Yoon Kye-sang

Yoon Kye-sang (born December 20, 1978) is a South Korean actor and singer.

In 1997 Yoon answered an advertisement for Park Joon-hyung's project music group and had auditioned with aspirations of becoming a rock star.

Along with Danny Ahn, Son Ho-young, Kim Sun-a and producer and singer-songwriter Park Jin-young, the group was initially called "GOT6".

Kim Sun-a left to pursue acting and was replaced by Kim Tae-woo.

He began his career in 1999 as part of the K-pop boy band g.o.d, then left the group in 2004 and pursued an acting career.

The group became a five-member boy band called g.o.d, short for "Groove Over Dose", and debuted in January 1999.

Despite the lukewarm response to their debut performance, the group would go on to establish themselves as one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000s.

He made his acting debut in the film Flying Boys (2004), for which he won Best New Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Yoon became active in both television and film, with leading roles in romantic comedies such as My 19 Year Old Sister-in-Law (2004) and Who Are You? (2008) and the melodrama Crazy for You (2007), as well as more serious fare in The Moonlight of Seoul (2008) and The Executioner (2009).

However, Yoon left the band in 2004 and went into acting, making his film debut in Flying Boys, directed by Byun Young-joo.

He made his television debut that same year in My 19 Year Old Sister-in-Law with Jung Da-bin.

He enlisted in the Republic of Korea Army on December 7, 2004, and was assigned to the 102nd Reserves at Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

The group would release their seventh and final album before going on indefinite hiatus in December 2005 and some of the group's fans called Yoon a "traitor" and blamed him for "breaking up the group".

Various media outlets speculated that there was a rift amongst the members and that he had turned his back on them in favor of acting, rumors that Yoon and the other four members chose not to publicly confirm or deny.

After completing basic training and serving there for some time, Yoon was reassigned in 2006 to duties as an "entertainment soldier" in the newly formed group Korean Forces Network, which provides television and radio broadcasts to soldiers, and also allows celebrities to maintain a public profile while completing their military service.

He was discharged from the army on December 6, 2006.

In an interview that day, he said that he had not slept the night before and was very tired, but looked forward to seeing his fans; he further stated that he planned to resume his career in 2007.

In January 2007, Yoon returned to show business in the television drama Crazy in Love (also known as Crazy for You); he portrayed a gangster who falls in love with the widow (Lee Mi-yeon) of a man he'd accidentally killed.

The following year, he and Kim Ha-neul were cast in Lovers of Six Years, playing a couple in a six-year relationship.

According to Kim, her initial perception of Yoon was that he was very shy, whereas Yoon perceived Kim as snobby, so it took them some time to break the ice and establish a good working relationship.

Later that year, he took a dual role in the comedy television series Who Are You?, playing a cold-hearted corporate raider who, in the aftermath of a traffic accident, becomes possessed by the spirit of a cheerful deliveryman for a few hours each day.

At the same time he took a starring role opposite Ha Jung-woo in Beastie Boys (also known as The Moonlight of Seoul), portraying a worker in a host club; The Korea Times movie review praised him for his "gripping performance."

In 2009, he left his agency SidusHQ and joined My Name Is Entertainment.

He also became part of the ensemble cast in Come, Closer, a 2010 omnibus feature that follows the broken relationships of five couples.

After his highly anticipated big-budget Korean War drama Road No. 1, tanked in the ratings, Yoon said he wanted to play a character "who gets loved by the public" and took on a supporting role as a sweet, kind doctor in romantic comedy The Greatest Love.

The drama's success and Yoon's popularity in it helped bring attention to his next project, the low-budget, gritty indie Poongsan.

Director Juhn Jai-hong fought to cast Yoon against type as the titular taciturn messenger, saying that he'd been impressed by the piercing gaze Yoon had shown in previous films.

Calling it "a meaningful project," Yoon enjoyed the difficult acting challenge of telling the story only through his eyes, facial expressions and body movements.

After a supporting turn in the hit series The Greatest Love (2011), he returned to the big screen in the well-received indie Poongsan (2011).

As late as June 2011, his military service still earned him public attention, when a round-cheeked photo of him in uniform "went viral" among South Korean internet users.

The photos received many amused comments for his then-fat cheeks, forming a sharp contrast with his more recent appearance.

He was recognized with Best Actor nominations from the 2011 Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.

After starring in the third season of popular sitcom High Kick!, he was cast in the action thriller The Suspect, but withdrew when co-star Choi Min-sik backed out.

He also pulled out from Acting Class when the big-screen comedy encountered pre-production delays.

He has since clarified in his 2012 cooking show Yoon Kye-sang's One Table that he left the group with the intention of leaving the entertainment industry altogether as he had begun to detest the spotlight, but stumbled upon an opportunity to try acting and enjoyed it.

Having just departed from g.o.d, Yoon was at the height of his popularity, but had to interrupt his nascent acting career due to mandatory military service.

After doing a lighter role in the slice-of-life drama Triple, Yoon starred in the movie The Executioner, which examined capital punishment in South Korea; it debuted at the 14th Busan International Film Festival.

Yoon played the role of a junior prison guard who takes up his post after failing an examination, and unluckily finds himself assigned to carry out executions after the only other guard in the prison with such experience quits.

Just before the movie came out, he made controversial remarks in an interview with GQ Korea stating that the South Korean movie industry was dominated by leftists.

As controversy rose among internet users over his remarks, he quickly made an apology for what he described as his "ignorance."