Choi Young-jae

Choi Young-jae (; born September 17, 1996), professionally known by the mononym Youngjae, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is the main vocalist of the Korean boy group Got7.
Biography.
Choi started dreaming of becoming a singer in his childhood, when he sang with his older brother. When the latter enlisted in the military, he joined a practical music academy in his hometown, Mokpo, to learn more professionally, and in 2011, he won the Vocal Excellence Award at Mokpo Youth Music Festival. In 2013, JYP Entertainment held a closed audition in the academy and he became a trainee.
Career.
Got7.
After one month of training in Seoul, Choi was added to the project group to form JYPE new boy band. After a total of 7 months of training, he subsequently debuted as the main vocalist of the seven member boy group, Got7, with the single "Girls Girls Girls", released on January 16, 2014, from the group's first EP "Got It?". In early times after the debut, Choi mentioned his dream was to become a music therapist.
Solo activities.
He has been writing songs and lyrics under the name Ars since 2016, starting with "Rewind" in Got7's extended play "".
Choi had a collaboration with Sanjoy and Elliott Yamin in 2017 on the song "Victim of Love", while he recorded "I'm All Ears" with Park Ji-min for the Life Insurance Social Philanthropy Foundation's youth suicide prevention campaign in 2018. The song was released on October 15 alongside its music video.
In 2018 and 2020, he sang "At the Usual Time" (그 시간에) and "Fall In Love" (빠져드나봐) for the original soundtracks of TV dramas "Wok of Love" and "When My Love Blooms". Together with Day6's Young K, he became the new DJ of MBC Radio "Idol Radio" starting from May 18, 2020. The first season of the show ended on September 25.
In the spring of 2019, he joined Jus2 in their 'Focus' Premiere Showcase in Asia, acting as the MC for Tokyo (April 10–11) and Osaka (April 17–18) stops.
On May 25, 2020, in collaboration with Howlpot, a pet product design brand, he launched Ars X Coco, a clothing store for people and dogs, which ran for two weeks until June 8. The proceeds, amounting to 15 million won, were donated to Korea Animal Rights Advocates's The Bom Center, a non-profit care center for abandoned dog. Choi featured in the September issue of "Star1 Magazine" for his first solo interview and photoshoot the same year.
On September 25, he was announced in the cast of Netflix new sitcom "So Not Worth It", which will tell the stories of a group of multicultural students living in a college dorm. Choi will portray Sam, the son of the CEO of a food chain based in Australia. He then also competed in the Idol Star Dog Championships, a dog agility competition, which aired as a Chuseok special on MBC on October 2.
Following the expiration of his contract with JYP Entertainment, on January 20, 2021, he signed an exclusive contract with Sublime Artist Agency.
On March 9, 2021, it was announced that Choi had joined the cast of "Midnight Sun", a musical adaptation of Japanese movie "A Song to the Sun", in the leading role of Ha-ram. "Midnight Sun" will be performed from May 1 until July 25 at the Kwanglim Arts Center. One month later, he released the song "Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down" as part 1 of the musical's soundtrack.
On April 1, it was confirmed that Choi was selected as campaign artist for Levi's Red alongside Lim Na-young.
On May 7, he released the soundtrack "Pop Star" for the web series "So I Married the Anti-fan".
Personal life.
In 2012, Choi moved to Seoul's Korean Arts High School, from which he graduated in February 2015. He then got accepted into Seokyeong University's Department of Theater and Film, but the following year he moved to the Daekyeung University's Modeling Department for schedule conflicts.
In August 2020, he registered as an organ donor.
Writing credits.
All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted.