Shin Dong-hee (born September 28, 1985), better known by his stage name Shindong (lit. meaning: "prodigy"), is a South Korean singer, MC, and Radio personality. He is best known as a member of the K-pop boy band Super Junior and its subgroups Super Junior-T and Super Junior-H.

Biography

Pre-debut
Shin Dong-hee was born in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang on September 28, 1985. Very little is known about Shindong's personal life, and many thought he was an only child. He has a younger sister called Ahn Da Young. Having a love for dancing, Shindong signed up for the 2002 Goyangsi Youth Dance contest and won the grand prize. A year later, he joined the contest again and won gold. In 2004, Shindong joined the Mnet Epi Contest and won both the gold prize and popularity award. In 2005, Shindong signed up for the SM Best Youth Contest and won first place for Best Comedian, achieving the grand prize. He signed a contract with SM Entertainment and received lessons to further improve his dancing ability.

Months after joining the company, Shindong was put in the large all-boy rotational group Super Junior as a member of its first generation, Super Junior 05. He decided to use the stage name 'Shindong' due to his birth name sounding similar to band mate Donghae. 'Shindong' is derived from his surname and the first character of his birth name, meaning "child prodigy".


2005-2006: Debut with Super Junior
Shindong officially debut as part of 12-member project group Super Junior 05 on 6 November 2005 on SBS's music programme Popular Songs, performing their first single, "Twins (Knock Out)". Their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) was released a month later on 5 December 2005 and debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.

In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. Following the addition of thirteenth member Kyuhyun, the group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group's first CD single "U" was released on 7 June 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.


2007-2008 Super Junior Sub-groups
During his career with Super Junior, Shindong was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that are branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, he was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, he became a member of Super Junior-H.


2009-2011: Strong Heart, Sorry Sorry, Bonamana and the awarded Album Mr. Simple
From 2009, Shindong, along with Eunhyuk and Leeteuk, has been regular guests on SBS's Strong Heart, where they host special segment, Boom Academy, headed by entertainer Boom
In 2009 Shindong with his fellow Super Junior members released their 3rd Album Sorry, Sorry the biggest hit of 2009. In 2010 they released their 4th album Bonamana, the best selling album of the year. In 2011 they release their 5th album Mr. Simple the best seller album of their career.
On 27 September 2011, he along with Yesung and Eunhyuk filled in for bandmate Heechul, who enlisted for mandatory military service on 1 September, during the performance on Music Bank and Show! Music Core of Kim Jang-hoon latest single, "Breakups are So Like Me". Heechul is featured in the song and starred in the music video, which was completed the day before he enlisted.