Lee Jae Won is a South Korean singer, dancer, and former member of H.O.T (에이치오티) and JTL (제이티엘). He graduated from Gangnam Technical High School and later obtained a bachelor's degree in Multimedia Visual Arts from Kyunggi University and a master's degree in Music Technology from Sangmyung University.

He made his debut in September 1996 as H.O.T's lead rapper, vocalist and maknae with their first album, "We Hate All Kinds of Violence", which was accused of being plagiarized and lawsuits were placed against them. Despite their turbulent debut, the group eventually rose to fame with their first hit, "Candy", and the single "We Are the Future" won them an MTV award for Best International Video.

Despite their huge success, SM Entertainment (SM엔터테인먼트) officially announced their disbanded in May 2001. He left the agency, and his relationship with SM's Lee Soo Man became severely strained.

He joined the other members who left SM as well, Tony Ahn and Jang Woo Hyuk, and re-debuted in December 2001 as part of the trio JTL with their first album, "Enter The Dragon". The title song "A Better Day" could not be consistently promoted as all members claimed that Lee Soo Man interfered by blocking them from appearing in several music shows. In 2003, the group won the Favorite Artist of Korea Award at the MTV Asia Awards. However, they disbanded a few months later in early 2004.

He made his debut as a solo artist in April 2005 with the studio album "No Pain No Gain".

He enlisted for his mandatory military service on May 6, 2009, and was discharged on March 7, 2011.

In April 2014, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, had surgery and recovered successfully.

He is currently an independent artist.

(Source: MyDramaList) Edit Biography