Stephanie Young Hwang, known by the stage name Tiffany, is a Korean-American singer,
TV presenter, promotional model, rapper, dancer and actress.
She is a member of both the South Korean girl group, Girls' Generation and its subgroup,
TaeTiSeo.
Biography Tiffany was born in San Francisco, California,
in the same hospital as fellow band-mate Jessica Jung.
Although both born in California, the two would coincidentally end up attending and
graduating from the same high school in Seoul, Korea Kent Foreign School, during their preparations
for debut in the same group.
Tiffany grew up in Diamond Bar, California, attending South Pointe Middle School and Diamond
Bar High School.
Tiffany was scouted whilst performing on stage in her home country.
She was invited to audition at the SM Entertainment Starlight Casting System and joined the company
on October 2004 in Los Angeles, California at age 15.
Despite initial objections from her father, she recalls packing up her former life and
moving to South Korea after receiving the permission to do so within three weeks of
making the decision.
She trained for 3 years and 7 months before debuting.
Tiffany is the youngest of three siblings.
Her older sister studied anthropology at Berkeley.
For much of her early career when approached with the topic of mothers or family, Tiffany
would often refer to her father or both parents; on a radio broadcast she stated that she missed
her mother who was far away and she had not seen her in some time.
However, in late 2009 she said for the first time in public that her mother had already
died.
She later said that her mother had died two years before she herself became a trainee,
and that she is somewhat distant with her father, all of her immediate family living
overseas.
In August 2009 Tiffany was absent from a group filming in order to fly to the US and attend
the funeral of her grandfather.
Health In 2008, Tiffany was diagnosed with vocal
nodules, wherein a mass of tissue grows on the vocal folds due to strain or overuse.
The condition gave her dysphonia, causing a hoarseness in her voice as well as affecting
the range of her singing voice.
After receiving treatment her voice returned to normalcy, but the condition began affecting
her voice even more drastically throughout the latter half of 2009, causing her to take
a break from activities to receive hospital treatment in September.
She also experienced difficulties due to the disorder mid-2010, a company representative
stating she would be taking a short hiatus while she was hospitalized again.
While treatment has been successful, Tiffany has stated that her current voice is different
from her voice previous to contracting vocal nodules, although it is not necessarily something
she views as a bad thing.
Throughout her career Tiffany has suffered several injuries requiring medical attention.
She fell after a performance of "Gee", injuring her left ankle and being put in a cast.
Tiffany continued to perform with the group, albeit either sitting or standing to the side
stationary.
Tiffany also suffered a wrist injury while filming for Let's Go Dream Team in early 2010
and was seen wearing a cast while continuing activities.
In August 2010, Tiffany suffered an injury to her right ankle after taking a fall during
the SMTown Live '10 World Tour in Seoul.
Although not a serious injury, she was put in a cast in order to make sure she would
be healed enough to perform at Girls' Generation's upcoming Japanese showcase.
She suffered a more severe fall two months later during another performance, injuring
her posterior cruciate ligament.
Due to this, she was withdrawn from the group's promotions of "Hoot", her absence from the
spotlight lasting almost a month until she returned to join her fellow group-mates activities
in Japan.
The issue of Tiffany's return after injury was a topic of great interest within both
the Korean and Japanese media.
Music career Girls' Generation
Tiffany serves as a vocalist of the group.
Tiffany is also a member of a Girls' Generation's sub-group, TaeTiSeo along with Taeyeon and
Seohyun.
Their first mini-album "Twinkle" was released on 2 May 2012.
Solo singing career In 2008, she released two singles with fellow
Girls' Generation members Jessica and Seohyun — the first called "Oppa Nappa" and the
second titled "Mabinogi", a theme song for a video game.
Tiffany has also participated in the original soundtrack of SBS drama Jamyeonggo with the
song By Myself 나 혼자서), and was featured in a duet with K.Will in A Girl, Meets Love.
She was also featured in Oh!
My Love to You by The Blue, alongside bandmate Sooyoung.
She also sang the theme song for Caribbean Bay with her fellow members Taeyeon, Seohyun,
Sunny, Jessica, Yuri and k-pop boy group 2PM.
In 2012, Tiffany participated in the OST of Love Rain, in which bandmate Yoona is a lead
actress.
She and Kyuhyun of Super Junior sang the OST for To The Beautiful You.
In 2013, Tiffany participated in the OST of All About My Romance.
The song is called "One Step Closer".
The song is a ballad with dramatic melody arrangements and lyrics that include lines
such as “Because I can hold you again” and “I want us to walk one step at a time,
together”.
“One Step” was released on April 17th.
Show hosting career Apart from all her solo works, Tiffany was
the co-host of Mnet's Sonyeon Sonyeo Gayo Baekseo, along with Kim Hyesung from November
5, 2007 to June 13, 2008.
Tiffany, along with fellow Girls' Generation member Yuri, was an MC on MBC's Show!
Music Core.
She left after a farewell on July 31, 2010 to focus on Girls’ Generation's debuting
in Japan.
On September 5, 2009, she was an MC for the 2009 Incheon Korean Music Wave with Yuri & announcer
Oh Sang-jin.
On August 29, 2010, she was an MC for the 2010 Incheon Korean Music Wave with Yuri & announcer
Oh Sang-jin.
On December 25, 2010, she hosted Christmas Show!
Music Core alongside fellow member, Yuri.
She was an MC for the 2010 SBS Gayo Daejeon award ceremony which was held on December
31 at the MBC Dream Center with Yuri and actor Ryu Si Won.
She was also the MC for the 50th Anniversary Music Wave Concert which was held on March
12, 2011 together with Yuri and Nichkhun.
On August 13, 2011, she was the MC for 2011 Incheon Korean Music Wave together with Yuri
and also for K-Pop All Star Live in Niigata which was held on August 20, 2011 together
with Yuri & Sooyoung.
On October 11, 2011, Yuri and Tiffany returned to "Show!
Music Core" as permanent MCs after a 1 year and 3 months absence.
On November 12, 2011, she was an MC for K-POP Music Festival in Sydney together with Yuri.
On April 7, 2012, she hosted the 2012 Korean Music Wave in Bangkok together with Taeyeon
and Nichkhun.
Tiffany hosted Show!
Music Core with Taeyeon and Seohyun from February 2012 to April 2013.
Their last episode as MCs for the show was on April 13, 2013.
On November 10, 2012 Tiffany, along with Yonghwa of CNBLUE, and Kikwang of Beast, co-hosted
the 2012 SBS Kpop Super Concert held at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California
where numerous stars, including Girls' Generation, Beast, and CNBLUE have performed.
She also hosted the K-Pop Festival in Vietnam with Taeyeon and Seohyun on November 29, 2012.
On September 1, 2013, Yuri and Tiffany returned as MCs for the 2013 Incheon Korean Music Wave,
which makes it their 4th year as MCs for the event.
It was announced that Tiffany and Yuri will be special MCs for Show!
Music Core's 400th episode which will be broadcast on March 8, 2014.
Acting career From November 25, 2011 to January 29, 2012,
Hwang played Carmen Diaz, a performing arts student with dreams of becoming famous, in
the musical Fame along with Eunhyuk of Super Junior, Son Ho Young, Go Eun Seong, Kim Chan
Ho, Shin Ui Jeong, Lina of The Grace, Choi Ju Ri, KoN and Kim Jung Mo of TRAX.
Television appearances In May 2013, she threw out the first pitch
for a Los Angeles Dodgers game.
On September 23, 2013, SBS announced that they will showcase a new show called 'Fashion
King Korea' which will be a fashion contest among celebrities.
Tiffany is one of the 8 celebrities chosen to be fixed members of the show along with
SISTAR's Bora, singer Yoon Gun, Lee Ji-hoon, Kim Na Young, Boom, Lim Dong Wook and Choo
Mi Rim.
The show began filming on October 2 and premiered on November 17.
She and her partner Ji Il-geun were eliminated on January 25, 2014, ending up in 3rd place.
Personal life In April 2014, Tiffany and 2PM's Nichkhun
were confirmed to be currently in a relationship since December 2013.
Discography
Soundtrack appearances, collaborations and solo performances
Filmography
Film Television drama
Musical theatre Television reality shows
Television shows hosting Radio shows hosting
Music video appearances Hosted events
Endorsements Aside from her endorsements alongside Girls'
Generation, Tiffany has also endorsed the following brands:
Awards
References
External links Media related to Tiffany at Wikimedia Commons