Mingyu (민규)

Kim Mingyu was born on April 6, 1997, in Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and grew up as the older of two children alongside his younger sister, Kim Min-seo. As a child, he was drawn to sports and music simultaneously — he played competitive youth soccer, helping his team place second in a national championship, and later picked up the bass guitar, eventually becoming his middle school band’s bassist. That early exposure to performance planted the seed for what would become his entertainment career.

Mingyu was scouted by Pledis Entertainment during his second year of middle school and officially joined the agency as a trainee in 2012 (some sources cite 2011 as the year he began training informally). Over the next several years, he trained intensively in singing, dancing, and rap while attending Seoul Broadcasting High School, graduating in 2016. During his trainee years, Mingyu appeared in the online reality series Seventeen TV, which documented the pre-debut lives of Pledis’ trainees, and he was also featured in music videos for label-mates like Nu’est before his own group’s launch.

On May 26, 2015, Mingyu officially debuted as one of the 13 members of SEVENTEEN with the group’s first mini-album, 17 Carat — an album that went on to become the only rookie release to appear on Billboard’s “10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015” list. Within the group, Mingyu found his place as lead rapper and sub-vocalist of the Hip-Hop Unit, while also becoming known informally as the group’s visual centerpiece due to his height and striking features.

His individual profile grew quickly. In February 2018, Mingyu was appointed as a co-host of SBS’s long-running music show Inkigayo, a role he held for roughly a year and seven months alongside actor Song Kang and DIA’s Jung Chae-yeon. In 2021, he teamed up with fellow member Wonwoo to release the digital single “Bittersweet,” featuring singer Lee Hi — one of SEVENTEEN’s earliest official sub-unit-style collaborations outside the main group format.

As SEVENTEEN’s discography expanded through albums like Heng:garae, An Ode, Attacca, Face the Sun, FML, and Seventeenth Heaven — several of which became some of the best-selling K-pop albums in history — Mingyu continued contributing as a songwriter on dozens of tracks, working consistently with producer Bumzu and fellow Hip-Hop Unit members S.Coups, Wonwoo, and Vernon.

From 2022 onward, Mingyu’s profile expanded dramatically into the fashion world. He became an ambassador for Lancôme (2022), attended Cartier and Marni events, was named Innisfree’s global model (2023), and by 2024 had been named a brand ambassador for both Bvlgari and Dior, appearing at Paris Fashion Week and being profiled by Vogue. He also fronted campaigns for Calvin Klein, L’Occitane, Unove haircare, and Allo Bank, cementing his status as one of the most in-demand K-pop idols in luxury fashion.

In 2025, Mingyu reached a new career milestone: alongside SEVENTEEN’s leader S.Coups, he debuted the group’s fourth official sub-unit, CxM (S.Coups x Mingyu), releasing the six-track EP Hype Vibes on September 29, 2025, which included the collaborative track “5, 4, 3 (Pretty Woman)” featuring American rapper Lay Bankz. That same year, he released his first credited solo track, “Shake It Off,” featured on SEVENTEEN’s 10th-anniversary album Happy Burstday.

As of mid-2026, SEVENTEEN entered a new phase, with several members having already completed or begun mandatory military service. Mingyu, born in 1997, is expected to enlist by April 2027 at the latest, per South Korea’s conscription laws, with the group planning to reunite as a full 13-member act by 2028 following this “temporary chapter apart.”