Meet the Husband
Meet the Husband: Ok Taecyeon
Birth name: Ok Taec-Yeon (Hangul: 옥택연, Hanja: 玉澤演)
Stage name: Taecyeon
Birth date: December 27, 1988
Birth place: Busan, South Korea
He is the rapper of the Korean boy band group 2PM which is currently signed under JYP Entertainment
Early Life
Taecyeon was born in Busan, South Korea, but
immigrated at the age of 10, with his parents and older sister Jihyen to
Bedford, Massachusetts, a small town situated in the Greater Boston Area. Taecyeon lived there for seven years, attending Bedford High School
where he was an active member of the Chess Club, Jazz Band, JV Soccer
Team and National Honor Society, before returning to pursue his career
in Korea. Taecyeon was educated at Gel In High School in Seoul and
studied Business Administration at Dankook University. He is fluent in English, Korean, and Japanese.
Pre-debut
It was his sister Jihyen who persuaded him to participate in a JYP Entertainment
audition, whose promotion she had noticed when surfing on the Internet.
After his reluctant agreement to participate, both headed for New York City
on his 17th birthday. A week later he was chosen for the final 35 and
got the call to go to Korea to go further in the competition. At first
Taecyeon applied to become a model,
but the judges suggested he try dancing and singing. Eventually he was
named one of the dozen finalists (including his future bandmates Lee Junho and Hwang Chansung) to compete in the show Superstar Survival, but was the first contestant to leave the show.
Music Career
In 2008 he took part in Mnet's Hot Blood Men which follows the extreme training of 13 trainees in order to become a member of the boy band One Day. One Day spawned two boy bands, 2AM and 2PM, the latter of which Taecyeon became a member of. Six months after Hot Blood was aired on TV 2PM debuted with their first single "10 Points out of 10 Points" ("10점 만점에 10점") from their first EP Hottest Time of the Day, but it wasn't until their second EP 2:00PM Time For Change that their success in the Korean music industry skyrocketed. So far 2PM has released two studio albums and three EPs.
Solo Activities
Taecyeon is featured in "Yes I'm In Love" by Bada on her fourth album and Baek Ji-young's 2009 song "내 귀에 캔디" (My Ear's Candy). He formerly hosted SBS's music show Inkigayo with Wooyoung, and was a permanent cast member on Family Outing 2 before it was cancelled.
In 2010 he made his acting debut in Korean Brodcasting System (KBS) drama series Cinderella's Sister alongside Moon Geun-young and Chun Jun-myung. His second drama is Dream High, in which he played the role of Jinguk. The drama premiered on January 3, 2011.
In September 2011 FujiTV announced that Taecyeon was going to become a regular on their Sunday drama Boku to Star no 99 Nichi, along with Japanese actor Nishijima Hidetoshi and South Korean actress Kim Tae Hee as the two main characters. This is his first regular role on a Japanese drama. The producer of the drama commented: “We
needed someone who can be mysterious and make his presence felt by
others at the same time. Outside of his role Taecyeon is a very polite
and bright person, who always manages to create a cheerful atmosphere at
the set. He is going to bring a breath of fresh air to the Japanese
drama scene.” Taecyeon commented, “It’s my first role in a
Japanese drama and I’m really happy to be able to work together with
such a wonderful cast and such an amazing staff. I will exert myself to
the best of my abilities in order to polish my acting as much as I can.”
In February 2013, it was announced that Taecyeon will become an on-screen couple with Emma Wu
on Global Edition: We Got Married reality show. The show premiered in
April 2013 and the couple quickly gained popularity in China, Taiwan,
Korea and Southeast Asia.
Blue Bears with Taecyeon
In early 2012, Taecyeon teamed up with his fellow Dankook University alumni students to produce a digital album.
The album, Blue Bears with Taecyeon, was performed live on 2012/02/24 at Dankook University for the matriculation ceremony.
The title song “Wings (날개)” was written and composed by Life Music
and the Dankook University students, and featured personally penned rap
lyrics written by Taecyeon. The second song, a remake of Lee Gwangjo's
“A Night Like Tonight (오늘같은 밤)” was also included in the performance,
complete with an original rap also written by Taecyeon himself.
Six Beautiful Days, Budokan (Solo Stage)
On 2012/05/25 Taecyeon performed "Kiss" and "After you've left me"
for his solo stage. Both songs were written and composed by Taecyeon
himself.
After the performance Taecyeon wrote on his Twitter: 여러분~ 제가 쓴
"Kiss"랑 "니가 날 떠난 후에" 어떠셨어요??ㅋㅋㅋ 처음으로 작곡한 곡들을 무대에서 공개했는데요~ 훗날 디싱이나 음반에
안들어간다고 하면 약속대로 공카에 올려드릴게요ㅋㅋㅋ
(Translation) @taeccool: Everyone, how did you like "Kiss" and
"After you've left me", both written by me?? kkk Revealed self-composed
songs on stage for the first time~ If they're not released as digital
single or in a CD later on, just as promised, I'll upload them on the
official cafe kkk
자장가 for Hottest (Lullaby for Hottest)
On 2012/06/18 Taecyeon, composing as TY, uploaded a message on 2PM's Official Fan Cafe with his newest self-composed song: 자장가 for Hottest. Taecyeon included
the .mp3 as a free download for Hottest, asking them to like the song.
OkCats
Taecyeon is known to draw large headed, long bodied cats that he has
incorporated into his signatures and autographs. He, and fans, refer to
the drawings as OkCats (옥캣). As a result of seeing knock-off OkCat shirts being produced in countries like Thailand, Taecyeon
relayed through his twitter, that he desired to produce his own line of
OkCats.
Starting in 2011, in conjunction with 2PM's Japanese promotions,
numerous fan-goods were created for Taecyeon's OkCat character. These
included a noodle bowl, a bento box and a coin purse, all designed by
Taecyeon himself.
During 2PM's "What Time Is It Now" tour, Taecyeon performed on stage
with his back-up dancers all costumed as OkCats. For 2PM's "Yazoo" Fan
Meeting in Japan (September 2013), Taecyeon himself dressed up in an
OkCat costume.
On 2013/10/09 Taecyeon tweeted a photo of himself with a prototype of
a stuffed OkCat plush doll stating that he would be releasing them
soon.
On 2013/12/09 In advance of the release of his plush OkCat dolls
Taecyeon announced the release of Official OkCat stickers/emoticons that
will be used in conjunction with the KakaoTalk messaging service.
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Taecyeon
