Mark Tuan Yi-En

Born on September 4, 1993 in Los Angeles in the United States of America, Mark Tuan is the third of four siblings. In the early days of his life, he grew up in Brazil and Paraguay for a couple of years before moving back to Los Angeles.

His foray into the entertainment world began with his casting. When he was in high school, he was talking to friends during lunch. A friend had borrowed his skateboard but had broken it. He climbed on the table after lunch and standing on it, he jokingly told his friend to buy a new replacement skateboard. Right at that very moment, he met the eyes of JYP Entertainment’s casting team who were in his school to scout for the next trainee to join the company. Less than two minutes later, the team leader of the casting team approached Mark to ask him to join the company.

Although Mark initially had no thoughts of being a celebrity, he decided to think about it seriously after his family and friends convinced him that it was a once in a lifetime chance. On August 1, 2010, he flew to Korea to be a trainee.

Without a background in dance, singing or rapping, coupled with the language barrier, the time spent away from family in a foreign land was very difficult for Mark. He had thought of leaving multiple times until he stood on stage for the trainee showcase and fell in love with the way it made him feel. It motivated him to work even harder so that he would be able to debut and perform on stage.

After years of training, together with 6 other members (JAY B, Jackson Wang, Jinyoung Park, Youngjae Choi, BamBam and Yugyeom Kim), Mark debuted in a 7-member group called GOT7. GOT7 debuted on January 16, 2014 with Mark specializing in Martial Arts Tricking (MAT). In the early dates of debut, Mark would introduce himself as the ‘flying member of GOT7’ due to MAT that he would perform on and off stage. His years of training, agility, and love for adrenaline made MAT an easy feat for him. However, as GOT7 evolved and matured in their sound, there were lesser and lesser instances of Mark performing MAT on stage. Coupled with the injuries he had obtained while performing MAT, GOT7 members decided to reduce their use of MAT in their performances unless Mark decided he was up for it.

Apart from GOT7’s activities, Mark is also active in China and Thailand as part of his solo career. After his first solo magazine feature in South Korea in 2017, Mark has had over 30 solo features in magazines mostly from South Korea, China, and Thailand. Although Mark first appeared in a commercial in 2011, prior to his debut with GOT7, he was only a part of a bigger project and not the main spokesperson. Mark landed his first solo commercial in which he was the spokesman in 2019 with davines China. In the same year, he became a spokesperson for vivo V17 Pro in Thailand alongside member BamBam.

On April 11, 2019, Mark was awarded the Hot Star Award from Weibo Starlight Awards in Shanghai. On June 14, 2019 it was announced that Mark will be releasing a solo photo book titled Mark宜夏. Later that year, Mark embarked on a solo fan meeting tour titled ‘On Your MARK’ visiting Nanjing, Chengdu and Shanghai in China and also held fan signing sessions for lucky buyers of Mark宜夏.

On January 11, 2020, Mark debuted in the Chinese market as a soloist with his digital single ‘Outta My Head’. Two months later, on March 14, 2020, he released another single titled ‘从未对你说过 (I’ve Never Told You)’.

Aside from his career as an artist, Mark has also expressed his interest in the fashion industry. His first introduction into the industry would be his collaboration with Represent in 2018, where he launched the first collection ‘XCIII’. The collection featured t-shirts, sweatpants, hoodies, and phone cases. By the end of the two-week campaign, it had sold over 32,000 items. Following up on the popularity, he released the second collection ‘XCIII Evolution’ in 2019. There were more items included in the collection such as beanies, wireless speaker, blanket, socks and more. After the two-week campaign ended, he had sold over 40,000 items. It was later revealed that the proceeds of the campaign went to Save the Children organization.

Following the end of contract with JYP Entertainment, all the GOT7 members decided not to renew with the agency. On January 19, 2021, the group penned a handwritten letter to the fans, assuring them that the group will continue to make music and perform for the fans. On January 20, 2021, Mark’s YouTube account, which had no videos uploaded at that point, garnered 1 million subscribers.

On January 31, 2021, Mark returned to Los Angeles after spending 10 years in Korea. In an Instagram Live that Mark did a couple of days after returning to Los Angeles, he mentioned that he is still a part of GOT7 and will continue to promote with the other members. On February 12, 2021, Mark released his first global solo project, a collaboration single titled ‘One in a Million’ which reached #1 in over 20 iTunes region. A week later on February 20, 2021, GOT7 released a surprise single for the fans titled ‘Encore’, which swept up #1 placing in over 50 regions on iTunes.

On February 7, 2021, Mark Tuan Studios, a studio established in China for Mark’s Chinese activities, was officially announced.

Mark has also been regularly contributing to other charitable causes. With GOT7, Mark has donated to several causes and is part of a campaign with Make-A-Wish Foundation. Individually, Mark has also contributed to Covid-19 fund, China Children’s Charity Relief Foundation and Black Lives Matter movement.

Mark has a cream-coloured poodle named Milo. Milo was born on November 16, 2018. Prior to living alone, Mark raised a maltese named Coco with fellow member Youngjae when they were living together.