Moon Tae-il

Moon Tae-il (, born June 14, 1994), known mononymously as Taeil, is a South Korean singer. He is a member of the South Korean boy band NCT and its sub-units NCT U and NCT 127, managed by the label SM Entertainment. Moon made his debut in April 2016 in the rotational unit NCT U and became a member of the Seoul-based unit NCT 127 in July 2016.

Early life
Moon Tae-il was born on June 14, 1994, in Seoul, South Korea. He was accepted to the Applied Music program of Hanyang University in 2013; that year, the program was reportedly the most competitive early-admissions program in the country, topping law and medicine at other prestigious schools. Moon decided not to enroll in university after being accepted by SM Entertainment as a trainee.

2015–2019: Pre-debut in SM Rookies, debut with NCT, and NCT U releases
On October 13, 2015, Moon was introduced as a member of SM Entertainment's pre-debut training team, SM Rookies. On January 27, 2016, Moon released "Because of You" (단 한 사람) as a soundtrack for the TV series The Merchant: Gaekju 2015.

Moon made his official debut as a member of NCT U, a rotational subgroup of NCT, on April 9, 2016, with the release of the single "Without You". Moon later made his debut as a member of NCT 127, the second sub-unit of NCT, with the release of the EP NCT#127 on July 7. On December 30, Moon participated in the SM Station charity single "Sound of Your Heart" (너의 목소리), a collaboration with SM artists (Yesung, Sunny, Luna, Wendy, Seulgi and Doyoung) and pianist Steve Barakatt.

As NCT U, Moon, Taeyong and Doyoung released the song "Stay in My Life" on August 7, 2017, as a soundtrack for School 2017. Moon, Doyoung, and Jaehyun then released the NCT U single "Timeless" on January 12, 2018. Moon and Doyoung again collaborated as NCT U on "Radio Romance", a soundtrack for Radio Romance, released on January 30, 2018. On September 7, 2018, Moon and Jaehyun released the NCT U song "New Dream" as a soundtrack for Dokgo Rewind.

On March 30, 2019, Moon was featured in Sohlhee's debut single "Purple" (보라색). In November, he competed on the television show King of Mask Singer under the nickname "King Card". On December 13, Moon, Doyoung, Jaehyun and Haechan released the NCT U single "Coming Home", an SM Station collaboration with UNICEF. The song reached number seven on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.

2020–2021: Solo activities and Guinness World Record
On April 11, 2021, Moon featured on Moon Su-jin's single "The Moon" (저 달). On June 6, Moon released "A Beautiful Human Being" (아름다운 사람) the second part of Morning Dew 50th Anniversary Tribute Album, a tribute to musician Kim Min-ki. On June 28, the fourth part of the album, featuring "Morning Dew" sung by various artists including Moon, was released.

On July 6, Moon launched an Instagram account and broke the Guinness World Record for "Fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Instagram", previously held by Rupert Grint since November 2020.

On October 11, Moon, along with rapper Lil Boi, featured on Raiden's single "Love Right Back" from his debut EP of the same name. They performed the song together on M Countdown and Inkigayo that month. On December 27, SM Entertainment released the album 2021 Winter SMTOWN: SMCU Express, which includes the song "Ordinary Day", sung by Moon and label mates Onew and Kyuhyun.

2022–present: Soundtrack releases and NCT Lab contributions
On February 13, 2022, Moon released "Starlight" for the soundtrack of the TV series Twenty-Five, Twenty-One. The song peaked at number 30 on the Gaon Digital Chart, and it was nominated for awards for best soundtrack at the 32nd Seoul Music Awards and at the 8th APAN Star Awards. On July 19, Moon, alongside NCT members Kun and Yangyang, released the NCT U single "Rain Day" as part of the NCT Lab singles project. On December 26, SM Entertainment released the album 2022 Winter SM Town: SMCU Palace, featuring the song "Happier", sung by Moon and label mates Kangta, Yesung, Suho and Renjun.

On February 9, 2023, Moon released "Lovey Dovey" as the soundtrack of the TV series Love to Hate You. On September 7, Moon and Haechan released the NCT U single "N.Y.C.T" for the NCT Lab project. Both members participated in writing the song. Later that month, on September 22, Moon released "Bandit" as the main soundtrack of the Netflix series ''Song of the Bandits. ''

Moon released "Wave" (파랑), a soundtrack for Captivating the King, on February 4, 2024. On March 12, he released the single "Weird" (묘해, 너와), a remake of Acoustic Collabo's soundtrack from the 2014 TV series Discovery of Love. The song reached number 132 on the Circle Digital Chart.

Car accident
On August 15, 2023, Moon got into a car accident in downtown Seoul while returning home by motorcycle after finishing his schedule early in the morning. He temporarily suspended his schedules to focus on treatment and recovery.

Composition credits
All credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association, unless cited otherwise.