Uee’s Profile
Kim Yoo-jin, or as she’s better known, Uee, was a member of the well-known girl-group After School. She was born on April 9, 1988, in her hometown Daegu. She has an older sister named Kim Yoo-na and is the baby of the family. She studied at Sungkyunkwan University, majoring in Performing Arts. Surprisingly, before she debuted with After School, she was a swimmer. Because of her healthy-looking thighs, her fans gave her the adorable nickname Honey Thighs. She was also part of one of After School’s sub-units, A. S. Red. After she parted ways with After School and Pledis Entertainment, she signed a contract with her current agency, Yuleum Entertainment. in addition to her work as an idol, she’s also an actress. She’s had roles in many dramas, such as The Great Queen Seondeok, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, Marriage Contract, Manhole, and many others. She used to be active in social media and shared her recent activities in Instagram, but recently she deleted her account because of her scandal with Kangnam. Her agency confirmed that she’s not currently using any social media accounts at all, but you can check out her recent activities at Yuleum Entertainment’s official Instagram account @yuleument!
Uee’s Career: Debut, Music, Acting, and TV Shows
Uee originally wanted to be an actress, but she ended up debuting as a member of Five Girls along with Wonder Girls Yubin, G.Na, SECRET Jun Hyo-seong and Yang Ji-won under Good Entertainment in 2008. Unfortunately, the group couldn’t make their debut, because of financial problems their agency was having. After Five Girls disbanded, Uee joined with Pledis Entertainment and became a member of After School in April, 2009. That July, she made her debut in acting by starring in the MBC historical drama The Great Queen Seondeok. She was also cast in the SBS musical drama You’re Beautiful later the same year. Later, she joined in a project consisting of 4 performers, including KARA’s former member Han Seung-yeon, Hyuna, and Brown Eyed Girls Gain. Because of her schedule was so busy, she was ranked eighth in Forbes Korea’s list of most hardworking idols in 2010. In 2011, she was given lead roles in two dramas, Birdy Buddy and Ojakgyo Family. She received a lot of praise for her acting, and received Best New Actress awards both at the Paeksang Arts Awards and the KBS Drama Awards. She was still busy with music, too, and released her solo single Sok Sok Sok. Her acting continued to receive praise, and the number of offers for new roles kept increasing, and she started to receive important roles. She appeared in Jeon Woo-chi as Princess Hong Mu-yeon in 2012. The following year, she got to act in a lead role in Golden Rainbow and received an Excellence Award at the 2013 MBC Drama Awards for her acting. In 2015, she starred in the tvN drama Hogu’s Love and the SBS drama High Society, but neither drama received the acclaim of her earlier work, and she received criticism that her acting was poor in both shows. After her contract with Pledis Entertainment ended, she moved to her current agency, Yuleum Entertainment, and shifted gears to focus more on her acting. She starred in the KBS drama Manhole with JYJ Kim Jae-joong as a lead role in 2017. Her current work are the weekend drama My Contracted Husband, Mr. Oh and My Only Love, which are airing this year. If her music and acting weren’t enough, she’s also appeared in many other shows. She starred in the MBC reality show We Got Married with Park Jae-jung as her spouse in 2009, and furthermore, she also became a co-host for the variety show Night After Night. In 2012, she became a permanent host for KBS Music Bank until April 2013. Later, she became a permanent cast member on survival variety show Barefooted Friends. During the show, she performed a song she co-wrote, titled Hero, which was produced by Duble Sidekick. Her path in variety shows keeps going smoothly, and she became part of the cast of Laws of the Jungle in 2014 and Fists of Shaolin Temple in 2015.
Uee’s Weight Loss
If we look at Uee’s photos from the early years of her debut, we could see that she had a healthy looking body and quite chubby cheeks. She was known to have the most healthy figure among all the members of After School. After a few years, though, we could see that Uee’s body figure went through a drastic change. It was later discovered that she had gone through a diet, which she calls a “1000kcal diet.” She said that on this diet, one is allowed to eat anything she/he wants throughout the day, as long as the calories one eats don’t go over 1000kcal. At first sight, it doesn’t seem too hard or too extreme compared to other diet methods, but if we analyze it further, we can see that 1000 calories is only half of the calories we should take per day. Her recent appearance at Seoul Fashion Week 2017 caused netizens to start worrying about her health. They said that she was too thin, to the point that her wrists looked like they could snap at any time. Her looks shocked fans, because she was known for her healthy figure back when she was a member of After School, which made her as a model for CFs in the health and fitness field. Netizens also felt that continued weight loss could be dangerous for her. Uee said in one of her interviews that she was sorry for making her fans worry, and that her body looked too thin because she couldn’t work out properly. When she was asked whether she wants to have her old figure or she was satisfied with her current figure, she answered that she wants to have a body which is between her past figure and her present one, and she hoped to gain a healthy-looking body figure in the end.
