Kim Min-Seok was born in Guri, Gyeonggi, Korea on March 26, 1990. In 2008, he placed second in the S.M. Everysing Contest and later became a trainee with S.M. Entertainment's Casting System. In January 2012, he was revealed to be the seventh member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group, EXO, and officially debuted on April 8, 2012.