Pre-debut
Nancy auditioned in Korea's Got Talent as part of a hip-hop group called "Cutie Pies" in 2011, The group reached the semi-finals.[11][12]
As a teenager, she appeared in several TV programs, including The Unlimited, and also participated in Mak Ee Rae Show: Just Do It Expedition in 2012, in which she traveled to the Philippines and Saipan with South Korean actress Kim Yoo-jung.[13]
2016: Finding Momoland, debut with Momoland, and Sunny Girls
Main article: Momoland
Nancy in 2016
In 2016, Nancy became a contestant on Mnet's reality survival show Finding Momoland to select the members of MLD Entertainment's new girl group Momoland.[14] She finished the competition in first place,[15] and had her debut with the group[16] on November 10, 2016, with the mini-album Welcome to Momoland.[17] Momoland made their debut stage performing at M Countdown,[18][19]
On November 19, it was announced that she would join Inkigayo's project girl group Sunny Girls[20] along with GFriend's Eunha, WJSN's Cheng Xiao, Oh My Girl's YooA and Gugudan's Nayoung.[21][22] They made their official debut at SBS's Inkigayo stage, on November 27, with the title track "Taxi".[23] The group also performed at the 2016 SBS Gayo Daejeon on December 26.[24][25]
2017–present: Acting activities and recognition
In April 2017, Momoland released the single "Wonderful Love". On August 22, 2017, Momoland's second mini-album, Freeze! was released. In the same year, Nancy was cast in the lead role with boy band ZE:A member Ha Min-woo in Naver TV's web music drama series Some Light.[26][27] Nancy and Ha Min-woo also collaborated for the theme song of the drama series.[28]
In October 2018, Nancy appeared in episode 11 of MBC's Dae Jang Geum is Watching, alongside her fellow-members JooE, Hyebin and Daisy as idol trainees.[29]
On January 3, 2018, Momoland released their third mini-album, Great!. As a result, the lead single, "Bboom Bboom," was a huge commercial success, reaching number two on the Gaon Digital Chart.[30] On June 26, 2018, Momoland released their fourth mini-album Fun to the World with the lead single "Baam" becoming the 15th best-selling song of July 2018 on Gaon Music Chart.[30]
Acting career
Upcoming projects
In the Philippines, ABS-CBN and Dreamscape Entertainment announced on October 4, 2019, that Nancy was to star in an upcoming new Filipino miniseries titled The Soulmate Project.[31][32] Nancy will play her character Binna, a "Korean-American who lives in the Philippines." In an interview with ABS-CBN News in 2019, director and writer Antoinette Jadaone said that series will consist of 13 episodes and it will be "more akin to a Korean drama." she said, "It’s not like how we do teleseryes [in the Philippines] where you do it per script every day, with a weekly script,"[33] Nancy revealed that filming will also take part in her home country South Korea.[34] Production for the project was slated to begin in 2020,[35] but was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ABS-CBN shutdown and subsequent denial of its bid for a new legislative broadcast franchise.[36][37] An omnibus trailer for the series was unveiled at the network's Christmas special on December 20, 2020, while new filming dates are yet to be released.[38]