Hahm Eun-jung

Hahm Eun-jung (born December 12, 1988), known professionally as Eunjung and also Elsie, is a South Korean singer and actress. She began her career at the age of seven as an entertainer in 1995, when she won the Little Miss Korea competition and debuted as a child actress in the same year in a television drama A New Generation of Adults (1995). Since then, she has taken on several roles in movies, television series and also being cast in various commercial films. After three years of training, she debuted as a member of South Korean girl group T-ara in July 2009 (and later its subgroup T-ara N4). She has won the Child Actor Award for her role in "Drama of The Year" multi-winner Land at the 2004 SBS Drama Awards. She was also nominated and won awards for comedies Coffee House (2010) and Dream High (2011), reality show We Got Married (2011–12), family drama Be My Dream Family (2021), and daily soap opera Love Twist (2021–22). 

She debuted as a solo artist by the name Elsie with her EP, I'm Good, on May 7, 2015, which went on to win her The Best Female Artist at V Chart Awards, China's largest video-sharing platform. Hahm's career extends beyond music and cinema—she has forayed into modeling, hosting, and TV. She has hosted over 15 events from the Dream Concert to the Grand Bell Awards and Jecheon International Music & Film Festival. In 2012, she hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live Korea along with S.E.S.'s Bada and Horan, which drew a rating of 1.444%.

Biography
Hahm was born in Sanggye-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Her mother, a graduate of Ewha Womans University, is a former piano teacher who works as Hahm's agent. While attending seventh grade, Hahm started taekwondo lessons and won three different competitions. Her mother made the decision to quit teaching and manage her career upon her high school graduation in 2007. Later that year, Hahm enrolled in Dongguk University where she took performance courses.

She is an only child and has been quoted as explaining, "My mother had me 10 years after she was married to my father, which seems more hurtful. Upon watching several famous performers in the past, she wanted to become an actress. Now that I have, she is very pleased I have acting as a priority. She believes her original prayers were answered."

1995–2008: Career beginnings
In 1995, when Hahm was seven years old, she participated in the "Little Miss Korea" pageant and won. That same year, she appeared in the youth drama A New Generation of Adults, which aired on KBS. Afterwards, she had several minor roles in movies and dramas, along with being cast in a handful of commercial films.

In 2007, Hahm made appearances in a number of music videos. Namely, eighteen-year-old Hahm is featured in SG Wannabe's music video "Gasiri" (가시리) from Story In New York. Later that year, she would also be seen in F.T. Island's music videos: "Thunder" (천둥); "Only One Person" (한사람만), and "A Man's First Love Follow Him To The Grave" (남자의 첫사랑은 무덤까지 간다). She also appeared in the 2008 horror film Death Bell, where she plays a student who was murdered by her teacher.

2009–2012: Rising popularity
Hahm originally trained to be an actress, and later debuted as a member of T-ara in July 2009. She was the first leader of the group, until September 2010. Hahm featured in Davichi's music video "Time, Please Stop" (시간아 멈춰라) which was released on May 6, 2010. Her first major acting role since joining T-ara was in SBS drama Coffee House, which aired from May 17 to July 17, 2010. That same year, she was cast in the horror film White: Melody of Death.

Hahm's popularity began to rise in 2011 when she starred in the teen drama Dream High. The drama was a success and brought high domestic viewership ratings. It also gained popularity in other countries and won several international awards. From 2011 to 2012, she joined MBC's variety program We Got Married, pairing up with actor Lee Jang-woo. She won the Best Newcomer Award at the MBC Entertainment Awards. Hahm was then cast in historical dramas The King of Legend and Insu, The Queen Mother.

In June 2012, Hahm was confirmed to star in the drama Five Fingers. However, on August 22, it was revealed that she had been dropped from the drama. The Korean Actors Labor Union demanded that Hahm be issued an apology by the producer and crew. In February 2013, Yein E&M issued a formal apology for firing Hahm without notice. In October 2013, MBK Entertainment revealed that Eun-jung participated in the arrangement of T-ara's upcoming track "I Know The Feeling" from their newest EP Again. Deoksang Park, the composer of the co-title song proposed to Eun-jung to collaborate on the arrangement.

2014–2017: Return to acting and solo debut
Hahm made her return to acting in 2014, with SBS' weekend period drama Endless Love. In 2015, it was announced that Hahm was offered the lead role in the Thai romantic comedy Micro Love, making her the first female idol to star in a Thai film. In May, Hahm made her solo debut under the stage name Elsie. She released her first mini album I'm Good, with the lead single of the same name featuring K.Will. The Chinese version of her music video peaked at number two on YinYueTai's music video charts. On October 14, Hahm released the song Goodbye, as the soundtrack of T-ara's web-drama Sweet Temptation. The song was also included in her repackaged mini album, Goodbye, released on October 30. In 2016, Hahm was cast in Flowers of Evil, a thriller directed by Cho Sung-kyu. In 2017, Hahm was cast in MBC's daily drama, Sisters-in-Law, which premiered in April that year.

2018–present: New agency and solo career
In January 2018, Hahm confirmed her departure from MBK after her contract expired. In February, Hahm signed an exclusive management contract with UFO Production, making her the company's first-ever artist. UFO Production, a subsidiary of technology company Pobis TNC, is more known for producing the MBC TV weekend drama Money Flower. On May 24, it was confirmed that Hahm was cast in KBS's romantic comedy-drama Lovely Horribly, starring Park Si-hoo and Song Ji-hyo. On February 26, 2019, it was announced that Hahm would be the narrator for the Korea-Vietnam co-production documentary named The Muse Story, which will be broadcast on KBS World. On October 14, 2020, her label announced that Hahm will star in an upcoming film called "I will sing" as a singer.

Hahm was cast in the leading role of the TV drama Be My Dream Family, which aired on KBS1 every weekday from March 29, 2021, until October 1. On July 15, Hahm left Cabin 74 after her contract expired. On September 27, Hahm signed a new exclusive contract with Management Koo. In 2021, along with Superonova's Gonil, Eun-jung took the lead role in short original drama Cell Division which was released on DramaX. The drama was also sold in Japan to multiple broadcasters—this includes streaming services like Amazon's Prime Video, Yahoo Japan's GYAO, music.Jp and Fuji TV's FOD. It premiered on KNTV Japan on May 26.

On February 15, 2023, Hahm was confirmed to be part of the main cast of JTBC's variety program for its new season which premieres on March 5. Differential Class is a popular informative and award-winning show which premiered in 2017 with a peak rating of 5%. It also has over 500K followers and over 200M Views on YouTube. Later in the year, Eun-jung was cast in Kunio Shimizu's "Dressing Room" play as the character "D". Following its success, it has been extended to May 28 (encore performance). According to FN News, the play "has established itself as a must-see perf this year with an Interpark rating of 9.8 and a high re-viewing rate". It was also nicknamed the "acting power show" for its professional actors.

On February 19, 2024, Hahm signed an exclusive contract with Mask Studio.

Public image and impact
Although she debuted as a child actress/model, Hahm has expanded her work into different fields throughout her career. She has been ranked among the best idol-actors on multiple occasions throughout her three-decade acting career. In 2011, NewsWire wrote that she "has proven herself to be the best acting idol of her time", while Cine21 called her the next-generation "horror queen" following her participation in horror movies White: Melody of Death and Death Bell, which was unusual for idols. In a survey held in the same year by Sports Seoul, she was chosen as the third-best acting idol by over eighty idols, the only female idol in the Top 5. She was again chosen as the third-best acting idol by critics in a survey held by Nate in 2012. Together with group matesates Jiyeon and Hyomin, they are known as "T-ara's 3 acting idols".

Eun-jung frequently topped the most visited and popular Cyworld pages (old popular social platform at the time) since her debut with hundreds of thousands of weekly views. Hahm's successful musical and acting career led to her to endorsing numerous brands in South Korea. She also worked as an ambassador, having represented several organizations in South Korea and abroad. Her previous works include being appointed by the Ministry Of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as a public relations ambassador at the age of 17. She also represented her country in Brunei at the "Korea-Brunei 30th year Relations Ceremony", where she met with the country's government officials and had a formal dinner with its Prime minister. In 2022, Hahm was awarded the Korea-China Culture Exchange Award Grand Prize at the 2022 World Creators Awards for her channel on Bilibili, one of the major Chinese streaming platforms, which garnered nearly 200,000 subscribers and 10 million views.

Endorsements and promotions
Hahm has modeled for several brands since before her debut as a singer. Her first-ever advertisement was a print-in ad for Korea's No.1 mineral water Jeju Samdasoo in 1998. In February 2011, Hahm, along with actor Kim Soo-hyun, was chosen as an exclusive model for clothing brand SPRIS. The brand is known to be the most preferred brand among young people: previous models include Lee Joon-gi, Kim Beom, and 2PM. The brand was promoted with a series of TV commercial films, including a 3-minute music-drama video featuring a newly recorded song by both Hahm and Kim called "Crazy4s", though the song was never officially released. In 2015, posters featuring Hahm as a model for Burger King were released all over Korea. She was the third T-ara member to endorse the restaurant after Hyomin and Jiyeon in 2014. In 2016, Hahm was selected as a model for Coca-Cola along with Yubin, Park Yoon, and Jo Se-hyeon. She attended several promotional events for the brand for 2 years from 2015, including its 130th-anniversary exhibition event.

Ambassadorships
Hahm has been selected as an ambassador for many institutions in several countries since her debut in 1995. This includes for the Ministry Of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (2005), luxury brand Gold Elite Paris in Thailand (2016), Chunsa Film & Arts Awards Festival (2020), and Hattung's Aesop Fable Donation (2020) as Honorary Ambassador and participant. In 2011, she was appointed as the public relations and goodwill ambassador for the National Police Agency. She attended the 2011 National Warfare Guard Festival on March 8 where she received the ambassador award from Police Commissioner Cho Hyun-oh. The same year, she was appointed as an ambassador for ETN's audition show Global Super Idol in Thailand. To promote the show, she attended the show's first press conference on September 20. Eun-jung also acted as a mentor/judge for the competition.

When she represented South Korea in Brunei at the "Korea-Brunei 30th year Relations Ceremony" in 2014, she participated in the signing ceremony of the 500 billion won joint project between the two countries. In 2016, she was appointed as a public relations ambassador for her university Dongguk University. She attended the appointment ceremony on October 17 in which she received an appointment certification from the university's president. In 2017, as the public relations ambassador for the 9th Gangneung Coffee Festival, Hahm attended the festival's commemorative opening ceremony and received the talent ambassador plaque from the mayor of Gangneung.

Smile (book)
In 2016, Eunjung published her first pocket-book, Smile, which she wrote after filming her reality show What Should I Do? in Thailand. In the book, she describes her feelings and thoughts while traveling and working in the country. The reason behind the book's name is the singer's experience with Thai people who were constantly "smiling". The book was a limited release and was published in 3 languages (English, Korean and Thai). Hahm also designed the cover and the merchandise.

Philanthropy
In 2016, Eunjung traveled to Thailand to volunteer to distribute food at Sanam Luang.