Sulli

Early life

Sulli was born on March 29, 1994, in Busan, South Korea. Her birth name is Choi Jin-ri; her given name means "the truth" in Korean. She is the only daughter of her family, having two older brothers and a younger brother. Her mother enrolled her in acting school at a young age.

Sulli first came to Seoul in 2004 while in the fourth grade. In 2005, she began her acting career, playing the young Princess Seonhwa of Silla in the SBS drama Ballad of Seodong.

She later attended an S.M. Entertainment audition, during which she sang the S.E.S. song titled Chingu ("Friend"). After the audition she was officially cast as an S.M. trainee and during the same year, moved into a dormitory with Taeyeon and Tiffany of Girls' Generation. She continued to stay there up until the debut of Girls' Generation, in 2007.

Education

Sulli attended Jungbu Elementary School (중부초등학교) in Busan, Seoul Cheongdam Elementary School and then attended Chungdam Middle School (청담중학교). She graduated from the School of Performing Arts Seoul.

f(x) (2009–2015)

When Sulli was in fourth grade, she was accepted into S.M. Entertainment through the S.M. audition casting system, from there she became a trainee under the label. On September 5, 2009, she debuted as a member of the group f(x), with the single "La Cha Ta".

In the midst of Red Light promotions, Sulli abruptly went on hiatus from the Korean entertainment industry due to being mentally and physically exhausted from the continuous, malicious comments and false rumors that had been spread about her. Her hiatus was officially announced on July 24, 2014. In August 2015 (a year into her hiatus), it was announced that Sulli has officially withdrawn from the group.

Acting

Sulli began acting professionally at the age of 11, when she was selected to play young Princess Seonhwa of Silla in the SBS television drama Ballad of Seodong. She continued to take on minor roles in television dramas and movies such as Vacation (2006) Punch Lady (2007), The Flower Girl is Here (2007) and BABO (2008).

In August 2012, Sulli starred as the lead role in To the Beautiful You, based on the famous Japanese shojo manga series Hanazakari no Kimitachie. The drama series started broadcasting on August 15, 2012 on SBS. Sulli plays Gu Jae-hee, who disguises as a boy in order to attend the same school as her crush. In order to prepare for her role, Sulli who was known for her long hair cut 60 cm of it. She later won the New Star Award at the SBS Drama Awards for her performance in the drama.

In August 2014, she appeared in period adventure film The Pirates alongside Son Ye-jin and Kim Nam-gil. She played a supporting character named Heuk-myo, a young girl who became a pirate after being saved by the female captain. Later, she played the leading role in comedy film Fashion King, based on the webtoon series of the same name, alongside Joo Won and Kim Sung-oh.

In 2017, Sulli was cast in the movie Real alongside Kim Soo-hyun.