What Is Sandara Park's Net Worth?
Sandara Park is a South Korean model, singer, actress, and dancer who has a net worth of $16 million. Sandara Park rose to fame on the talent show "Star Circle Quest" and then went on to have a successful career in South Korean K-pop.
Early Life
Sandara Park was born on November 12, 1984, in Busan, South Korea. Her name means "wise and clever" and was based on the childhood nickname of the 7th-century general, Kim Yu-sin. She grew up with her two siblings, Thunder and Durami. Her family moved to Daegu in 1993. However, unable to make ends meet, the family moved to the Philippines in 1994. Park initially had a challenging time there as she did not know the language, and it was hard for her to make friends. However, she worked hard to become fluent as she hoped to one day become a celebrity there. Her father later left the family after meeting another woman. Sandara then had to begin working in order to help support the family.
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Music Career
In 2004, Park met Filipina actress Pauleen Luna. Luna encouraged Park to audition for "Star Circle Quest," a talent search television program. Park ultimately finished in second place in the competition. After the show, she signed a contract with the ABS-CBN subsidiary Star Magic. In 2004, she starred in her first film, "Bcuz of You," opposite Hero Angeles. Angeles had won "Star Circle Quest." For her performance, she won the Best New Actress award at the 21st PMPC Star Award for Movies. She went on to collaborate with Angeles again in 2005 for the film "Can This Be Love." In 2006, she appeared in "D'Lucky Ones." The same year, her fourth film, "Super Noypi," was an official entry in the 32nd Metro Manila Film Festival.
Park was also developing her music career at this time. She released her self-titled six-track album "Sandara." The album included the novelty dance hit "In or Out." The song parodied her experience on "Star Circle Quest." The album sold over 100,000 physical copies, making Park the only South Korean artist to have an album certified platinum by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry.
In 2007, Park moved back to South Korea with her family. She signed a contract with YG Entertainment. She took on the stage name Dara and debuted with a K-pop girl group, 2NE1, in 2009, along with Bom, CL, and Minzy. Their first promotional single was "Lollipop," a collaboration with label-mates Big Bang. They officially debuted their own first single, "Fire," soon afterward. The same year, they released their first EP entitled "2NE1." The EP featured the song "I Don't Care," which won Song of the Year at the 2009 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
Sandara also made her solo Korean debut in 2009. She released her first solo single, "Kiss." The song was used in a video promoting Cass Beer which Park starred in alongside Lee Min-ho. The video became popular due to the kissing scene between the two performers, and the single became massively popular. 2NE1 also continued releasing hits throughout this time, like "I Am the Best," "I Love You," and "Falling in Love." The latter song became very popular in the United States as well and topped the U.S. "Billboard" World Digital Songs chart.
(Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
Acting Career
In 2014, Park returned to the Philippines to be a guest star on "Pinoy Big Brother." She also appeared on a few talk shows in the country, and her time there set off a social media frenzy, considering she remained quite popular in the country. The same year, she also appeared in a three-part mini web series starring Steven Yeun. The comedy sketch went viral and reached over a million views in only a few days.
In 2015, Park returned to acting with a role on the web drama "Dr. Ian." The series became popular both in South Korea and around the world. Sandara became the first actress to win the Best Actress award at the K-web festival for her performance. She later acted in the web-based drama "We Broke Up," which was also popular with critics and fans alike. The same year, she was also cast in "Missing Korea," a romantic comedy set in the future in which North and South Korea are working towards unification. She also joined the variety show "Sugar Man" from 2015 to 2016.
Park's first mainstream big-screen role in a film came when she was cast in the film adaptation of "Cheese in the Trap." She then had a leading role in the action film "107th Year of Night." IN 2020, she made her musical debut through the stage adaptation of the drama "Another Oh Hae-young." In March 2021, it was announced that Sandara would have a role in the interactive sitcom "ON AIR – The Secret Contract." A few months later, it was announced that Park left YG Entertainment as her contract with the agency had expired. In September 2021, she signed an exclusive contract with Abyss Company. She announced her self-titled Korean-language extended play "Sandara Park" in 2023.
Personal Life
Park keeps her personal and romantic life quite private. Like other K-pop stars, Sandara was not allowed to date publicly following the guidance of her agency, YG. YG does not permit its performers to have relationships in order to keep them as focused as possible and preserve their fanbase. She followed the dating ban until 2021 and has more recently stated that she is open to a more long-term and serious relationship.
