Kang Daniel (; commonly stylized as KANGDANIEL; born Kang Eui-geon []; December 10, 1996) is a South Korean singer-songwriter, actor, television host, and businessman who rose to fame in early 2017 as the first-place winner of the second season of reality competition series Produce 101. He is a former member of the show's resulting boy group Wanna One that, at the time, was a major power player in the K-pop industry.
Following the end of Wanna One's activities as a group, Kang took a six-month hiatus from the entertainment industry and took over management of his career. In mid-2019, he released his solo debut extended play (EP), Color on Me, which was a commercial success that topped South Korea's Gaon Album Chart. His subsequent works from his color series titled Cyan (2020) and Magenta (2020) also topped the Gaon Album Chart with the former's title track earning Kang his first domestic top ten single. Further solidifying his career as a solo artist, Kang earned his first top five single in Korea as well as his first solo appearance on Billboard'''s World Digital Song Sales chart through the single "Paranoia". He then released the third and final chapter of his "color trilogy", Yellow (2021), which topped the Gaon Album Chart and contained his first domestic number one single titled "Antidote".
Alongside his music career, Kang appeared as the host of Mnet's Street Woman Fighter (2021), the spin-off show Street Dance Girls Fighter (2021–2022), the one-episode television special titled Be the SMF (2022) in addition to Street Man Fighter (2022) as well as Street Woman Fighter 2 (2023). He also made his acting debut through the first-ever Korean Disney+ Star original series, Rookie Cops (2022). His other ventures include establishing an independent entertainment company named Konnect Entertainment to manage his own career that has since expanded to manage other artists in addition to himself.
Kang is the recipient of numerous accolades including four Seoul Music Awards, one Melon Music Award, one Circle Chart Music Award, and a Guinness World Record. His acting debut also earned him various accolades including two Asia Artist Awards, one Blue Dragon Series Award, and a Seoul International Drama Award. He has made the Gallup Korea list of Most Preferred Idols in 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40 list in 2019 and 2022, and appeared on Peoples list of talented emerging artists making their mark in 2022. In the same year, Kang was the recipient of the Seoul Mayor's Award for Culture due to his great contribution to the rise of Seoul's awareness by promoting the Korean Wave in various fields.
Life and career
Early life and career beginnings
Kang Daniel was born as Kang Eui-geon () in Busan, South Korea as the only child of his family. After spending his childhood and most of his teen years with his birth name, he decided to legally change it to Daniel due to family and friends having difficulty pronouncing Eui-geon. On an episode of MBC's Radio Star, Kang cited a biblical figure as his source of inspiration for the name Daniel. He began dancing in eighth grade through a b-boy club he joined following a teacher's suggestion and later attended a dance academy in Busan called Nataraja Academy. Following this, Kang participated in a youth dance competition titled "Busan City Kids" where he and his teammate won against competitors such as Jimin (who would later become a member of BTS) and Park Woo-jin (who would later become a fellow member of Wanna One). During a guest appearance at variety show Hello Counselor, Kang revealed that he was ostracized in elementary school because of his appearance and developed passion and built self-esteem through dancing. To further pursue this passion, he attended Peniel Arts High School where he studied modern dance for a year with a focus on ballet and won a gold medal in the dance category at the 49th High School Performing Arts Contest. Having been raised in a single parent household, Kang revealed that the "tuition [at his arts high school] was really expensive" for his mother who, at the time, was not feeling healthy. This led to him dropping out of high school shortly after enrolling and later receiving the Korean equivalent of a General Educational Development (GED) credential.