Yoo Jae-suk

Yoo Jae-suk started dating Na Kyung-eun, his colleague on the show ‘Infinite Challenge’, soon after they started working together. Both of them kept denying the rumours of a relationship but eventually, they accepted and tied the marital knot in July 2008. The couple gave birth to a son, Yoo Ji-ho, two years later.

He is also known for his philanthropic activities and donates a significant part of his annual income for social causes.

He has earned the name ‘The Grasshopper’, due to his earlier appearances when he used to dress like a grasshopper.

Yoo Jae-suk was born in the national capital of South Korea, Seoul, on 14th August 1972 and had an artistic inclination since his very early days of elementary and middle school. Around his high school days, he started getting interested towards comedy and used to entertain his family and classmates through his quips and mimicries.

He is the first born son in the family, with two younger sisters and hence, his middle class family had high hopes of him. But Yoo had the extreme opposite plans; he risked everything and got himself enrolled in the Seoul Institute of Arts.

Right around his college days, he started doing comedy and participating in the KBS Comedian Festival in 1991 and it turned out as a life changing experience for him, where he performed the parody of a very popular commercial. His performance was widely loved by the audience and the show producers alike, and he earned a good initial exposure as a comedian.

It was not all a bed of roses for Yoo, as comedians were believed to be in the limelight for a particular period of time only and worse, he had already dropped out of the college.

He remained more or less jobless for the next few years, performing in small events here and there, looking for a big break in the TV industry. He did a small role in the film ‘Tyranno’s Toenail’ and continued trying out for the stints that would pay him enough to survive a few more days until he got the next gig. On a friend’s recommendation, he got to host for ‘Live and enjoy together’ in 2000. The show became popular and Yoo became a minor celebrity, and with rising fame, he became Korea’s Sweetheart, also known by the nickname ‘The Grasshopper’.

After his small but highly successful stint on ‘Live and Enjoy together’ and a few other small hosting jobs, he got the chance to host the show ‘X-Man’. The show started in 2003 and Yoo was associated with it since the very beginning. It started slow, but eventually picked up pace and became the most popular and highest viewed show of its kind in the country, earning Yoo the nickname ‘Nation’s MC’.

He kept doing some other shows in between, such as ‘New X-Man’, ‘Old TV’ and ‘Haja! Go!’ But they didn’t do well and got cancelled after a few episodes and meanwhile ‘X-Man’ kept rising in popularity and brought Yoo international stardom.

In 2006, he joined ‘Infinite Challenge’ as a host. The show started off in 2004 and wasn’t as popular but a little change in concept of the show later turned things around and the show is still running with Yoo as its host, and it is one of the most watched South Korean shows.

In 2005, he also appeared in a mini drama series ‘Banjum Drama’. Around that time, Yoo also started hosting ‘Happy Together 3’ which is also running successfully. He also co-hosted ‘Come to Play’ for many years. Both the shows did great in their own slots and while ‘Happy Together 3’ is still running, ‘Come to Play’ went off air in 2012. Yoo said that both were his favourite shows at that time and he wanted to be different as a host on both of them.

Yoo joined ‘Family Outing’ as a host in June 2008 and became one of the key ‘family members’ loved by millions of viewers. The show became a solid success and managed to sweep the best ratings for the Sunday afternoon slot for many years. It can be argued that ‘Running Man’ is the biggest stint of his career, which he joined in 2010. The show is still running strong and has a huge international following.