Kevin Woo, also known mononymously as Kevin, is a Korean-American singer-songwriter, actor and television host currently based in Japan. Born and raised in California, he was discovered by South Korean entertainment agency XING Entertainment at the age of 15 and subsequently moved to South Korea. After a few months of training, Woo debuted as a member of boy group XING in 2006 and left the group two years later. In August 2008, he re-debuted as a member of boy group U-KISS. In March 2017, he left U-KISS after his contract expired.
Life and career
1990–2012: Early life and career beginnings
Woo was born and raised in Danville, California, where he lived with his parents and elder sister. His father is a CF director while his mother is a fashion model. His paternal uncle is Emmanuel Woo, who is an actor and classical singer in Germany. At the age of 15, Woo was initially discovered through a XING Entertainment audition when he was on a holiday in South Korea. After he was accepted as a trainee, Woo and his mother moved to South Korea. After a few months of training, Woo debuted as a first member generation of boy group XING in December 2006. After releasing three singles with the group, Woo left the group in April 2008. Following his departure, Woo signed with NH Media and re-debuted as a member of boy group U-KISS in August 2008. In February 2009, Woo joined Arirang TV's radio showPops in Seoul as a host of segment "All About You" alongside co-host Kim Isak. In December 2009, Woo with fellow U-KISS member Alexander released a single "Finally", which was composed by Brave Brothers. In July 2010, Woo with U-KISS members Soohyun, Kibum, Kiseop and Dongho became a part of the drama I Am Legend, acting as a rock band. In August 2010, Woo with fellow members Alexander were selected as the new MCs for Arirang TV's music show The M-Wave. On January 5, 2011, Woo participated in the musical On Air Live as the lead actor. He acted in a total of 26 shows, his last stage appearance coming on February 14, 2011. On March 17, Woo with U-KISS members Eli and Alexander quit MCing for Arirang's Radio School due to the loss of U-KISS members Alexander and Kibum from the group. On October 12, Woo with U-KISS members Eli announced that they would have a collaboration with Japanese singer JAMOSA from Avex label for her single "Together". The single was released on December 7 and the trio held release events at Lazone Kawasaki Plaza, Osaka Senri Selcy and Asunal Kanayama. The song "Together" was then selected as the theme song for BeeTV's "sweetTV". In November 2011, Woo and bandmate Eli were selected as MCs for Mnet's English-language version of M!Countdown, US MCountdown. In 2012, Woo and Soohyun remade UN's Remember for the drama Syndrome.
2013–2017: U-KISS uBEAT and television roles
In April 2013, a U-KISS subgroup named uBEAT was formed with Woo and fellow members Eli and AJ. uBEAT debuted as the first U-KISS sub-unit. The sub-unit debuted with the release of an EP titled I Should Have Treated You Better with a title track of the same name, which was composed by hit-maker Brave Brothers. uBEAT made their debut stage at Mnet M!Countdown's special global edition in Taiwan. Woo alongside bandmates Soohyun, Eli and Kiseop participated in the drama KPOP The Ultimate Audition, having small cameo appearances in three episodes as a senior idol group to the main cast. Woo and Soohyun were selected to appear in the Korean adaptation of the musical Summer Snow alongside Super Junior's Sungmin, Supernova's Sungjae, SS501's Heo Young-saeng and FT Island's Seunghyun. Their appearances lasted from April 2013 to June 2013. This was Woo's second musical. On May 1, 2014, Woo was a guest on popular music talk showAfter School Club and from episode 43, he became a co-host alongside Eric Nam, Jae Park and Park Jimin. On April 4, 2018 Woo announced that he would graduate from the program as MC and his final episode was aired on April 10. On March 1, 2017, NH Media announced that Woo would officially leave U-KISS following the expiration of his contract on March 31, 2017. He decided to continue his promotion with U-KISS until mid-April.
Personal life
In a Japanese survey through popular fortune-telling site Cocoloni, Woo was ranked as the number one luckiest Hallyu star for 2012. 100 fortune-tellers participated in the survey, predicting the stars' fortunes through zodiac, blood type and other methods. When Woo received the news, he stated: "I'm honored to be ranked first. I want to make this really happen this year. U-KISS will go on a Japanese tour and we will also release our album. Please keep supporting us and help us rank first on the Oricon chart."
