Hani (하니)

Few moments in K-pop history have turned a group's fortunes so decisively as the fancam that saved EXID. In late 2014, a fan-recorded clip of Hani — born Ahn Hee Yeon — dancing to "Up & Down" at a concert spread rapidly across South Korean social media, reigniting interest in a single that had already come and gone. The video pulled EXID back onto the charts and transformed Hani into one of the most recognizable faces in the genre, demonstrating, in unusually concrete terms, how a single piece of fan content could reshape a career.

From Cotton Candy to EXID

Before the fancam, Hani's route into the industry ran through Cotton Candy (코튼캔디), a pre-debut group that gave her early stage experience. She went on to join EXID, where she held the roles of lead vocalist, lead dancer, and visual — the last a designation that formalized what the "Up & Down" fancam would make plain to a much wider audience.

EXID had debuted with modest commercial traction, but the viral moment around "Up & Down" rewrote the group's trajectory entirely. The song climbed back up domestic charts months after its initial release, and the group secured a foothold in the mid-2010s K-pop landscape that the clip alone had helped manufacture.

Activities beyond music

The attention that followed the fancam opened doors well outside recording studios. Hani moved steadily into television presenting, modelling, and eventually acting — a range of activity that reflects the broader entertainer model common among K-pop artists who reach a certain profile. By 2026 she had committed fully enough to acting to headline a primetime drama, with KBS 2TV announcing her casting in the weekend series "Love Is Coming" opposite actor Ha Seok-jin. The drama centers on two people reconstructing a fractured family into something livable — a tone that places Hani in straightforwardly dramatic territory rather than the variety-show adjacency that often absorbs idol-to-actress transitions.

Standing

Hani remains publicly identified with EXID, and the group's continued existence means her profile carries the weight of both a solo entertainment career and an ongoing group membership. Her transition into drama acting, marked by the "Love Is Coming" casting, represents the most recent chapter in a trajectory that began with an unplanned 90-second fancam and has since expanded across formats and screens.