Joy (singer)

Park Soo-young (Korean: 박수영; born September 3, 1996), better known by her stage name Joy, is a South Korean singer, actress, and host. She debuted as a member of South Korean girl group Red Velvet in August 2014. In 2017, Joy debuted as an actress and has had starring roles in the television dramas The Liar and His Lover (2017), Tempted (2018), The One and Only (2021), and Once Upon a Small Town (2022). In 2021, Joy officially debuted as a soloist with the release of her special album Hello.

Park Soo-young was born in Jeju Island and raised in Dobong, Seoul. She is the eldest of three sisters. As a child, Joy was interested in modern trot music and was influenced to become a singer after receiving praise for her rendition of Korean rock band Cherry Filter's song "Flying Duck" during a grade school festival. Joy auditioned and was cast by SM Entertainment at the SM Global Audition in Seoul in 2012.

Following two years of training, a vocal coach gave her the stage name "Joy". Joy was officially introduced as the fourth member of Red Velvet on July 29, 2014. Joy was the only member of the group who was not introduced as a part of SM Rookies, a pre-debut training team created by SM Entertainment. Red Velvet made their debut in August 2014 with the digital single "Happiness". Over the course of their promotion, the group established themselves as one of the most powerful celebrities in South Korea by Forbes Korea Power Celebrity in 2018 and 2019, and gained global popularity with Billboard regarding them as one of the most popular K-pop groups worldwide.

In June 2015, Joy began her first solo television activity with the fourth season of MBC variety show We Got Married, where she was paired with BtoB member Yook Sung-jae. Joy gained recognition for her participation and won the New Star Award and Best Couple Award at the 2015 MBC Entertainment Awards. Joy also released a duet with Yook entitled "Young Love" in April 2016, with Joy receiving a songwriting credit for the song. Departing in May 2016, they became known as one of the longest-running and most popular couples in the show's history.

In November 2016, Joy collaborated with Lim Seul-ong in a duet titled "Always In My Heart". The song reached number one on several charts and number ten on the Gaon Digital Chart.

In 2017, Joy made her acting debut as the female lead in tvN's music-based drama The Liar and His Lover, a South Korean adaptation of Kotomi Aoki's popular manga Kanojo wa Uso o Aishisugiteru. With the drama's musical nature, Joy released several OSTs including: "Yeowooya", "I'm Okay", "Your Days", "Shiny Boy", "Waiting For You", and "The Way to Me". For her performance as lead actress, Joy received the Newcomer Award at the OSEN Cable TV Awards. In July 2017, Joy participated on the singing variety contest show King of Mask Singer under the alias of Bandabi, where she made it through to the next round of the competition.

In 2018, Joy began her first fixed hosting position as the co-host of the second season of JTBC's Sugar Man alongside top TV personalities Yoo Jae-suk, You Hee-yeol, and Park Na-rae. In 2018, Joy starred in MBC's drama Tempted, loosely based on the French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, and recorded its OST "OMG!". Joy received numerous award nominations for her performance including: Best Actress at the 2018 MBC Drama Awards, the Popularity Award (Drama Actress) at The Seoul Awards, and the Actress of the Year Daesang at the Brand of the Year Awards. In July 2018, Joy was chosen as one of the hosts of Lifetime's new variety show Pajama Friends, alongside Song Ji-hyo and Jang Yoon-ju. Later that year in October 2018, Joy released the soundtrack song "Dream Me" (with Mark Lee) for the KBS drama The Ghost Detective.

In January 2019, it was announced that Joy was chosen to be a main host of the popular beauty program OnStyle's Get It Beauty, with former Pajama Friends co-host, Jang Yoon-ju. In December 2019, Joy became part of the athletic variety show, Handsome Tigers, as the manager of Seo Jang-hoon's basketball team composed of celebrities such as Lee Sang-yoon and Cha Eun-woo. After positive response in variety shows, Joy won the Best Female Variety Idol Daesang at the 2020 Brand Customer Loyalty Awards.