Donghae was born in Mokpo, Jeollanam on 15 October 1986.[1] Donghae initially wanted to become an athlete, but under the influence of his father, who once desired to become a singer, Donghae decided to train himself to become a singer. In 2001, Donghae signed a contract with SM Entertainment soon after he jointly won the Best Outward Appearance award with future band mate Sungmin on the company's third annual SM Youth Best Contest.[3] Under SM Entertainment, Donghae was put in singing, dancing, and acting lessons, and was then recruited into a five-member boy band Smile, with future band mate Leeteuk, but the idea was soon dropped.
In 2004, Donghae, along with Leeteuk were put into another boy band and formed Super Junior with ten other trainees. The group later became known as Super Junior 05, the first generation of a rotational music group, Super Junior. In November 2005, several days before the group's debuted, Donghae made a brief appearance at SBS's Shin Dong-yup's There Is There Isn't panel.
2005-2006: Debut with Super Junior
See also: Super Junior
Donghae 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)".[4][5] 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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
Donghae made his acting debut in Super Junior's horror documentary Mystery 6, broadcasted in early 2006. The documentary surrounds Donghae and his peculiar ability to see and feel ghosts. In August 2006, Donghae played the role of a human turned cyborg in the Korean version of BoA's music video drama, "Key of Heart", his first lead appearance in a music video.
2007-2008: Sub-group
Donghae's official debut as an actor was in July 2007, with the release of Super Junior's debut film, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys. Donghae stars as a class mate and close friend of Kim Kibum, a high school student who investigates on a mysterious attack on pretty boys in various high schools in town.[9] In late 2007, Donghae was featured in Girls' Generation's "Kissing You" music video. Also, he and Kyuhyun appeared and sang for facial wash product commercial "Happy Bubble" with actress Han Ji Min.
In April 2008, Donghae was put into seven-member sub-group Super Junior-M, a Mandopop subgroup of Super Junior for the Chinese music industry. They debuted in China at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards, simultaneously with the release of their first music video, "U" on 8 April 2008. This was followed by the release of the debut Chinese-language studio album, Me in selected provinces in China on 23 April and 2 May in Tawain.[10]
2009-2011: Acting and Oppa, Oppa
In 2009, Donghae along wth fellow member Siwon, co-starred in Taiwanese singer Ariel Lin's music video for "螢火蟲" (Firefly), which was released in Blissful Encounter. In July he performed his first composition "Beautiful" during Super Show 2 Tour which was released on Super Show 2 Tour Concert Album. He also played Zhang Li Yin's love interest in her music video, "晴天雨天" (Moving On), released on 19 October 2009.
In 2010, Donghae composed "A Short Journey", with lyrics by fellow member Eunhyuk. Which was released on repackaged Bonamana. In November, he starred in SBS drama, It's Okay, Daddy's Girl as Choi Wook Gi, one of three brothers. He also composed one of its theme song "Just Like Now", a duet with fellow member Ryeowook.
Donghae sang the theme song for the 2011 8th Asia Song Festival, "Dreams Come True", with Seohyun of Girls' Generation, which was released on 11 October 2011 as a digital single. The proceeds from the sale were donated to Unicef to help children in African countries.[11]
In 2011, Donghae co-starred again wth fellow member Siwon, in the Taiwanese drama Skip Beat! with Ivy Chen. It is a live-action adaptation of Japanese shōjo manga Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura shot in Taiwan for four months.[12] Donghae and Siwon attended a press conference in Taipei on 14 December to launch the drama.[13] He also sang the ending theme song, "That's Love" with fellow Super Junior-M member Henry.
Donghae collaborated with One Way's Chance to compose four songs: "Strong Heart Logo Song", "Y" released on their 5th album Mr. Simple, "I Wanna Love You" first performed at the Super Show 3 Tour and released on Super Show 3 Tour Concert Album, and "Oppa, Oppa". As well as the logo song for ShimShimTamPa Radio. He also collaborated with As One to help write the song, "Only U," which was released as a digital single on January 16, 2012, and was also the featured rapper.
On 16 December 2011 Eunhyuk and Donghae released digital single Oppa, Oppa, where they first performed it at Super Junior's Seoul concert of Super Show 4 Tour on 19 November 2011.[14]This marks the first release of their collbrations. The single was also released in Japanese with an original Japanese music video on 4 April 2012.[15] The pair then held a fan meeting, Premium Mini Live Event, to promote the single on 11 April at Shibuya-AX, Tokyo.[16]
2012-present: Comeback with Super Junior
In May 2012, Donghae was cast in the title role of Mr. Hedgehog, in Channel A's romantic comedy, Ms. Panda and Mr. Hedgehog with actress Yoon Seung-ah as the female lead, Ms. Panda.[17]In the drama, Donghae plays Go Seung-gi, a prickly patissier opposite Yoon as easy-going Da-yang, owner of Cafe Panda.[18] The drama reunites Donghae with Choi Jin-hyuk, fellow costar fromIt's Okay, Daddy's Girl, and is to premiere on August 18, 2012.[19][20] Donghae also sang his character Go Seung-gi's theme song "Plz Don’t", which was released online on 20 August.[21] Ms. Panda and Mr. Hedgehog has been translated into 29 languages on Viki, a crowd-sourced translation website.[22]
In June 2012, Donghae reunited with his Super Junior band mates for their sixth studio album, Sexy, Free & Single for released on 4 July. On 22 June, Donghae's teaser photo was released showing him dressed in a black mesh shirt with a white lace veil over his head.[23] In the repackaged edition of the album, re-titled Spy, Donghae co-wrote the lyrics for "Only U" with Leeteuk; and co-composed "Haru" with Urban Zakapa's Kwon Soon-il
