ELI

Other Name: 일라이

Age: 33

Birthday: March 13, 1991

Nationality: American

Gender: Male

Eli Kim is a Korean-American singer and one of the six-member Korean boyband, U-KISS, under NH Media Entertainment. He is the main rapper of the group and one of the three English-speaking members of UKISS, along with AJ and Kevin. Eli was very well known as a trainee for Taekwondo and Kung Fu. Eli was born in Washington, D.C., by his Korean parents but spent most of his years in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has a younger sister named Minah and an older sister named Hannah. He attended Ni River Middle School and Riverbend High School in Virginia. After dropping out of high school, he went alone to Beijing, China, at the age of 15 to pursue his studies, where he also learned Mandarin. He studied the techniques for Taekwondo and Kung Fu for 12 years, opening an opportunity for him to be cast as an extra-artist in a Chinese movie. On December 4, 2015, Eli announced via Instagram that he had been married for over a year, since June 5, 2014, having dated his wife, who is a model 11 years his senior, for 5 years. It was also announced that they were expecting a child. His fellow members Soohyun and Kevin took to Twitter to comfort the fans about Eli's shocking marriage news. On December 6, 2015, U-KISS' label NH Media released a statement to clear up some questions. His label said that Eli's marriage wouldn't affect his promotions with U-KISS, and he would continue filming his Chinese drama as well. He asked to refrain from leaving hate comments as he would be a father soon. On June 8, 2016, Eli's son, Michael Min Soo Kim, was born. On August 30, 2016, Eli revealed his wife, Ji Yeon Soo, to the public on MBC Every1's "Video Star". On January 4, 2017, Eli revealed his life as a husband and father by joining the reality show KBS's "Mr. House Husband" with his wife, Ji Yeon Soo and their son, Michael Min Soo Kim. Unfortunately, after six years of marriage, Eli announced his divorce sometime in November 2020. He currently lives in the United States, and his son is in South Korea with his wife. On September 21, 2023, it was announced that he had joined fellow U-KISS members at Tango Music. (Source: Wikipedia, Soompi).