Jaehyun

Jeong Yun-o (Korean: 정윤오; born February 14, 1997), birth name Jeong Jae-hyun (정재현) and professionally known as Jaehyun, is a South Korean singer. He is a member of the South Korean boy band NCT and its sub-units NCT 127 and NCT DoJaeJung. He made his solo debut on August 26, 2024, with the studio album J.

First introduced in December 2013 as a trainee under the pre-debut team SM Rookies, he debuted in April 2016 as a member of the rotational unit NCT U and as a member of Seoul-based fixed unit NCT 127 in July 2016. He later joined the fixed unit NCT DoJaeJung in April 2023. NCT are noted as one of the most successful K-pop acts, both domestically and internationally, selling over 32 million records within only seven years.

As of 2024, Jaehyun has released five solo singles: "Forever Only" and "Horizon", both as part of the NCT Lab project, while "Roses", "Dandelion", and "Smoke" as part of his debut album J. Apart from music, he has also hosted the radio show NCT Night Night from March 2017 to January 2019 and the television program Inkigayo from October 2019 to February 2021. He later debuted as an actor with a leading role in the college romance television series Dear. M (2022), and he is set to make his feature film debut in the mystery thriller film You Will Die In 6 Hours. As of June 2022, Jaehyun is a global ambassador for the Italian luxury brand Prada; he is considered among the most impactful fashion ambassadors from South Korea.

Early life and education

Jaehyun was born on February 14, 1997, in Seocho District, Seoul, South Korea. Although he was born Jeong Jae-hyun (정재현), he later legally changed his name to Jeong Yun-o (정윤오). At the age of five, Jaehyun moved to Connecticut, USA with his parents, where he went by the English name Jay Jeong. As a result, he is fluent in both English and Korean. He revealed that while studying in Connecticut, he was the only Asian student at school. Jaehyun returned to South Korea at the age of ten, and said that he struggled adapting to Korean culture.

Jaehyun trained in Taekwondo and received a Black belt. He later became interested in music at a young age due to his parents' influence; he learned to play the guitar and the piano, and later began singing during middle school. His grandmother, a retired professional dancer, was also his guide during dance training. He was also inspired to pursue music by his elementary school teacher, Lee Eun-yeol. Jaehyun attended Shindong Middle School and Apgujeong High School, and later transferred to the School of Performing Arts Seoul in his second year of high school and graduated in 2016. He used to be a student council president.

Career

Jaehyun was cast by SM Entertainment in 2012, discovered by street scouts in front of his school. He auditioned with a performance of "Mama" by Exo. On December 9, 2013, he was introduced as a member of the pre-debut trainee team SM Rookies. In 2014, he participated with fellow NCT members on the show Exo 90:2014, where they performed songs from the 1990s. From January 21 to July 1, 2015, he and groupmate Doyoung were hosts of the program Show Champion. In July 2015, he and groupmate Ten both competed in Hope Basketball All-Star. In December 2015, Jaehyun performed "A Whole New World" on Disney Channel Korea's The Mickey Mouse Club.

In April 2016, Jaehyun officially debuted as a member of NCT's sub-unit, NCT U, with the singles "The 7th Sense" and "Without You". On July 10, he made his debut as a member of NCT 127 with their first EP, NCT#127. In March 2017, Jaehyun joined the radio show NCT Night Night as a DJ alongside fellow member Johnny. In November 2017, Jaehyun and Dear released the song "Try Again" for the project SM Station. In December, he featured in the music video for Wendy and Baek A-yeon's "The Little Match Girl". In January 2018, Jaehyun released the single "Timeless" alongside a new NCT U lineup as part of the SM Station project.

In October 2019, Jaehyun became one of three hosts for the South Korean music program Inkigayo alongside Minhyuk and Naeun, hosting the show every Sunday. On September 4, 2020, it was confirmed that Jaehyun would make his acting debut as Cha Min-ho, a second-year computer science student at Seoyeon University, in the KBS2 drama Dear. M, which was to be released in 2021. The airing of the drama was postponed indefinitely after lead actress Park Hye-su was accused of school bullying. After a nearly two-year delay, the first six episodes of Dear. M were released globally on June 29, 2022, through the streaming service Viki. Its following episodes were released on July 6, 2022.

On November 2, 2021, Jaehyun was confirmed to star in a KakaoTV web series, a remake of the 2001 South Korean film Bungee Jumping of Their Own, playing the leading role of Im Hyun-bin. On December 9 of the same year, during pre-production, KakaoTV announced the cancellation of the project due to concerns regarding the LGBT plot from the original film's screenwriter.

On August 18, 2022, Jaehyun released his first single "Forever Only" as part of NCT Lab. "Forever Only" was described as an R&B song and featured lyrics written by Jaehyun. It received positive reviews from critics and debuted at number 14 on the United States' Billboard World Digital Songs and at 120 on South Korea's Circle Digital Chart. On March 9, 2023, Jaehyun was confirmed to debut alongside fellow NCT members Doyoung and Jungwoo in the new fixed sub-unit NCT DoJaeJung. They released their first extended play (EP) Perfume on April 17, 2023.

On July 3, 2023, it was announced that Jaehyun will make his feature film debut in the mystery thriller You Will Die In 6 Hours, based on the Japanese novel of the same name. He will portray the lead character Junwoo, starring alongside Park Ju-hyun and Kwak Si-yang. On August 8, he released his second solo single "Horizon" under the now-reconstructed NCT Lab. The song is described as a romantic R&B/Soul track that Jaehyun wrote and composed. It debuted at number 38 on the Circle Digital Chart, as well as at the first and third spots of the BGM Chart and Download Chart, respectively. "Horizon" marks Jaehyun's highest-charting solo single in South Korea.

On August 8, SM announced that Jaehyun would debut as a soloist with his first studio album J. The eight-track album was released on August 26, and included Korean and English versions of the lead track "Smoke". Prior to the album's release, Jaehyun released two songs, "Roses" and "Dandelion" on August 12. On the day of the album's release, Jaehyun hosted a listening party titled "Jaehyun, Vol. 1".

Ahead of his mandatory military service, Jaehyun released a single titled "Unconditional" on October 24, and held a fan concert titled "2024 Jaehyun Fan-con 〈MUTE〉" for two days on October 26 and 27, at SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Seoul.

Personal life

On September 26, 2024, SM Entertainment announced that Jaehyun had started the enlistment process to carry out his mandatory military service and would begin his service in the army as an active duty soldier on November 4. He had also been accepted as a member of the military band. He will be the second NCT member to fulfill South Korea's mandatory military service, after Taeyong.

Other ventures

Following various successful collaborations with Prada, Jaehyun was selected as a global ambassador in June 2022, citing his influence and unique fashion style as a reason. In 2023, he modeled for Prada's SS23 campaign, making him the first Korean celebrity to be chosen as a model for the brand's main global campaign. Photographed by David Sims, the campaign draws "upon the characteristics of classic Hollywood and European movies - their images are frames within divergent stories, glimpses of an unseen narrative and an unknown script, a tension again between different views, of different lives" and features Jaehyun alongside actors Vincent Cassel, Louis Partridge, Hunter Schafer, and Letitia Wright and models Guinevere van Seenus and Rachel Williams.

Multiple publications named Jaehyun as one of the most influential fashion brand ambassadors from South Korea, noting Prada's increase in purchases, popularity, and online topicality following Jaehyun's appointment as a global ambassador in June 2022.

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions		Sales	Certifications
		KOR	JPN
J	Released: August 26, 2024 Labels: SM Entertainment, Kakao Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download, streaming	3	7	KOR: 393,030 JPN: 11,174	KMCA: Platinum

Singles

Title	Year	Peak chart positions				Album
		KOR	UK Dig.	USWorld	VIE
"Try Again" (with d.ear)	2017	—	—	—	95	S.M. Station Season 2
"Forever Only"	2022	120	—	14	—	NCT Lab
"Horizon"	2023	38	—	—	—
"Roses"	2024	—	—	—	—	J
"Dandelion"		—	—	—	—
"Smoke"		4	29	—	—
"Unconditional"		—	—	—	—	Non-album single
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region.

Other charted songs

Title	Year	Peak chart positions	Album
		KORDown.
"Flamin' Hot Lemon"	2024	54	J
"Completely"		64
"Can't Get You"		67
"Easy"		68
"Smoke" (English ver.)		87

Songwriting credits

All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise cited.

Year	Song	Artist(s)	Album	Lyricist	Composer
2016	"Fire Truck"	NCT 127	NCT#127
2020	"Dancing in the Rain"	NCT U	NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 1
2021	"Lost"	Jaehyun	—
2022	"Forever Only"		NCT Lab
2023	"Horizon"
2024	"Smoke"		J
	"Roses"
	"Flamin' Hot Lemon"
	"Dandelion"
	"Easy"
	"Can't Get You"
	"Unconditional"		—

Filmography