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Choi Soo-young (; born February 10, 1990), known as Sooyoung, is a South Korean singer, actress, and songwriter. She was a member of the short-lived Korean-Japanese singing duo Route 0 during 2002 in Japan. After returning to South Korea in 2004, Choi eventually became a member of girl group Girls' Generation in 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of South Korea's most widely known girl groups worldwide.
Apart from her group's activities, Choi has also starred in various Korean drama such as The Third Hospital (2012), (2013), My Spring Days (2014), Squad 38 (2016), Man in the Kitchen (2017–2018), Tell Me What You Saw (2020), and most recently in Run On (2021), So I Married the Anti-fan (2021), If You Wish Upon Me (2022), Not Others (2023), Second Shot at Love (2025), and I Dol I (2026).
In October 2017, Choi left SM Entertainment although she remains as a member of Girls' Generation. She joined Echo Global Group and released her first solo single "Winter Breath" in 2018, before moving to Saram Entertainment in 2019. In October 2024, Choi made her solo debut in Japan with released "Unstoppable" under Japan label Avex Trax.
Choi graduated from JeongShin Women's High School in 2009. She went on to major in film studies and graduated from Chung-Ang University in February 2016, receiving a lifetime achievement award at the graduation ceremony. Her fellow Girls' Generation member Kwon Yuri attended the same university.
Choi returned to SM Entertainment and eventually debuted in South Korea as a member of the girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007.
Aside from Girls' Generation's activities, Choi has participated in various music and acting projects. In the early days, her acting work mostly involved several small roles and guest appearances—these include KBS2's sitcom Unstoppable Marriage (2007), romantic comedy film Hello, Schoolgirl (2008), SBS's drama Oh! My Lady (2010), SBS's Paradise Ranch (2011) and SBS's A Gentleman's Dignity (2012). During this period, musically, she recorded two songs—one trot song titled "KKok" with Girls' Generation member Kwon Yuri for the SBS' drama Working Mom, while the other one, "Feeling Only You", was a collaboration with Girls' Generation member Tiffany Hwang and South Korean duo The Blue.
Throughout her career, besides contributing her vocals to Girls' Generation's songs, Choi has explored songwriting. She penned the lyrics for three songs: "How Great is Your Love" (2011), "What Do I Do" (2016), and "Sailing (0805)" (2016), while co-writing the song "Baby Maybe" (2013).
In September 2012, she landed her first major acting role in tvN's medical drama The Third Hospital. She was praised by both co-actors Oh Ji Ho and Kim Seung-woo and the viewers were drawn to her emotional scene due to her natural display of emotion. In May 2013, Choi was cast in tvN's romantic comedy drama, . It was a spin-off of the 2010 movie Cyrano Agency. She played a dating expert who works at a dating agency helping people to find their love. Park Ju-yeon from the Hankook Ilbo praised Choi for her lively character portrayal and said that there was not any "overdone emotions commonly appear in acting newcomers".
In September 2014, Choi scored a lead role in MBC's melodrama, My Spring Days. Her character is a terminally ill patient who gets a heart transplant; and meets her donor's husband, played by Kam Woo-sung. This was a breakthrough performance for Choi as she won the "Best Actress in a Miniseries" award at the 2014 MBC Drama Awards and the "Excellence Award for Actress" at the 2015 Korea Drama Awards. She contributed a song to its soundtrack, titled "Wind Flower".
In 2015, Choi starred as the female lead in KBS2's special drama Perfect Sense, which was produced by Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance to help raise public understanding of the disabled. She played a teacher named Ah-yeon who is visually impaired.
In June 2016, Choi starred as the female lead alongside Ma Dong-seok and Seo In-guk in the OCN crime drama Squad 38.
In 2018, Choi was cast in the Korean-Japanese film Memories of a Dead End and the action comedy film Miss & Mrs. Cops.
In December 2018, Choi released her solo single, "Winter Breath", which is her first song to be released since her departure from SM Entertainment, with the song's music video made available online on the same day. Choi launched her official Twitter and YouTube accounts to commemorate the single's release.
In May 2019, Choi signed with new agency Saram Entertainment. In February 2020, Choi starred in the OCN drama Tell Me What You Saw.
In 2020, Choi starred in JTBC romance drama Run On. Then in 2021, she starred alongside Choi Tae-joon in the Naver TV romantic comedy series So I Married the Anti-fan, based on the manhwa of the same name and appeared in the Netflix original series Move to Heaven.
In 2022, she starred in the KBS2 drama If You Wish Upon Me in the role of a nurse at hospice. Choi participated in Girls' Generation's fifteenth anniversary album Forever 1 (2022), with her co-writing the songs "Seventeen" and "Villain" for the album.
On August 29, 2024, Saram Entertainment announced that Choi would be releasing her Japanese debut maxi single titled "Unstoppable" on October 30.
In 2016, Choi launched a clothing brand called Beaming Effect with the aim to raise awareness for Retinitis Pigmentosa. She has held several charity bazaars throughout the years and donated the proceeds towards research for treatment of the disease. Notably, she held a funding with Kakao, a charity bazaar and a charity concert featuring various artists in 2017.
Choi has also been appointed ambassador to the Korean Day of Overcoming Rare Diseases, the Social Welfare Council and the National Disability Awareness Improvement Campaign. In 2014, she sponsored the operation cost of a person with heart disease after playing the role of someone who received a heart transplant through organ donation in her drama My Spring Days.
| + List of Korean singles, showing year released, selected chart positions, and name of the album ! scope="col" | Title ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Album |
| + List of Japanese singles, showing year released, selected chart positions, and name of the album ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" colspan="2" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Sales ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
| + Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee of the award, and the result of the nomination ! scope="col" | Award ceremony ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Category ! scope="col" | Nominee / Work ! scope="col" | Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | |
| 2015 | Excellence Award, Actress | My Spring Days | ||||
| Best Couple Award | ||||||
| 2017 | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Weekend Drama | Man in the Kitchen | ||||
| 2022 | Excellence Award, Actress in a Daily/One Act Drama | Fanletter Please | ||||
| Best Couple Award | Choi Soo-young Fanletter Please | |||||
| + Name of publisher, year listed, name of listicle, and placement |
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