Park Jeong-su (born July 1, 1983), better known by his stage name Leeteuk, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is a member of the K-pop boy band Super Junior and its subgroups, Super Junior-T and Super Junior-H.

Biographie

Leeteuk is second of two children. His father, Park Yong In and his mother divorced in 1988 when he was 5 years old. He has spoken of his parents' relationship publicly.




2000–2005: Pre-debut
When Leeteuk and his older sister, Park Inyoung, traveled to Myeongdong for a holiday in early 2000, he was recommended by a talent scout to audition for SM Entertainment's Starlight Casting System. After several test recordings and performances, he signed with SM Entertainment and became a trainee. That same year, he appeared as an extra in the MBC Korean drama All About Eve, and briefly as a model for Pepsi in 2002. In 2003, he was put into five-member boyband Smile, with future bandmate Donghae and aimed to be a rival group of TVXQ. The project was dropped and they were then put into rotational group Super Junior along with ten other boys. Being older than the other trainees, Leeteuk became the leader of the group.

Leeteuk explained that he uses a stage name due to his desire to have a name with the same effects as Kangta, and to also prevent confusion with veteran actress Park Jeong-su. His stage name denotes being "special" as his agency wants him to be a special member in the group.


2005–2006: Debut with Super Junior
Leeteuk officially debut as part of 12-member project group Super Junior 05 on 6 November 2005 on SBS's music programme Popular Songs, performing their first single, "Twins (Knock Out)". Their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) was released a month later on 5 December 2005 and debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.

In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, this was met with fans' objections and strong opposition to the rotational style (much like popular rotational groups in Japan's pop music industry) that the group intended to be. Thus, plans changed and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. Following the addition of thirteenth member Kyuhyun, the group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group's first CD single "U" was released on 7 June 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.


2007–2008: Sub-groups and DJ
In February 2007, Leeteuk was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, Leeteuk became a member of Super Junior-H.

Leeteuk has partnered with Eunhyuk as host DJs for KBS Super Junior's Kiss The Radio (aka SUKIRA) since 2006. With the exception of fours months from March to June 2011, where band mate Yesung temporarily replaced Eunhyuk, while he was away on promotional activities for Super Junior-M's third EP Perfection.


2009–2011: Variety shows and MC

From 2009, Leeteuk, along with Eunhyuk and Shindong, has been regular guests on SBS's Strong Heart, where they host special segment, Boom Academy, headed by entertainer Boom. In October 2009, when Boom enlisted for mandatory military service, Leeteuk took over and the segment's name was temporarily changed to Teukigayo, or Teuk Academy. He is also frequent guest on Star King, also on SBS, with fellow Super Junior members.

In 2010, Leeteuk became the new MC for MBC Enjoy Today, replacing Big Bang's Seungri who left to focus on the group's new album. He sang with F(x)'s Krystal the song "Grumbing" on MBC Enjoy Today. Leeteuk is also the MC for MBC Love Chaser alongside Yesung.

In 2011, following Kang Ho Dong's retirement from the entertainment industry, Leeteuk and Boom took over as co-MCs of Star King. From September to November Leeteuk become a dad in Hello Baby season 4 with girl group Sistar. Leeteuk also became part of a new couple on MBC reality show We Got Married with actress Kang So-ra as his on-screen wife. As of the 10 April 2012 broadcast, following the change in MCs and the departure of Shindong from Strong Heart, the show was re-vamped with Leeteuk and Eunhyuk billed as two of the 'six-fixed guests'.


2012–present: Comeback with Super Junior and military service
In June 2012, Leeteuk reunited with his Super Junior band mates for their sixth studio album, Sexy, Free & Single released on 4 July. On 23 June Leeteuk's teaser photo was released showing him with platinum silver hair, gold necklace and heavy black eye makeup. On 25 June he also tweeted another version of his teaser photo with the same outfit but in a different pose leaning on his hand looking as though he was deep in contemplation. In the repackaged edition of the album, re-titled Spy, Leeteuk composed "Only U" and co-wrote the lyrics with Donghae.

During the Indonesia leg of the SMTown Live World Tour III concert in Jakarta on 22 September, Leeteuk was unable to perform with his label mates due to exhaustion and enteritis, for which he made an apology the following day via his Twitter account.

Leeteuk stated in September 2011 that he plans to enlist for his mandatory military service in 2012. On 30 October 2012 he reported to the 306 Reserve Battalion training camp in Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province, to undergo five weeks of basic training, followed by active duty for 21 months. He was initially ineligible for active duty following his car crash in 2007 and an aggravated herniated disk, but after receiving treatment he was able to enlist for active duty.

In January 2013, Leeteuk co-starred in military musical The Promise. It was co-produced by the Ministry of National Defense and Korea Musical Theatre Association, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice. It ran from 9 to 20 January at the National Theater of Korea, co-starring actors Ji Hyun-woo, Kim Mu-yeol, Jung Tae-woo; as well as singers Yoon Hak of Supernova, and Lee Hyun of 8Eight. The musical is centered around a group of soldiers who keeps a promise made to each other during the 6.25 war.

Leeteuk completed his military service on the 29th July 2014.