Actors - Sandara Park

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	Actors - Sandara Park

Sandara Park (born November 12, 1984 in Busan, South Korea) is a Korean who stars in movies and television shows in the Philippines. Her unusual three-syllabled Korean name, as she had said numerous times in interviews, came from a Korean general whose nickname is Sandara.

Early life

Sandara was born to Korean parents during the days when her father's business was doing well. But upon reaching 8, her father's relatives placed him in a financially tight spot which then crippled his business and marred his finances.

In hopes of recovering from this business strain, Sandara's father tried his luck in the Philippines, settling in a small apartment in Pasay City and pursuing his business. Sandara and her family remained in her grandmother's house in South Korea for some time until her father finally had enough luck and money to bring them in the Philippines.

At first, it was a hard adjusting for Sandara and her family. None of them were fluent in English, let alone Filipino. They were estranged that when Sandara entered school. It was thought to be strange, as she and her family supposedly have been in the country for many years before she came out on TV, that she could not speak any decent English, or even Filipino.

Finally feeling a lot more confident and socially adapted, she enrolled in voice lessons at the Center for Pop Music sometime in early 2000s. Unbeknownst to her that one day a room in that school will be named after her.

The catapult to Philippine showbiz

During one of her school functions, Sandara met Pauleen Luna who was then a talent of ABS-CBN Channel 2, one of Philippines's leading network. Luna encouraged the shy Korean to audition for Star Circle Quest, a then-upcoming talent search in her home network. Park tried her luck and was in the same batch with fellow questors, Hero Angeles and Joseph Bitangcol. Rumors say, however, that Sandara was enrolled by her father in workshops sponsored by ABS-CBN, and that hefty donations made sure that she got in.

Luckily for her, the judges called her in and was able to elude elimination several times, paving way for inclusion in the contestant pool's top ten. Being Korean, she had some trouble with the daily exercises set by the panel of judges. Though she had some comedic ability, time and again she was monotonous, if not dull or lacking in timing. But what she lacked in talent, she made up for her charisma. A proof of this was that during the whole run of the show she consistently garnered the Texter's Choice Award, an award given weekly for the contestant who would get the most text votes from the viewers, losing the award for only a week. During the last elimination round where the final five contestants were chosen, Sandara made Philippine history by garnering 500,000 more or less text votes, making her the first female to garner that much SMS support. And so she was in until the finals night where 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. She got the runner-up position perhaps because it was absurd for someone who wasn't even Filipino to win a talent search for Filipino teens.

The media called it magic, for no one was able to explain how a Korean girl who came from nowhere managed to make that much noise and collect public admiration that even after the end of the talent search, she still has that much following although some say it's because of the Korean craze that was rising at that time. Indeed, Sandara Park had been catapulted from total anonymity to stardom in a span of three months.

Also, during the run of the contest, she was paired with Hero Angeles. The pair however displayed an undeniable sexual relationship, displaying quarrels and alienation towards each other as often as possible. This later ended up in a real fight that broke up their partnership.

Post SCQ Events: Star Status Established

Projects flooded in for the Korean after her Star Circle Quest days. She had as much as 6 instant local commercial endorsements, namely Tekki Asian Classic Noodles, Maxi Peel, Konica Cameras, Dong-A pens (which is actually a Korean brand), Confident feminine napkins, and Rejoice Shampoo (which she did a jingle for). More so were the TV shows. She starred as Sandara Soh in a Star Circle Quest spin-off SCQ Reload, OK Ako (which translates to SCQ Reload, I'm OK) and had her own afternoon hosting of Sandara's Romance, a show featuring Korean dramas with her commenting from time to time, and 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 shares similar personalities with her real-life self, but her tight schedule forced her character to appear less often than expected. 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 in Star Circle Quest, and the "Walang Sabit", the jingle for Rejoice Shampoo. To prove Sandara's rapidly rising star status, the album was certified double platinum after 6 months selling 60,000 copies.

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