7 Unbelievable, But True Stories Of How Idols Were Scouted By Their Companies

1. TWICE’s Sana

Sana received a casting offer from JYP Entertainment while out shopping with a friend back in Japan. She was only in 9th grade at the time and hesitant to take the offer at first, but she was a huge fan of KBS drama Dream High. When the casting manager told Sana that Wooyoung and Suzy were in the company, she immediately accepted the casting offer.

2. GOT7’s Jackson

Jackson was primed to become a national representative of Hong Kong’s fencing team. When he was initially approached by JYP Entertainment, Jackson’s parents were against the idea but told him that they’d let him go to Korea if he was able to bring home two gold medals. Jackson won both individual and team gold medals at the Youth Olympic Games and won himself a ticket to Korea.

3. Suzy

While she was still in middle school, Suzy was auditioning for Superstar K when she was spotted by a recruiter from JYP Entertainment. She was finding her way to the bathroom when she was stopped by the recruiter.

The recruiter liked her so much that she was immediately cast to JYP Entertainment and set to debut under the girl group miss A.

4. EXO’s Sehun

Sehun was eating tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) from a street vendor when a manager of an SM artist spotted him. When Sehun was approached, he felt skeptical about the manager so he followed him for 30 minutes to evaluate whether this was a real opportunity or not.

5. Jessica and f(x)’s Krystal

SM Entertainment wanted to cast Krystal at first, however her parents felt that she was too young. Instead they recommended Jessica, so Jessica joined SM Entertainment first then was followed by Krystal years later

6. SEVENTEEN’s Seungkwan

Seungkwan was cast through a video that his art teacher uploaded. His art teacher recorded a video of Seungkwan performing”Kite” by Big Mama at a singing competition and uploaded it after becoming curious about what the reaction would be online. After watching the video, Pledis Entertainment cast Seungkwan and he became a trainee and eventually debuted with SEVENTEEN.

7. GOT7’s Mark

Mark was cast by JYP Entertainment‘s talent recruiter in the USA while he was a high school student in California. Despite having no previous knowledge of the Korean entertainment industry, his visuals, as well as his talent, earned him a top spot.