Bang Chan

Bang Chan was born in Seoul and raised in Sydney, Australia. He began taking piano lessons at the age of five, trained in ballet and modern dance, sang in his school choir, and competed in swimming. He attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and later graduated from Chungdam High School, where he studied music and acting.

At 13, he passed the 2010 JYP Entertainment Global Audition in Australia and moved alone to South Korea to become a trainee. He spent seven years training under JYP Entertainment, during which he became proficient in English and Korean and trained alongside future members of Twice, Got7, and Day6.

During his trainee years, Bang Chan appeared in music videos for JYP Entertainment artists, including miss A’s “Only You” and Twice’s “Like Ooh-Ahh.” He met Han and Changbin in MIDI classes, and the three formed the hip-hop unit 3Racha in 2016. Bang Chan used the name CB97, while Han and Changbin performed as J.ONE and SPEARB. The trio released self-composed music on SoundCloud, including the mixtape J:/2017/mixtape.

JYP Entertainment selected Bang Chan as a participant in the Stray Kids survival show in 2017. He was given the opportunity to choose the trainees who would form his team, and he also contributed to the group’s branding by designing the original Stray Kids logo. The show confirmed that the team would debut together, leading to Bang Chan’s role as the group’s leader.

Bang Chan officially debuted as the leader of Stray Kids in March 2018. His roles in the group include singing, rapping, dancing, and producing. As a member of 3Racha, he has helped establish the group’s self-produced musical identity, while his performance work has included unit tracks such as “Red Lights” with Hyunjin and “Waiting for Us” with Lee Know, Seungmin, and I.N.

He has also released music through Stray Kids’ SKZ-Record and SKZ-Replay projects. His self-composed songs include “I Hate to Admit,” “Connected,” “Eternity,” and “Railway,” while “Drive” was released with Lee Know. In 2025, he appeared on Astro’s tribute song “Moon,” released in memory of Moonbin.

Bang Chan writes and produces much of Stray Kids’ music alongside Han and Changbin. He became a full member of the Korea Music Copyright Association in 2023. His credits outside Stray Kids include music for Show Lo, Yao Chen, NiziU, Sky-Hi, and JO1.

His production work has included the opening and ending themes for the anime Tower of God, “TOP” and “SLUMP.” He also contributed to “Paradise,” the theme song for Doraemon: Nobita’s Sky Utopia, “Why?” for the Japanese drama Re:Revenge - In the End of Desire, and “Slash” for the film Deadpool & Wolverine. In 2022, he and the other members of 3Racha received the Best Hip Hop Video award at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan for “Just Breathe,” their collaboration with Sky-Hi.

Bang Chan has worked as a host and special MC in addition to his music activities. He appeared as a guest host on After School Club in 2018 and served as a special MC on Show! Music Core that same year. From 2019 to 2023, he hosted the live broadcast series Chan’s Room.

He hosted KCON LA in 2022 and 2023 and served as a special judge on Nizi Project Season 2 in 2023. In 2024, he and Felix hosted All About Stray Kids Radio on Apple Music, where they discussed the group’s interests and album production.