, The famous LoL team SK Telecom T1 sponsored a special match titled the Celebrity League of Legends Invitational Event Match. SKT T-LoL invited various celebrities to join in a match against professional LoL gamers. The celebrity team included Heechul lost in the END. Heechul also appeared on OnGameNet’s Pandora TV LoL Champions on 27 November 2013 as a Special Commentator and Guest player.

In April 2015, SM Entertainment announced that M&D would release their first mini-album Cottage Industry with the title track "I Wish" digitally on April 16 and physically on April 20.

In 2015, he became MC on entertainment programs such as Tvn's The Demand of Luxurious Food, KBS's Fashion-beauty Show A Style For You, O'live's Travel Show MAPS, JTBC's variety show Knowing Bros. and Korean-Chinese program All the Way With You (S 2), This is the first Chinese variety that he was in charge since his debut in Korean entertainment in 2005.

2016-present: Solo Fanmeeting and Solo activities

In March 2016, Heechul was confirmed to become a temporary host for Weekly Idol until October 5, when Jeong Hyeong-don ending his 11-month break from television activities. He released a duet with Wheein in April 15, 2016 for SM Station. The single "Narcissus" was written by Heechul and produced by Jungmo, and is His first collaboration with a female artist. In early July 2016, M&D returned as "Kim Heechul & Kim Jungmo", with a 2nd mini-album Goody Bag, and trot-rock title track "Ulsanbawi" on July 12.

In June 4, 2016, He appeared on the third season of the Chinese dating variety show, If You Love with Li Feier (Chinese actress). He announced the news himself through his personal Weibo account. He has been on the global edition of We Got Married before with Puff Guo, so this is his second time being in a virtual relationship. In 23 July, he held his first solo fanmeeting "The Space Big Star Show" in Beijing, China.

The "league of legends 5th anniversary" in China included LOL Final and Regional Final. Also the Asian celebrity showmatch. China vs Korea celebrities to competed in celebrities invitational in commemoration. Korean Celebrity All-Star player Heechul with Seungri and F.T. Island's Hongki, Minhwan and Seunghyun won in the END. also in 9 October he appeared as a Special Commentator on LoL World Championship. In November 2016, Heechul began participating in S.M. Entertainment's League of Legends tournament 2016 S.M. Super Celeb League, where he and labelmate Baekhyun play the game with both professional players and fans from South Korea and China.

In fall 2016, Heechul and Buzz member Min Kyung-hoon released a duet titled "Sweet Dream", with the music video starring Momo and the rest of the Knowing Bros cast. The song reached number one on every South Korean online music chart, an achievement known as "all-kill", making him the first Super Junior member to achieve "all-kill" in 2016.

In 2016, he became MC on Channel A's Music Show Singderella, JTBC's Phantom Singer, OnStyle's new type of Beauty Show, Lipstick Prince, also he is one of the main members in Secretly Greatly and SBS TV's Game Show.

August 2006: Car accident

On 10 August 2006, Heechul was involved in a car accident while heading back to Seoul from Mokpo after attending the funeral of fellow Super Junior member Donghae’s Father. The tires malfunctioned while his car attempted to switch lanes. Heechul fractured his left leg in five places, including his femur, knee, and ankle, requiring him to be in surgery for six hours. He also sustained other injuries, including a tear in his tongue which required stitches.

He was advised to stop all activities for a period of twelve weeks. He was released from the hospital on 13 September 2006 but he continued to receive out-patient care. He returned to the hospital to have a second surgery to remove some of the iron rods in his leg on October 10 and briefly returned to work in late October to film the final three episodes of an MBC youth sitcom while still in a cast and on a wheelchair. He made his comeback on 25 November of the same year during the Mnet KM Music Festival (MKMF) Awards. In late December Heechul officially returned to individual activities such as variety show appearances and hosting appearances.

In 2007, Heechul started to perform regularly despite still having a few rods that the doctors had attached to his leg. In late April and May 2007, he had recovered enough to be able to take part in Super Junior’s strenuous dance routines. The remaining rods in his leg were removed in 2008.

He attributes his survival and ability to recover to the fact that he wore his seat belt and has championed seat belt safety since, including after the September 2014 accident involving the entirety of Ladies' Code that killed Ladies' Code members Go Eun-bi (EunB) and RiSe, during which EunB, who had not been wearing a seat belt, had died on impact.

On 22 November 2016, Heechul talks about his injured leg on Live Talk Show Taxi. He said During concerts, he was very happy but once he goes back to the hotel, he feel depressed when he sees his injured leg swollen and One of the reasons why He always get massages after concerts abroad is because of his leg which got bad again last year and the doctor advised that it would be better if he will not dance. But he’s worried about Super Junior’s comeback. He's still receiving treatment.

June 2011: Chocoball club

On 6 June 2011, Kim Hee-chul tweeted a photo of his celebrity best friends along with the caption:

They called themselves “a bit psychotic, but more charming by the day.” "The Chocoball club" was thus formed and its members were AB blood-type celebrities like himself, Lee Hong-gi, Simon D, Choi Jong-hoon, Yong Jun-hyung, Jang Keun-suk, Jo Sung-mo, Mithra Jin, Sang Choo, and others. On August 2011, the members were guests on a special episode of MBC’s Come to Play.

September 2011: Military Enlistment

Heechul carried out mandatory military service from 1 September 2011 to 30 August 2013. He served as a public service worker for 23 months after undergoing four weeks of basic training at the Nonsan military camp in Chungcheongnam-do.

His last Radio Star episode before enlisting in the military was aired on the September 14, 2011 where he spoke about the criticism of not joining the military as a full-time soldier. He said, “I was involved in a huge car accident 4 years back. My left leg was shattered due to the accident and I had many steel rods inserted into my leg”. This was why he wasn’t medically fit to serve as a full-time soldier.

On 26 January 2012, he hosted the radio program every Friday at the office of District Seong Dong, where he was serving his 2-year mandatory military service. His first episode was broadcast on January 20 and had received 5,600 hits.

On 29 August 2013, it was revealed that he would be receiving an award as a recognition for being an exemplary public service officer while serving at Sungdong.

Soundtrack & Singles Contributions

Notes

Endorsements

Ref: