Teddy Park

Teddy Park (born Park Hong-jun; September 14, 1978) is a Korean-American rapper, songwriter, and record producer based in South Korea. He first gained attention as a member of the hip hop group 1TYM and gained prominence as a producer for YG Entertainment and his own entertainment company The Black Label. Park has received several accolades including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Forbes magazine describes him as the "K-pop/rap star turned prolific music producer who has helped shape and aid South Korean music's global crossover".

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Park moved to the United States with his family as a young child. When he was 17 years old, Park and his friend Taebin flew to South Korea during summer vacation to audition for YG Entertainment. Together, the group recorded five studio albums with Park as their primary songwriter and producer.

After 1TYM went to indefinite hiatus in January 2006, Park became an in-house producer for YG Entertainment and co-founded The Black Label in 2016. He has co-produced and co-written songs for YG artists such as Jinusean, Seven, Big Bang, 2NE1, Lee Hi, Blackpink, and Jeon Somi, as well as Uhm Jung-hwa and Sunmi. As a producer, he has achieved critical and commercial success for several K-pop acts. For producing the soundtrack of the Netflix animated musical film KPop Demon Hunters (2025) including single "Golden", he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

Early life Park was born in Seoul, South Korea, but moved to New York City as a young child. After his father was transferred to Diamond Bar, California, Park attended Diamond Bar High School and became friends with future bandmate Danny Im. They were discovered when they were teenagers by a producer who worked with Yang Hyun-suk, founder of YG Entertainment. Although Park enrolled in a university when he returned to South Korea, he dropped out to focus on his career. and "쾌지나 칭칭" (Let's Sing and Dance Together), which he wrote and produced, won first place on TV music programs. This was followed by Third Time Fo' Yo' Mind in 2001. In 2003, 1TYM released their fourth album Once N 4 All, which yielded two singles: "Hot 뜨거", an up-beat hip-hop track with reggae rhythms, and "Without You", an emotional R&B ballad.

2006–2015: Mainstream success as producer for YG Entertainment With 1TYM on indefinite hiatus, Park transitioned into the role of producer for other YG artists, his first major contribution being "La La La" for Seven's album Sevolution. He also collaborated with Big Bang for several of their songs,

2016–2023: The Black Label and continued focus on producing In 2016, Park became publicly associated with Blackpink and produced their first two single albums Square One and Square Two, consisting of number-one hit "Whistle" and top-ten hits "Boombayah", "Playing with Fire", and "Stay". That same year, he founded The Black Label, a subsidiary of YG Entertainment. Participants singing and dancing to the song was released and three versions of the song were released overall: a male version led by Hyojin of ONF, a female version led by Lee Sujin from Fave Entertainment, and a co-ed version performed by both teams. He produced two songs for singer Sunmi: "Gashina" and "Heroine".

In 2018, there were concerns that Sunmi's "Heroine" has plagiarized Cheryl's debut solo single "Fight for This Love". Sunmi's agency said that they were investigating the issue. It later concluded with stating, "We unequivocally reveal that 'Heroine' is 100 percent an original creative work with absolutely no reference to the song that has been named in the controversy." In 2019, Park wrote and produced Blackpink's second EP, Kill This Love. He also wrote and produced singer Jeon Somi's debut single "Birthday".

In 2020, Park played a major role in writing and producing Blackpink's debut studio album, The Album, which consisted of the number-one song "How You Like That" as well as hit singles "Ice Cream" and "Lovesick Girls". In 2021, Park wrote and produced Blackpink members Rosé and Lisa's respective debut solo singles "On the Ground" and "Lalisa". He also wrote and produced many of the songs on Jeon Somi's debut studio album XOXO, which included top-ten single "Dumb Dumb".

2024–present: Further critical and commercial success Park produced majority of the soundtrack of the Netflix animated musical KPop Demon Hunters (2025), which was a major worldwide commercial and critical success, with one of the singles, "Golden", topping the Billboard Global 200 and reaching the top of the charts in many countries, including the United States. His work on KPop Demon Hunters earned Park numerous accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

He assisted in writing Blackpink's comeback single "Jump" in 2025, from the group's third Korean extended play Deadline. His work with 2NE1's first full-length album and 2011 EP contained songs that are pop and dance, in addition to featuring house elements. The song "Lonely" by 2NE1 was praised for its acoustic sound. In 2018, Seoul Sports published a list of "Most Influential Power People of K-pop," which was ranked by music industry executives. Park placed fifth in the category of best producer. That same year, he and G-Dragon tied for the most earned royalties for lyrics writing and song composition within the field of popular music from the Korean Music Copyright Association. Park gets paid about US$850,000 a year from the Korean Music Copyright Association.

Public image After becoming an in-house producer for YG Entertainment in the mid 2000s, Park has shied away from public life; he has refused to appear on air and is known to skip award ceremonies.

In 2026, Park won a Grammy Award – the first for any K-pop act – for producing the single "Golden" and did not attend the event. Forbes magazine described him as the "K-pop/rap star turned prolific music producer who has helped shape and aid South Korean music's global crossover for over two decades". His fellow producer Jeong Hoon-seo (stage name 24), in his acceptance speech, gave a special shoutout to Park calling him "Pioneer of K-Pop".

Personal life In 2014, he purchased a building in Hongdae, Seoul worth US$9 million and opened his own cafe called Twosome Studio in that building.

Discography

As featured artist

Accolades

Awards and nominations

State and cultural honors + Name of country or organization, award ceremony, year given, and name of honor Country or organization Award ceremony Year Honor South Korea Korea Content Awards 2025 Prime Minister's Commendation

Listicles + Name of publisher, year listed, name of listicle, and placement Publisher Year Listicle Placement Golden Disc Awards 2025 Golden Disc Powerhouse 40 Gold House 2026 Gold100 List