Seo Ji-yeon (actress)

Seo Ji-yeon (Korean: 서지연; born 11 November 1986) is a South Korean actress, singer, and model.

In this Korean name, the family name is Seo.

Seo Ji-yeon
Background information
Born	Seo Ji-yeon (1986-11-11) November 11, 1986 (age 38) Daejeon South Korea
Genres	Pop, R&B
Occupation(s)	Singer, Actress, Model, Host, Youtuber
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Exact GMM Grammy

Early life

Seo was born in South Korea. The name "Ji-yeon" was given by her maternal grandfather.^[1]

At the age of 11, Seo moved to Thailand after her father moved there for a while to work. She currently lives with her father, mother, older brother, and younger sister.^[1]

After settling in Thailand, Seo completed her secondary education at Ruamrudee International School. At that time, she was bullied by her friends at school because she couldn't speak either Thai or English. She was discouraged and wanted to return to her homeland. However, she received constant encouragement from her father, so she was able to get through it.^[1]

Seo graduated bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Assumption University, majoring in Business Japanese.^[2]

Career

Seo loves singing and is determined to become a singer. While studying at Ruamrudee International School, she was an MC at school events and participated in school activities and received awards continuously.^[3] But her parents wanted her to be an ambassador rather than a singer.^[3]

Seo began her career in entertainment when a friend invited her to watch the show Five Live at GMM Grammy Place. The Grammy staff noticed Seo and invited her to audition.^[1] But at that time, she was not fluent in Thai, so her first job was modeling, shooting commercials, and acting in music videos.^[1][3]

Later, Pitchaya and Phirat Nitipaisankul, two brothers who were friends at Ruamrudee International School and were artists under GMM Grammy under the name Golf-Mike, introduced her to a GMM Grammy music producer who had Jiyeon audition for a singing audition. Nitiphong Honark, a famous songwriter and former band leader of Chaliang, heard about it and liked it, so he made an appointment for her to meet and express his desire to write a song for her. After that, Seo received singing training from Nitiphong all along.^[3] Later, Takonkiet Viravan, a Grammy executive and founder of Exact, a subsidiary of Grammy, listened to Seo's recording of "Chan Mai Mee Tee Pai" and was interested. When he met Seo, he was impressed and so Seo got a job with Exact.^[1][3]