Yoon Kye-sang (; born December 20, 1978) is a South Korean actor and singer. He began his career in 1999 as part of the K-pop boy band g.o.d, then left the group in 2004 and pursued an acting career. He made his acting debut in the film Flying Boys (2004), for which he won Best New Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards. Yoon became active in both television and film, with leading roles in romantic comedies such as My 19 Year Old Sister-in-Law (2004) and Who Are You? (2008) and the melodrama Crazy for You (2007), as well as more serious fare in The Moonlight of Seoul (2008) and The Executioner (2009). After a supporting turn in the hit series The Greatest Love (2011), he returned to the big screen in the well-received indie Poongsan (2011).
Career
1999–2004: Pop star beginnings
In 1997 Yoon answered an advertisement for Park Joon-hyung's project music group and had auditioned with aspirations of becoming a rock star. Along with Danny Ahn, Son Ho-young, Kim Sun-a and producer and singer-songwriter Park Jin-young, the group was initially called "GOT6". Kim Sun-a left to pursue acting and was replaced by Kim Tae-woo. The group became a five-member boy band called g.o.d, short for "Groove Over Dose", and debuted in January 1999. Despite the lukewarm response to their debut performance, the group would go on to establish themselves as one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000s. However, Yoon left the band in 2004 and went into acting, making his film debut in Flying Boys, directed by Byun Young-joo. He made his television debut that same year in My 19 Year Old Sister-in-Law with Jung Da-bin.
The group would release their seventh and final album before going on indefinite hiatus in December 2005 and some of the group's fans called Yoon a "traitor" and blamed him for "breaking up the group". Various media outlets speculated that there was a rift amongst the members and that he had turned his back on them in favor of acting, rumors that Yoon and the other four members chose not to publicly confirm or deny. He has since clarified in his 2012 cooking show Yoon Kye-sang's One Table that he left the group with the intention of leaving the entertainment industry altogether as he had begun to detest the spotlight, but stumbled upon an opportunity to try acting and enjoyed it.
Military service
Having just departed from g.o.d, Yoon was at the height of his popularity, but had to interrupt his nascent acting career due to mandatory military service. He enlisted in the Republic of Korea Army on December 7, 2004, and was assigned to the 102nd Reserves at Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on the Korean Demilitarized Zone. After completing basic training and serving there for some time, Yoon was reassigned in 2006 to duties as an "entertainment soldier" in the newly formed group Korean Forces Network, which provides television and radio broadcasts to soldiers, and also allows celebrities to maintain a public profile while completing their military service. He was discharged from the army on December 6, 2006. In an interview that day, he said that he had not slept the night before and was very tired, but looked forward to seeing his fans; he further stated that he planned to resume his career in 2007.
As late as June 2011, his military service still earned him public attention, when a round-cheeked photo of him in uniform "went viral" among South Korean internet users. The photos received many amused comments for his then-fat cheeks, forming a sharp contrast with his more recent appearance.
2004 – Present: Acting career
In January 2007, Yoon returned to show business in the television drama Crazy in Love (also known as Crazy for You); he portrayed a gangster who falls in love with the widow (Lee Mi-yeon) of a man he'd accidentally killed. The following year, he and Kim Ha-neul were cast in Lovers of Six Years, playing a couple in a six-year relationship. According to Kim, her initial perception of Yoon was that he was very shy, whereas Yoon perceived Kim as snobby, so it took them some time to break the ice and establish a good working relationship. Later that year, he took a dual role in the comedy television series Who Are You?, playing a cold-hearted corporate raider who, in the aftermath of a traffic accident, becomes possessed by the spirit of a cheerful deliveryman for a few hours each day. At the same time he took a starring role opposite Ha Jung-woo in Beastie Boys (also known as The Moonlight of Seoul), portraying a worker in a host club; The Korea Times movie review praised him for his "gripping performance."