Sandara Park (Korean: 박산다라, Hanja: 朴-, born November 12, 1984 in Busan, South Korea) is a Korean who once starred in movies and television shows in the Philippines. Her unusual three-syllable Korean name, which she has talked about numerous times during interviews, comes from that of a Korean general, Kim Yushin - whose childhood name was "Sandara (산다라)." Sandara Park made her debut in 2004 with ABS-CBN's Star Circle Quest.

Early life
Sandara was born to affluent Korean parents. However, by the time Sandara was 8-years-old, her father's relatives placed him in a financially tight spot which then crippled his business. In hope of recovering from this strain, Sandara's father tried his luck in the Philippines. He settled in a small apartment in Pasay City, and started a business. Sandara and her family remained at her grandmother's house in South Korea for some time until her father finally had enough money to relocate them to the Philippines.

Sandara enrolled in voice lessons at the Center for Pop Music in the early 2000s. Initially, no one in their family was fluent in English or Tagalog. However, she learned English when she began school in the Philippines, and later became quite fluent in Tagalog.
Stardom in the Philippines

Rise to Philippine showbiz
During one of her school functions, Sandara met Pauleen Luna, who was then a talent of ABS-CBN Channel 2 Talent Center. Luna encouraged the shy Sandara to audition for Star Circle Quest, a then-up-and-coming reality talent search for ABS-CBN.

The show's judges called her in, and she was able to elude elimination several times, paving the way for her inclusion into the contestant-pool's top ten. Being a native Korean, she displayed some trouble with the daily exercises set by the panel of Filipino judges. During the last elimination round in which the final five contestants were chosen, Sandara made Philippine history by garnering approximately 500,000 text votes, making her the first female to garner that much SMS support. And so she remained until the final night when she was announced runner-up to Hero Angeles. It is estimated that she got at least 2,000,000 accumulated SMS votes from supporters during the entire run of the contest.

Star Status Established
ABS-CBN showered Park with projects after her Star Circle Quest days. She had six local commercial endorsements for personal care and food products. She also received several television show offers. She starred in a youth-oriented program SCQ Reload, OK Ako , and hosted Sandara's Romance, a show featuring Korean dramas and commentary. She also had a hosting stint on ASAP Fanatic, a Sunday noontime teen variety show. She also appeared in a local daily primetime superhero soap opera, Krystala, as Kim, who shared similarities with her real-life self, but her tight schedule limited her appearances.

In addition, Sandara also embarked on a musical career that eventually led to the release of her self-titled 6-track album which spawned the novelty dance hits "In Or Out," a song that parodied her experiences on Star Circle Quest, and "Walang Sabit," the jingle for Rejoice Shampoo. As proof of Sandara's rapid rising-star status, the album was certified double platinum after 6 months.

Sandara also appeared in four movies. Her first was a three-storyline movie called Bcuz of U in which she co-starred with other prominent young local actors. Her second movie was with her loveteam partner, Hero Angeles, Can This Be Love, which grossed P 99,000,000. Her third movie was with her ex-boyfriend,Joseph Bitangcol, D' Lucky Ones. Her fourth movie was Super Noypi. Super Noypi is a Filipino fantasy film. It is also an official entry to 32nd Metro Manila Film Festival.

Return to Korea
Sandara left the Philippines and returned to South Korea on August 1, 2007 with her mother and siblings to begin a new life. The next day, August 2, 2007, YG Entertainment reported that they had signed a contract with Sandara. As a new member of the YG family, she joined popular Korean artists and bands such as Se7en, JINUSEAN, LEXY, and 1TYM. Sandara has already appeared in a Gummy MV for a song entitled "I'm Sorry" as a partner with T.O.P., a member of the group Big Bang. Sandara has debuted along with CL, Park Bom, and Gong Minji in May, 2009 as part of YG's female group 2NE1. 2NE1 released the music video of their debut song "Fire" on May 6th and performed their debut stage on May 17th on SBS Inkigayo.

Credits to: Wikipedia.com
Shared by: together 2ne1