Childhood & Early Life
Lee Hong-bin was born on September 29, 1993, in Seoul, South Korea as the youngest child of his parents among three children. He has two elder sisters. During his early childhood, he used to live with his grandmother in a Buddhist temple and joined his parents in Jayang-dong later.
Since his middle school days Hongbin has remained a fan of South Korean singer Park Hyoshin and he treasures a CD where the singer penned down a cheer message for him that motivated him during his training days.
He attended ‘Dong-ah Broadcasting College’ (presently known as ‘Dong-ah Institute of Media and Arts’) located in Samjuk-myeon, Anseong City, Gyeonggi province, South Korea. There he studied Musical major.
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Career
He became an idol trainee under ‘Jellyfish Entertainment’ along with nine others who took part in the South Korean reality show ‘MyDOL’ that was developed by Mnet and presented by the channel from April 12, 2012 to May 23, 2012. The show recorded the development and premier procedure of the boy band, ‘VIXX’.
All the ten trainees went through a number of activities and missions during ‘MyDOL’. The first half of the series served as an elimination procedure to select best and promising participants, showcasing finest talent and good prospects, via viewers vote. This way the final six members of the boy band, ‘VIXX’ including Hongbin were selected. The name of the group was also decided through votes of viewers.
Second half of ‘MyDOL’ encompassed early pre-debut activities of the final six members of ‘VIXX’ namely Hongbin, Ken, Ravi, N, Hyuk and Leo. This included making a number of guest appearances in music videos of other artists under ‘Jellyfish Entertainment’.
Among these Hongbin along with Ravi, Leo and N appeared in the music video ‘Let This Die’ by Brian Joo. He also featured in the music video ‘Tease Me’ by Seo in Guk.
On May 24, 2012 ‘VIXX’ released their debut single and single album ‘Super Hero’ on the South Korean music program ‘M! Countdown’ broadcast by ‘Mnet’. The discography of the boy band so far includes 3 studio albums, 10 single albums, 5 extended plays and 24 singles.
His first appearance in a television series happened with the extremely hit South Korean romance teen drama ‘The Heirs’ that starred Kim Woo-bin, Park Shin-hye and Lee Min-ho. The series that aired on SBS for 20 episodes from October 9, 2013 to December 12, 2013 featured him along with other ‘VIXX’ members in its fourth episode.
His career in acting however began literally with the South Korean weekend television romance family drama series ‘Glorious Day’ that had Kim Mi-sook, Park Se-young, Go Woo-ri , Hwang Woo-seul-hye and Lee Sang-woo in starring roles. Hongbin played the supporting role of Yoo Ji-ho in the series that aired on SBS for 44 episodes from April 26, to October 5, 2014.
In 2014 he also featured as cameo along with his group member N in the music video ‘Peppermint Chocolate’ by Mamamoo, K.Will and Wheesung.
During early 2015 he played the cameo role of Lee Hong-bin in episode 18 of the South Korean family romance comedy drama ‘The Family Is Coming’.
Starting from March 3, 2015 to October 13 of that year he along with Zhou Mi of ‘Super Junior-M’ and Jiyeon of ‘T-ara’ remained co-host of the South Korean music TV program ‘The Show’ that is broadcast by SBS MTV.
In September 2015 he landed up with his first starring role in the South Korean fantasy action romance drama TV series ‘Moorim School’ that also starred Lee Hyun-woo, Jung Yoo-jin and Seo Ye-ji. He essayed the character of Wang Chi-ang, the second male lead, in the series that aired on KBS2 for 16 episodes from January 11, 2016 to March 8, 2016.
Four parts of the ‘Moorim School’ soundtrack was released of which Moorim School OST Part. 1 that released on January 18, 2016 included the drama's main theme song, ‘Alive’ by ‘VIXX’. ‘The King’, title song of Moorim School OST Part. 2 that released on February 1, 2016 was also by ‘VIXX’.
In 2016 he along with group member N as well as Chanmi from ‘AOA’ remained cast members of the Naver TV network web drama ‘What's Up With These Kids?’. Hongbin essayed main role of Jin Si-hwan in the series.
In March 2017 he went on to earn the main lead role of Yoon Jae-won in South Korean romance comedy mini TV series ‘Wednesday 3:30 PM’. The series was first aired on Oksusu for 15 episodes from May 31, 2017 to June 14, 2017 and then on SBS Plus for 10 episodes from June 7, 2017 to June 21, 2017.
Other endeavours of Hongbin includes remaining cast member of the MBig TV aired South Korean variety show ‘Celebrity Bromance’ in 2016 and that of SBS aired South Korean reality-documentary show ‘Law of the Jungle in Komodo’ in 2017.
