Jeong Ryeo-won Profile

Born January 22, 1982 (1982-01-22) (age 26)
Seoul, South Korea
Occupation Actress, singer
Years active 1999?—present

Early life
The second of three children, Jeong was born in Korea but emigrated to Brisbane, Australia at the age of 12 with her family. She studied at Macgregor State High School and graduated there.

“In the first few years in Australia, I couldn’t get along with Australian students,” Jung admits. “Since there were few Asians in the neighborhood, the Australian students were very curious about me, but they also bothered me. When I was in sixth grade, I was standing at a pedestrian crossing one day and a car stopped. The driver rolled down the window and spat at me, shouting, ‘Go home!’

“At first, I didn’t even understand what he said. I had never been abused for being yellow before.” Since then, she studied English hard. “I thought, ‘Hang in there and you’ll soon be able to hold your own in English,’ and I made progress quickly. One year later, I gave a speech as a representative of Asian graduates and talked about my experience of discrimination. I got a big round of applause.”

Jeong was an international business major before she came to Korea, but it was the day she was cast on the street while visiting her mother’s country in the summer of 1999 that changed her life, and her career path.
Career start
She originally wanted to be a translator or a professor, but on a trip to Korea in 1999, was discovered by an agent who cast her into the K-pop group Chakra. She was one of the exotic female foursome Chakra, but she confessed she felt like she was wearing uncomfortable clothes all those years when she was in the group. After the girl group disbanded, the sexy, attractive former K-pop star, made a successful debut as a full-time TV actress in MBC’s “My Lovely Samsoon.” She said she had to go through 11 auditions in the last year, in which she was cast in none of the roles. She even doubted her decision to become an actress.

TV series
Which Star Are You From (MBC, 2006)
Autumn Shower (MBC, 2005)
My Lovely Sam-Soon/My Name is Kim Sam Soon (MBC, 2005)
Hello Franceska (MBC, 2005)
Saxophone (KBS, 2002)
Filmography
Hello Ani (2007) /Two Faced Girlfriend/ Two Faces of my Girlfriend
My Boyfriend is Type-B (2005)
Emergency 19 (http://www.emergency19.co.kr) (2002)

More info Jeong Ryeo-won at wikipedia