Kim Hee-chul

Kim Hee-chul (Korean: 김희철; born July 10, 1983), better known mononymously as Heechul, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, presenter, and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Super Junior and has further participated in its subgroup Super Junior-T as well as project group Universe Cowards with Min Kyung-hoon and Woojoo jjokkomi with Lee Soo-geun. He was also a member of the disbanded pop rock duo Kim Heechul & Kim Jungmo.

Prior to his debut in Super Junior, Heechul began his acting career in 2005, starring in the second season of teen drama Sharp 2. This led him to host radio shows, his first music show Show! Music Tank [ko] and appear on advertisements. However, in 2006, just a year after his Super Junior debut, Heechul was involved in a car accident which fractured his left leg. The accident left him unable to perform Super Junior's strenuous dances and he has since contributed to the group mostly as a singer. Heechul ventured into the soundtrack singing career in 2009 by releasing his first single "First Star", as part of the soundtrack for the drama Loving You a Thousand Times. He has participated in writing lyrics for not only Super Junior but also for his project groups and other artists. Heechul debuted as a solo singer in 2019 with the digital single "Old Movie".

Heechul became a regular cast member on Radio Star in 2010, for which he won "Best Newcomer Award" at the 11th MBC Entertainment Awards. Following that, he made a breakthrough in his television host career after appearing on the variety shows Knowing Bros and Weekly Idol in 2015 and 2016. He has been a regular cast member on the reality shows My Little Old Boy and Delicious Rendezvous since 2019, for both of which he received the Excellence Award at the 13th SBS Entertainment Awards and Top Excellence Award at the 14th SBS Entertainment Awards.

Kim Hee-chul was born in Ucheon-myeon, Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, on July 10, 1983. His family consists of his parents and older sister, Kim Hee-jin. He graduated from Sangji Youngsoe College [ko] in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in English tourism translation. In addition, he graduated from Sangji University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in informatics through Bachelor's Degree Examination for Self-Education.

In 2002, after seeing Psy, who was singing "Champion" on a television program, he searched the internet for entertainment companies and found out that SM Entertainment was having open auditions. He moved to Seoul when he was nineteen years old in October 2002 with his friends in order to take part in the auditions. Being unfamiliar with the area, he got lost and missed the open Starlight Casting System audition. However, they still allowed him to perform because of his looks. He sang the Korean national anthem and passed. He was cast and signed a contract with SM Entertainment in November 2002, becoming an official trainee and being trained in singing, acting, dancing, and other performing talents such as hosting and modeling.

He was initially placed in a four-member group called Four Seasons along with Jaejoong, Yunho and Kangin. The project group was dropped when Yunho and Jaejoong joined TVXQ in early 2003. Heechul was later preparing to debut as the main vocalist of TraxX, but had frequent clashes and misunderstandings with the person in charge at SM at the time. Frustrated, he abandoned his debut and returned to his hometown in Gangwon Province. Later, with TraxX's Jungmo's, Jay's, Yunho's and Donghae's encouragement, he returned to SM. He joined other trainees under the company to form the group Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.

His first acting role was in the second season of teen drama Sharp in 2005, co-starring labelmates Go Ara and Kibum. His first variety appearance also came in 2005, in the show Heroine 6. Later he acted as an extra in the KBS2 TV series Loveholic and was a regular MC for the cable music show Show! Music Tank [ko]. He also featured in his first advertisements for Lotte's Pepero.

Heechul officially debuted as part of the 12-member project group, Super Junior 05 on November 6, 2005, on SBS' music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "Twins (Knock Out)". Their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) was released a month later on December 5, 2005, and debuted at number three 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, this was met with fans' objections and strong opposition to the rotational style (much like popular rotational groups in Japan's pop music industry) that the group intended to be. Thus, 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 officially named as Super Junior. The re-polished group's first CD single "U" was released on June 7, 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009. Heechul faced criticism from Super Junior's fans when his voice cracked while performing "U", which negatively affected him and made him want to quit singing.