Song Ji hyo

Early life

Song Ji-hyo was born as Cheon Seong-im on August 15, 1981, in Pohang, North Gyeongsang. She has a younger sister and a younger brother, Cheon Seong-moon, who is an aspiring actor and model. Their mother was a South Korean National swimmer representative. Song dreamed to be an actress during her high school years after watching Park Shin-yang in the 1998 South Korean film, Promise. She graduated in tax accounting degree from Kyungmoon University (now Kookje College). Before entering the acting industry, Song was cast while working a part-time job at a cafe.

2001–2005: Early career

Before Song's debut to be an actress, she was a model for Kiki Magazine. She chose "Song Ji-hyo" as her stage name because she was inspired by the two famous actors Song Seung-heon and Song Hye-kyo. Song then appeared in the music videos of Lee Soo-young's "And I Love You" and JTL's "Just Say Goodbye". She also made a cameo appearance in the television series Age of Innocence.

In addition, Song also made her feature film debut in Wishing Stairs (2003), the third installment of the horror Whispering Corridors film series, after beating out 3000 actors in an audition. Then, she was nominated for the Best New Actress at the 24th Blue Dragon Film Awards for her performance in the film. She starred in the crime thriller Some (2004), where she played a reporter while co-starred with Go Soo.

2006–2009: Rising popularity

Song made her television debut by playing second female lead in the romantic comedy, Princess Hours (2006), where she played a ballet dancer who dreams to be a ballerina. The series became hit across Asia, contributing to the Korean Wave. In the same year, she played the role of Lady Ye So-ya, the first wife of Jumong and the mother of King Yuri in the historical television series Jumong (2006). The series was a commercial hit, receiving the highest viewership ratings of all the Korean dramas that aired in 2006. Song experienced a rise in popularity, and was nominated for Best New Actress in the TV category at the 43th Baeksang Arts Awards for her performance.

The following year, Song starred as a popular swimming champion who has a painful past in the comedy film Sex Is Zero 2 (2007), the sequel to Sex Is Zero (2002) opposite Im Chang-jung. She also co-hosted SBS weekly live music show Inkigayo, with Heechul of Super Junior from November 11, 2007 to May 4, 2008. Song then portrayed the Queen in Yoo Ha's film A Frozen Flower (2008), alongside Jo In-sung and Joo Jin-mo. The film became one of the highest-grossing films of 2008, and led to increased recognition for Song. She later commented, "When I decided to do this film, nudity was not the central issue. How much I expose is not important to me; I thought without that scene, it would be difficult to portray the subtle changes in emotion. What mattered to me at the time was working on my facial expressions apart from the posture that the director wanted me to convey".

2010–present: Running Man and overseas popularity

Song has joined the urban action variety show Running Man since 2010. She was requested to join by PD Kim Joo-hyung or also known as Myeok PD, whom she worked with while hosting Inkigayo. She appeared in Running Man as a guest in episode 2 to episode 5 then officially joined and became a member of the show in episode 6.

After her contact ended with Namoo Actors, Song signed with C-JeS Entertainment in early 2011 and appeared in Choo Chang-min's film Late Blossom (2011). The film is based on the comic I Love You by web cartoonist Kang Full. She reunited with Song Il-gook after worked together in the historical television series Jumong in the police procedural television series Crime Squad (2011) where she played a role as a reporter. In the same year, Song starred in the historical television series Gyebaek (2011) as the Queen of King Uija, which won her the Producer's Award at 2011 MBC Drama Awards. The same year, she was appointed as promotional ambassador for the Ministry of Education along with label-mates JYJ.

Song then co-starred alongside with Kim Jae-joong of JYJ in the action comedy Code Name: Jackal (2012) where she played a clumsy female assassin. She received extensive training before the start of filming in May, and her first scenes involved a flip off from a 2-meter-high stack. Her other scenes also include scaling walls and hand-to-hand combat. In the following year, Song participated in dubbing for the animated film Maritime Police Marco (2013) alongside her fellow Running Man member Lee Kwang-soo and played a detective in Park Hoon-jung's crime film New World (2013). She also starred opposite Lee Dong-wook as a royal nurse in historical television series The Fugitive of Joseon (2013).

Song played the female lead in the medical romantic comedy television series Emergency Couple (2014) co-starring Choi Jin-hyuk. The series was a commercial hit, broadcasting rights were sold to nine countries. Song also collaborated with NBA in a collaboration titled "NBA X Song Ji Hyo", which she released her own cap series called "CHO.2".

Song took on a leading role in the following year in romantic comedy television series Ex-Girlfriend Club (2015) opposite Byun Yo-han as a film producer. She then featured and appeared in Taiwanese singer and actor Kenji Wu's music video "You Are So Cute". Song also ended her contract with C-JeS Entertainment after 4 years.

In 2016, Song was cast alongside Taiwanese actor Chen Bolin in the reality variety show We Are In Love, the Chinese version of We Got Married. Song then starred in two Chinese films, the romantic drama 708090 (2016) opposite Kenji Wu and the action comedy Super Express (2016). She then made her small-screen comeback, starring in the remake of a Japanese daily television series My Wife's Having an Affair this Week (2016) co-starring Lee Sun-kyun. In December 2016, Song signed with a new management agency, Make You Company.

Song co-hosted JTBC's beauty program Song Ji Hyo's Beauty View with Gong Myung and beauty editor Kim Mi-gu in 2017. The same year, she was cast in tvN's one-act drama Chief B and the Love Letter with Jo Woo-jin. She will also star in the upcoming film Wind Wind Wind alongside Lee Sung-min, Shin Ha-kyun and Lee El.

Personal life

Song enjoys wake-boarding and cycling. Some of her closest friends include Running Man members, actor Lee Dong Wook, actress Choi Yeo-jin, actress Kim Ji-soo, Super Junior's Kim Heechul and singer Young Jee whom she attended high school with. Song revealed that she had changed her birth name from "Cheon Seong-im" to "Cheon Soo-yeon" on episode 351 of Running Man, stating that she had changed it because a lot of people recognize it nowadays.

Singles