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K-pop band Wanna One’s Ong Seong-wu to make his debut as TV actor

K-pop heartthrob Ong Seong-wu will soon be seen on television screens, in the role of an 18-year-old student. Photo: Courtesy of Fantagio

Ong Seong-wu, a member of the former K-pop boy band Wanna One, will begin his acting career on JTBC television network’s upcoming summer drama Moments of 18.

The 23-year-old, who made his singing debut in 2017 on the television audition programme Produce 101, struck out on his own after his 11-member Wanna One troupe disbanded at the end of 2018.

In the television series, Ong has been cast as the male lead and plays a quiet 18-year-old named Choi Jun-wu. The coming-of-age drama follows the lives of a group of high-school students.

“Ahead of my new beginning, my feelings are mixed. I am nervous but excited at the same time. It’s just like when I was preparing for my debut as a singer,” says Ong.

“I’m taking [to] this career with all my heart since it is something I’ve long dreamed of.”

The singer is also planning to release a solo album, the date of which has yet to be decided.

Ong and his Wanna One band mates are scheduled to perform in four concerts at Gocheok Sky Dome between Thursday, January 23, and Sunday, January 26, in what will be their final official shows together.

Another former band, the all-girl group I.O.I, formed in 2016 through the first season of Produce 101, but later disbanded. Its members returned to their respective agencies and joined other girl bands, but none commands the kind of adulation I. O.I did in its day.

Meanwhile, some Wanna One members are going solo.

Kang Daniel, who broke the world record on January 2, 2019 for becoming the fastest to gain a million followers on Instagram – in a mere 10 hours and 59 minutes – announced he is planning to drop his first solo album in April.

Yoon Ji-sung will appear in the musical The Days, and plans to release a solo album in February (before he enlists in spring), while Park Ji-hoon is organising a solo fan conclave next month.

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This article was written by Park Jin-hai for  The Korea Times .
K-pop idols

The 23-year-old singer, who says he is ‘nervous but excited at the same time’, will play a lonely teenager in the television drama ‘Moments of 18’