Hyun Bin

• Hyun Bin Official Fan Club (Korean)
• Hyun Bin DC Gallery(Korean)

Hyun Bin (Korean: 현빈) (born Kim Tae-pyung on September 25, 1982) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his lead roles in the TV dramas My Name is Kim Sam-soon in 2005, and Secret Garden in 2010. In 2010 he saw a surge of fame with Secret Garden, a romantic fantasy about a fussy and arrogant department store owner and a penniless stunt woman (Ha Ji-won) who switch souls every time it rains. The show brought in 30% ratings and garnered much interest regarding its fashion, catchphrases and music, and Hyun was recognized at the SBS Drama Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards for his role.  He also contributed to the soundtrack with “That Man”, which peaked at number one in eight Korean music portals. In February 2011 he walked the red carpet at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival where two of his films Come Rain, Come Shineand Late Autumn screened. He described the honor as his “happiest achievement.” In Late Autumn, an English-language remake shot in Seattle of the 1966 Lee Man-hee classic, Hyun played a man on the run who falls in love with a woman who is on special leave from prison (Chinese actress Tang Wei).  It became the highest grossing Korean film released in China to date, taking in more than $9.5 million over two weeks, which is unprecedented for a melodrama.  He received a good review from The Hollywood Reporter which stated, “it is Hyun who impresses more for not underplaying the dandy, narcissistic side of his personality.” On March 7, 2011, Hyun volunteered to serve his 21 months of compulsory military service in the Marine Corps, considered the toughest service branch. He is due to be discharged on December 16, 2012.   In February 2011 his film, Come Rain, Come Shine, premiered In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. On 7 March 2011, Hyun enlisted in the Marine Corps in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province to serve 21 months of compulsory military service. He is due to be discharged on 6 December 2012.

Erica Durance

• Erica Durance at the Internet Movie Database
• Erica Durance cast bio on CTV
• Erica Durance cast bio on NBC

Erica Durance ( born June 21, 1978) is a Canadian actress and producer. She has also been credited as Erica Parker. She is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the Superman-inspired American television series Smallville. In 2012, Durance is starring in the lead role in the new medical drama television series, Saving Hope. In 2004, she guest-starred on The Chris Isaak Show playing Ashley, a woman on a date with Chris. In Tru Calling, her character was a contender in a beauty pageant opposite Eliza Dushku’s character. On the Sci-Fi Channel, she played an intergalactic librarian inAndromeda and a love interest for Teal’c in Stargate SG-1. She also played a sister to one of the leads in the Canadian show The Collector. Durance was cast as Lois Lane on Smallville prior to the beginning of the 4th season. Executive Producer Kelly Souders recalled hiring Durance stating: “There were a lot of wonderful actresses who came in for the role but I remember sitting and watching her tape and everybody was like, ‘That’s her. There’s no question.”  Fellow producer Brian Peterson added that from the moment Durance was hired they knew she would be Lois for the series. Durance was a frequent guest star for the 4th season of Smallville and was then promoted as a series regular for the 5th season. She remained part of the regular cast for the remainder of the series run. 2011 has seen Durance complete her stint on Smallville and guest star in one episode of the cancelled ABC show Charlie’s Angels. In January 2012, she guest starred again, this time in the NBC TV series Harry’s Law. 2012 also saw Durance do a cameo in Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. In the summer of 2012, Durance is playing the lead role in the NBC/CTV medical drama Saving Hope, where she’s also a producer. The series also stars Michael Shanks andDaniel Gillies. Saving Hope premiered on NBC and CTV on June 7.

Lana Del Rey, Elizabeth Grant

• Official website
• Lana Del Rey at the Internet Movie Database

Elizabeth Grant (born June 21, 1986), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her managers have branded her as a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra,” although she has indicated that Sinatra has not been an influence on her music. Grant cites Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain as her musical influences. Later in June 2011, Del Rey was signed with Stranger Records, to release her debut single “Video Games”; in October 2011, she was signed with Interscope Records. While being interviewed by Rosie Swash of The Observer, Del Rey revealed, “I just put that song online a few months ago because it was my favorite. To be honest, it wasn’t going to be the single, but people have really responded to it. I get very sad when I play that song. I still cry sometimes when I sing it.” On October 24th 2011, it was announced that Del Rey had won the Q award for “Next Big Thing.” Del Rey’s song “Video Games” was featured for the first time in a prime spot on The CW’s TV-Series Ringer on September 28, 2011, during a pivotal scene, propelling Lana Del Rey into the mainstream. Del Rey also promoted the album with performances in a number of live appearances, including for MTV Push, and at the Bowery Ballroom, where, according to Eliot Glazer of “New York”, “the polarizing indie hipstress brought her ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ swagu.” Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone commented that, despite Del Rey being nervous and anxious while performing her songs live, she “sang with considerable confidence,” although he noted that “her transitions from husky, come-hither sexuality to bratty, girlish petulance could be rather jarring.” Del Rey also performed “Video Games” on the Dutch television program De Wereld Draait Door, on British music television show Later… with Jools Holland, and on an intimate show at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, California. Del Rey also gave several interviews for newspapers and online magazines such as The Quietus, The Observer, and Pitchfork Media,while creating her own music videos for several tracks such as “Blue Jeans” and “Off to the Races”. It was later reported that the singer would release her debut album under the labels in January 2012.During an interview with French TV show Taratata, Del Rey revealed that the album would be named Born to Die Born to Die is set to be released on January 27, 2012 in Ireland, January 30, 2012, in the UK, and on January 31, 2012 worldwide. The second single and title track “Born to Die” was released on December 30, 2011. The music video for it leaked on December 14, 2011,and was based on a concept created by the singer, while being directed by Yoann Lemoine. The music video received generally favorable reviews from critics. Del Rey made her American television debut on Saturday Night Live on January 14, 2012. The quality of the performance was highly criticized online.Daniel Radcliffe, who served as the host of the episode, defended Del Rey, saying “I don’t think it warranted anywhere near that reaction.”

Kristopher Neil "Kris" Allen

• Official website
• Kris Allen at Billboard.com

Kristopher Neil “Kris” Allen (born June 21, 1985) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol.Prior to Idol, he self-released a 2007 album entitled Brand New Shoes. Allen’s Idol coronation song, “No Boundaries” and his version of “Heartless” both charted within the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Allen’s post-Idol self-titled album was released on November 17, 2009, through 19 Recordings and Jive Records. The album debuted at number eleven on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album’s lead single, “Live Like We’re Dying”, was released on September 21, 2009, and peaked at number eighteen in the U.S. with combined sales of over 1.7 million. Allen’s second major-label album Thank You Camellia was released on May 22, 2012, and the lead single “The Vision of Love” was released March 26, 2012. On October 7, 2011 RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Allen (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release his future material on the 19 Recordings and RCA Records brands. In an interview with Clevver News, Allen revealed that his next album is tentatively scheduled to be released in late May or early June 2012. Allen debuted several new songs at an acoustic concert at The Mint in Los Angeles on February 9, 2012. The new tracks he performed were called “Monster,” “Out Alive,” “Better with You,” “The Vision of Love” and “Teach Me How Love Goes”. He also performed “Leave You Alone”, “You Got a Way”, and “Keep that Devil Out”, which he had debuted at earlier concerts. “The Vision of Love” was officially announced as the lead single from Allen’s sophomore album on March 6, 2012. The song was co-written by Allen, Nasri, and Adam Messinger, and it is available for download on iTunes and an exclusive version consisting the remix from the Finnish duo Maison and Dragen on Walmart since March 26, 2012. The remix of the track leaked onto the internet on January 25, 2012. It was announced March 29, 2012 that Kris’s sophomore album titled, Thank You Camellia, would be released on May 22, 2012.

Kim Ryeo Wook

 Ryeowook Official Twitter Kim Ryeo Wook (Hangul: 김려욱, Hanja: 金厲旭) was born on 21 June 1987, mononymouly credited as Ryeowook. He is a South Korean singer-songwriter, Radio DJ and occasional actor. He is best known as a member of K-pop boy band Super Junior and its subgroups, Super Junior-M and Super Junior-K.R.Y. Along with four other Super Junior members, he is one of the first Korean artists to appear on Chinese postage stamps. Ryeowook officially debut as part of 12-member project group Super Junior 05 on 6 November 2005 on SBS’s music programme Popular Songs, performing their first single, “TWINS (Knock Out)”. Their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) was released a month later on 5 December 2005 and debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts. In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. Following the addition of thirteenth member Kyuhyun, the group dropped the suffix “05” and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group’s first CD single “U” was released on 7 June 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of “Sorry, Sorry” in March 2009. In the fall of 2007, the group released their second official album, Don’t Don, which became Super Junior’s best-selling album and Korea’s second best-selling album of the year. Ryeowook is featured in K.Will’s 2009 song “Dropping the Tears”. He is also the first member of Super Junior to sing a solo track included in their album, “One Fine Spring Day” was released in Bonamana. Ryeowook made his musical theatre debut in Temptation of Wolves alongside Park Hyung Sik of ZE:A and Lim Jeong Hee. It ran from 14 July to 30 October 2011 at the COEX Artium. On 24 February 2012, Ryeowook graduated from Inha University with a major in theater and film studies.  On 16 and 23 June, following the footsteps of band mates Yesung andKyuhyun, Ryeowook joined KBS’s Immortal Song 2 with Sunggyu of Infinite, where singers render their own versions of old songs from music legends and winners are selected by voting.

Rebecca Black

• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel

Rebecca Renee Black (born June 21, 1997) is an American pop singer and dancer who gained extensive media attention with the 2011 single “Friday”. Her mother paid $4,000 to have the single and an accompanying music video put out as a vanity release  through the record label ARK Music Factory. The song was co-written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson of Ark Music Factory. After the video went viral on YouTube and other social media sites, “Friday” was derided by many music critics and viewers, who dubbed it “the worst song ever.”  The music video received around 167 million views, causing Black to gain international attention as a “viral star”, before being removed from the site on June 16. Black re-uploaded it in her own channel three months later. Black teamed up with Funny or Die on April Fool’s Day (the site was renamed Friday or Die) for a series of videos, including one which addresses the controversy about the driving kids in her music video, stating “We so excited about safety.” She has stated that she is a fan of Justin Bieber, and expressed interest in performing a duet with him. In response to the YouTube video of “Friday”, Black began to receive death threats in late February 2011, specifically by phone and email. These threats are being investigated by the Anaheim Police Department. In March 2011, Ryan Seacrest reportedly helped sign Rebecca to manager Debra Baum’s DB Entertainment. MTV selected Rebecca to host its first online awards show, the O Music Awards Fan Army Party in April 2011. As an homage to “Friday”, Black appears in the music video forKaty Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, in which Black plays alongside Perry as the hostess of a party Perry attends. “Friday” was also performed on the second season ofGlee in the episode, “Prom Queen”, which originally aired May 10, 2011. When asked about why the song was covered on Glee, show creator Ryan Murphy replied, “The show pays tribute to pop culture and, love it or hate it, that song is pop culture.” On October 25, Black announced she started filming her upcoming music video which she first identified as ‘POI’ and later identified as “Person of Interest”. Black said, “The basis of it is that it’s a love song but it’s not a love song. It’s about almost teenage crushes — when you’re not in love yet but you really like a guy — which I’m really excited about because I don’t think there are too many out like that. It’s very much a dance type song. It will make you get up and dance and sing along in your car.”  A teaser of the official music video was posted on November 3, 2011. Black released another teaser including a snippet of the song on November 10, 2011 on her YouTube channel. The single and its accompanying music video were released on November 15, 2011. On December 20, 2011, “Friday” was revealed as the #1 video of the year by YouTube and Black hosted a short video called “YouTube Rewind”. Zeitgeist sorted billions of Google searches to capture the year’s 10 fastest-rising global queries and the rest of the spirit of 2011. Rebecca Black #1 Most Searched Google. The searches for the teen singer topped even those of pop icon Lady Gaga and Adele. On May 8, 2012, Black released her fourth official single, “Sing It”. The music video premiered on Black’s YouTube the same day.

Choi Bool-am

• Choi Bool-am at the Korean Movie Database
• Choi Bool-am at the Internet Movie Database

Choi Bool-am (born June 15, 1940) is a South Korean actor and a professor. Choi was born in the neighborhood of Geumgok-dong, Dong-gu, Incheon, Korea in 1941. Choi was the only son to his father Choi Cheol, a business man, and his mother Lee Myeong-suk who was a daughter of a royal pharmacist of the Korean Empire. Choi Cheol suddenly died when Choi was 8 years old and entered Sinheung Elementary School in Incheon. Choi moved to Seoul to attedn Jungang Middle School. Choi was drawn to theater as he entered a theater club at Juangang High School. Choi established directing experiences while at Seorabeol Art College. He entered Hanyang University in 1960. Before the graduation, Choi starred in several plays. Choi was recruited as a KBS TV actor in 1976, and entered stardom with the role of Kim Jong-seo in the drama series, Prince Suyang.

Awards

• 1974, the 10th PaekSang Arts Awards : Best TV Acting (한백년(MBC))
• 1975, the 11th PaekSang Arts Awards : Favorite TV Actor selected by readers
• 1978, the 17th Grand Bell Awards : Best Supporting Actor (세종대왕)
• 1978, the 14th PaekSang Arts Awards : Excellent TV Acting (당신(MBC))
• 1979, the 18th Grand Bell Awards : Best Actor (달려라 만석아)
• 1980, the 1st Korean Film Critics Association Awards : Best Actor (최후의 증인)

Neetu Chandra

Neetu Chandra at the Internet Movie Database Neetu Chandra is an Indian theatre and film actress and model. She entered Hindi film industry in 2005 with Garam Masala in which she portrayed Sweety, an airhostess. She also acted in Telugu filmGodavari in 2006. In 2007 she appeared in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film, Traffic Signal. In preparation, Chandra in order to enter her character spent a whole week living on the streets of Mumbai and living by a traffic light. In the year 2008, she had four releases by Directors, Dibakar Banerjee, Rahul Dholakia, Ashwini Dheer and Vikram. Her Tamil film, Yavarum Nalam with Madhavan released this year and was declared a major hit. Currently, Neetu is working on a major project, Jag Mundhra’s Apartment. In 2011 she released Deswa, a Bhojpuri film which she produced and which was directed by her brother.

Ting Man, Cherrie Ying

• Official Sina blog (Chinese)
• CherrieYing.net
• IMDB entry

Ting Man (born June 20, 1983 in Taipei, Taiwan), better known as Cherrie Ying or Ying Choi-yi, is a Hong Kong actress. She moved to New York City at a young age, and later moved to Hong Kong. Her nickname is “Dingding” (丁丁), and she is often credited under the name Cherrie In. After making her film debut in Fulltime Killer, she caught the attention of Charles Heung’s wife, Tiffany Chen, and was signed to a contract with China Star Entertainment Group.^[1] Since then, Ying has been working consistently as an actress and continues to gain popularity in the Hong Kong cinema scene. Ying married actor and singer Jordan Chan on February 14, 2010 (Valentine’s Day). The couple held their wedding at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas at 12:30pm. They plan to have their wedding reception in Hong Kong.

Dreama Walker

• Dreama Walker at the Internet Movie Database
• Dreama Walker Online

Dreama Walker (born June 20, 1986) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Hazel Williams on Gossip Girl, as Becca on The Good Wife. As of 2012, she stars as June on the ABC comedy series Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. In 2008, Walker appeared as Ashley Kowalski, the granddaughter of Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino. In 2010, Walker starred as Harper Grace in Seven Deadly Sins which premiered on Lifetime Movie Network alongside Rachel Melvin.  Part one of the two part series, premiered on May 23, 2010 while part two premiered on May 24, 2010. In 2012 she stars as June on the new ABC comedy series Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 opposite Krysten Ritter and James Van Der Beek