Kim Yoo-jin, known professionally as Eugene, is a South Korean actress, singer and presenter known for her work as a member of S.E.S.. As a solo singer, Eugene has released two solo albums as soloist and currently focused her acting career on various TV dramas and movies and also works as an presenter in various shows and programs.
Early life
Eugene was born in Seoul, South Korea. With the suggestion of her grandfather, who settled down in Guam, her family immigrated to Guam after she finished the first semester of 5th grade elementary school. She attended Agueda I. Johnston Middle School from October 1992 until June 1995, and John F. Kennedy High School from June until September 1997. She returned to Korea with her mother and younger sister to finish high school, and eventually graduated from Korea Kent Foreign School, Seoul in June 1999. At high school, more than 80% of her subjects were A credits. In elementary school, only 23 out of 24 subjects were awarded. In middle school, almost all her subjects were excellent.
Career
S.E.S.
Eugene made her debut with S.E.S. in 1997. S.E.S enjoyed tremendous success, becoming the top-selling K-pop girl group to date. The group broke up at the end of 2002 after Bada and Eugene parted ways from SM Entertainment, while Shoo stayed with SM Entertainment until 2006. On May 28, 2016, Eugene with S.E.S. members Bada and Shoo attended a charity event, Green Heart Bazaar. In October 2016, Eugene along with Bada and Shoo re-formed S.E.S. to celebrate their 20th anniversary since the debut of the group. They started their project of the 20th anniversary debut with released digital single "Love", a remake of their 1999 single "Love", through S.M. Entertainment's digital project SM Station on November 28 and its music video released on December 29. In early December 2016, they aired their ten episode reality show "Remember, I'm Your S.E.S.", which broadcast through mobile app Oksusu. To accompany their 20th anniversary debut, they held a concert "Remember, the Day", on December 30 and 31 at Sejong University's Daeyang Hall in Seoul. On January 2, the special album of their 20th anniversary debut Remember was released. The album consists of double lead singles. "Remember" was digitally released on January 1 and "Paradise" was released along with the album on January 2.They held a fanmeet as their last project of 20th anniversary debut called "I Will Be There, Waiting For You" on March 1, 2017.
Solo career
After S.E.S. broke up in late 2002, Kim starred in four Korean dramas: Loving You, Save The Last Dance for Me, Wonderful Life, and Love Truly. She also appeared in commercials and advertisements, and released two solo albums. My True Style, her first album, sold nearly 65,000 records and had one hit ballad, "The Best". Her second album810303 sold a disappointing 19,000 copies. Although sales were low, the single "Windy" was successful. Eugene made her theater debut in the musical adaptation of the film Innocent Steps, and her film debut in Unstoppable Marriage. After taking on the lead roles in the dramas One Mom and Three Dads, and Creating Destiny, Eugene then starred in the television series King of Baking, Kim Takgu, which was a huge hit and earned "national drama" status. In 2007 Eugene took over from Lee Hyori as one of the co-hosts of the variety show Happy Together Friends, until the show was overhauled for a third season. After the success of her previous program Eugene's Makeup Diary, cable style network O'live again chose her as the host of new show Get It Beauty which began airing in July 2010. Eugene has authored two books: Eugene's Beauty Secrets and Eugene's Get It Beauty. She is also the co-president of the clothing brand byMOMO. In 2012 she became the host of season 3 of MBC's revamped flagship amateur singing competition show The Great Birth. Her next leading role was in the 2013 weekend family drama A Hundred Year Legacy, which reached ratings of over 30 percent. She then starred in two more family dramas, Can We Fall in Love, Again? and All About My Mom.
Personal life
On May 11, 2011, Eugene announced she will be married to Ki Tae-young, her leading man in the 2009 TV series Creating Destiny. Their wedding was held at the Seoul Central Church in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do, on July 23, 2011. They were the first couple featured on Super Couple Diary, a reality show filming the daily married life of celebrity couples. Eugene gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Lo-hee on 12 April 2015. She also gave birth to another girl, Lo-rin, on 18 August 2018. After the sinking of the MV Sewol, fans of Eugene began to doubt her belief in the Salvation sect of Evangelical Baptism. She explained she is not a believer of the Evangelical Baptist Church, but in the Korean Christianity Baptist Church which separated from the Evangelical Baptist Church 32 years ago.
