Everything about EXO(boy band)

#5 KRIS

KRIS

Full name: Wu Yifan

Born: november 06, 1990

Nationality: Chinese-Canadian

Height: 187cm

Blood type: /

Position: EXO-M leader and lead rapper

Group: EXO-M

Wu Yifan (Chinese: 吴亦凡; pinyin: Wú Yìfán), best known by his stage name, Kris (Korean: 크리스) (born November 6, 1990), is a Canadian-Chinese actor and singer-songwriter currently active in China. He is a former member of EXO and the former leader of its sub-group, EXO-M. As of May 14, 2014, he took action against the company SM by nullifying his contract to leave the group. It is believed that it was because of contractual issues with the company. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 11; he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, English, as well as Korean.[2]

EARLY LIFE

Li Jiaheng was his birth name, changed for unknown purposes. Kevin Li was his English name before becoming the member of EXO[1] (Chinese: 李嘉恒; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāhéng), in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

He immigrated to Vancouver, Canada at the age of 10 with his mother. In 2005, at the age of 15, he returned to Guangzhou and attended Guangzhou No. 7 Middle School for a short period. He served as the captain of the school basketball team. The team had won 1st place in China Junior NBA tournament-South China Region that year. After that, he went back to Vancouver. Then he attended Point Grey Secondary School and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. He was also the captain of the basketball teams when he studied in these two schools.[3]

At the age of 16, Kris auditioned for S.M. Entertainment's Canadian S.M. Global Auditions, which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 14, 2007. He was attending Point Grey Secondary School (Vancouver) at the time of the casting. After passing the auditions, he moved to South Korea the following year and became an S.M. trainee. Prior to joining EXO, he made an appearance in an intermission video for the Girls' Generation Tour in 2011.

CAREER

Wu was introduced as the eleventh member of EXO on February 17, 2012 as EXO-M's leader.[4] He is one of four Chinese members out of twelve in EXO. He is fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Korean. EXO debuted on April 8, 2012 with MAMA. The group achieved commercial success with their first studio XOXO and its repackaged version in 2013. The album became the first album in twelve years to sell over one million copies in South Korea and is the 11th best selling album of all time.[5] In December 2013, group released a special Christmas album Miracles in December and returned with Overdose in May 2014 which became the best selling album of 2014.

On May 15, 2014, S.M. Entertainment confirmed through an interview that Wu had filed a lawsuit against the agency to terminate his contract.[6] The same law firm that represented Han Geng of Super Junior in his lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment will also be representing Wu.[7]

On June 24, 2014, Xu Jinglei announced Wu is joining the main cast for her new movie Somewhere Only We Know, which the filming process took place in Prague, through her Weibo.[8] The movie was Wu's debut as an actor after filing his lawsuit. In mainland China, the film grossed US$37.81 million in its first six days debuting at No. 1 at the box office.[9] The movie was considered a very strong performance for all the buzz it made, amid what is normally a quiet period in week in China before the Chinese New Year.[10]

On July 17, 2014, Wu released his first solo song, "Time Boils the Rain (时间煮雨)", which was a movie soundtrack for the Chinese box office movie, Tiny Times 3.[11][12] According to Weibo Music official weibo update, the song broke records, exceeding 1 million plays within 3 hours and 25 minutes on its first day of release. This has broken the previous record of exceeding 1 million plays within 7 hours set by 平凡之路.[13]

On August 12, 2014, according to the movie's representatives, Wu will play one of the three male leads in the movie melodrama based on an internet novel that tells a love story involving three men and one woman. Wu will be acting with Han Geng and Joo Won in the upcoming movie.[14][15] The movie itself was a collaboration by China Films and Wiehwa Entertainment. It was filmed in China and Korea, but Wu reportedly only filmed in China.[16]

Wu was featured on Harper's Bazaar China's October issue.[17] The photoshoot was taken in Prague while he was filming for his first movie, Somewhere Only We Know. He talked about the movie, love, and fashion in the interview. The exclusive interview was claimed to be his first individual talk to the media after his lawsuit.

On October 16, 2014, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation confirmed the news that Wu will play a role in the movie 老炮儿 (Mr. Six). Directed by prominent director Guan Hu, Mr. Six is considered as one of China’s most anticipated film releases for 2015. It also stars legendary actor-director Feng Xiaogang, Li Yifeng, Jiang Wen, Zhang Hanyu, and Zhang Guoli.[18] The movie is expected to be released on December 24, 2015.

On November 6, 2014, his 24th birthday, he released the movie soundtrack for Somewhere Only We Know, "There Is A Place (有一个地方)".[19] The song broke records according to Weibo Music's official update, exceeding 1 million plays in 50 minutes, breaking the previous record he made of reaching the same amount of plays in 3 hours and 25 minutes.[20] The song was co-written and produced by him, with composition provided by former S.M. trainee, Song Bingyang.[21]

Wu became the youngest celebrity (born in 1990) to have his wax figure at Madame Tussauds Shanghai.[22] On December 1, 2014, Wu appeared at an event celebrating the fact that the world famous Madame Tussauds had decided to add his wax sculpture to the Shanghai branch of the museum. Madame Tussauds staff from the United Kingdom flew to China to meet with Wu to measure and make molds for his sculpture. The sculpture is expected to be released in mid-2015.[23]

Esquire China named Wu as 'Rookie of The Year' in their Man At His Best 2014 issue.[24] He was on the cover of the December issue of Esquire alongside other China prominent figures such as Nicholas Tse, Huang Bo, and Jack Ma.[25] On December 31, 2014, he performed at the Zhejiang TV New Year's Eve concert. The concert was held in Tianhe Stadium, Guangdong.[26] He sang the theme song for Tiny Times and the theme song of his own movie Somewhere Only We Know, which was written by himself.

2015
It was confirmed through Sina that Wu will make a cameo appearance in Stephen Chow's upcoming movie, Mermaid. Sina Entertainment stated that his character in the movie was reportedly specially written for him. He will be sharing scenes with Deng Chao. The movie is expected to be released on Chinese New Year in 2016.[27]

Vogue China officially announced that Wu was invited to attend the Met Gala in 2015.[28] Together with Chen Kun, Wu was the first Chinese male actor to make an appearance at the red carpet event.[29] Regarding his involvement at the Met Gala, InStyle reported that according to Twitter, Wu was ranked 4th as the most tweeted-about stars at gala after Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Beyonce.[30] In June 2015, Wu was invited to the 2015 Paris Men's Fashion Week by Givenchy.[31]

On May 4, 2015, Guo Jingming announced through his Weibo that Wu will be one of the lead actors of his newest movie, L.O.R.D. Wu will act with Fan Bingbing and TFBOYS member Wang Yuan. The roles for each actor have not been announced as of June 2015. The movie is expected to be released in the summer of 2016.[32]

In February 2015, Wu was featured on the cover of Harper's Bazaar China with Xu Jinglei.[33] Then in July 2015 issue, he became the first male celebrity to be on the cover of Vogue China since the magazine was established in 2005.[34]

Wu has been appointed as a spokesperson for several brands, such as Tencent Yingyongbao,[35] Mengniu DiLanShengXue Ice Cream,[36] Mengniu Naite Milk,[37] and Tong Yi Iced Tea.[38] Adidas Originals announced Wu as the ambassador of their ZX Flux series.[39] Wu also endorsed Maybelline BB Cushion product.[40]

On December 15, 2015, Luc Besson announced on his Twitter account that Wu would be in his upcoming film Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets.[41]