Ok Taec-yeon / Vincenzo

Ok Taec-yeon

Ok Taec-yeon (Korean: 옥택연; born December 27, 1988), known mononymously s Taecyeon, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the main rapper of the South Korean boy band 2PM.

In 2010, Ok debuted as an actor in the Korean drama Cinderella’s Sister and since then has starred in Dream High (2011), Who Are You? (2013), Wonderful Days (2014), Assembly (2015), Let’s Fight, Ghost (2016), Save Me (2017) and The Game: Towards Zero (2020), Vincenzo (2021) as well as the movies Marriage Blue (2013) and House of the Disappeared (2017).

Ok was born in Seoul, South Korea, but emigrated at the age of 10, with his parents and older sister Jihyen to Bedfor, Massachusetts, a small town situated in the Greater Boston Area. It was his sister Jihyen who persuaded him to participate in a JYP Entertainment audition, whose promotion she had noticed when surfing on the Internet. After his reluctant agreement to participate, both headed for New York City on his 17th birthday. A week later he was chosen for the final 35 and got the call to go to South Korea to go further in the competition. At first Ok applied to become a model, but the judges suggested he try dancing and singing. Eventually he was named one of the dozen finalists (including his future bandmates Lee Junho and Hwang Chansung) to compete in the show Superstar Survival, but was the first contestant to leave the show.

Ok lived in Massachusetts for seven years, attending Bedford High School where he was a member of the Chess Club, Jazz Band, JV Soccer Team and National Honor Society, before returning to pursue his career in Korea. Ok transferred to Young Dong High School in Seoul and then studied Business Administration at Dankook University and attended Korea University Graduate School of International Studies.

He is fluent in English, Korean and Japanese. Ok is also familiar with the use of the Busan dialect, which he used in the KBS2 drama Wonderful Days.