From SM to JYP— Ex-KNK Park Seoham Reveals Chaotic Idol Debut Journey

Former KNK member turned actor Park Seoham reveals his chaotic journey to be debut as an idol, which involved three of the Big 4 companies!

Keep on reading to know more.

Former KNK Member Park Seoham Had No Plans of Becoming an Idol

Former KNK member turned actor Park Seoham, who was known as Park Seungjun before and recently rose to prominence after starring the in BL (boys love) drama "Semantic Error," shared in the past his interestingly chaotic journey to making his debut as a K-pop idol.

Before getting his big break as an actor, Park Seoham promoted as an idol with KNK for five years, until his departure from the group in September 2021. But prior to that, he has actually never dreamed of entering the entertainment industry and pursuing a career as an idol.

(Photo : Instagram: @knk_official_knk)
KNK

In fact, Park Seoham once dreamed of being a school teacher. He said, "In the past, I had dreamed of becoming a school teacher. I wanted to teach Korean to students. I have always just thought that the teachers' desks at school looked cool. My reasons [to become a teacher] were as simple as that."

However, the idol-turned-actor ended up auditioning for entertainment companies after accompanying his friend to an audition. As a matter of fact, Park Seoham's first audition was at SM Entertainment!

"When I was in my last year of high school, my friend said he wanted to go audition for SM Entertainment, so I ended up going with him. Since I was already there, I naturally ended up auditioning for the company as well, although I wasn't prepared," he said.

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Park Seoham Went Through 3 of the Big 4 Companies

But following his audition at the company, SM Entertainment decided to "pass him off" to another company, which was JYP Entertainment!

He said, "The staff at SM Entertainment were like, 'We will pass you on to another company,' and that other company turned out to be JYP Entertainment."

Despite initially having no plans of being an idol, he decided to just go with the flow and went to audition for JYP Entertainment.

However, in a crazy turn of events, a casting director from Big Hit Entertainment (now known as HYBE) had scouted him on his way back from his audition!

(Photo : Instagram: @parkseoham)
Former KNK Park Seoham

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"On my way home back from my audition at JYP Entertainment, a casting director from Big Hit [Entertainment] scouted me on the street. I signed with them, and started out as their trainee right away," Park Seoham shared.

Eventually, he trained under Big Hit Entertainment for around two years, and even trained with the members of BTS during his time there.

But after failing to make his debut with BTS, he decided to leave and join JYP Entertainment instead. There, he trained with the members of DAY6, TWICE, and GOT7, before leaving once again to become a trainee at 220 Entertainment.

After training at 220 Entertainment, he was able to debut in the five-member group KNK in March 2016. Since his departure from the group, Park Seoham has been focusing on his acting career.

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Written by Robyn Joan

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