Lee Dong-hae is the youngest of two sons. He signed under SM Entertainment soon after he won first place on the 3rd SM Youth Best Selection Best Outward Appearance in 2001 and was trained in areas of singing, acting, and dancing. After four years of training, SM Entertainment officially announced Lee Dong-hae as a member of the all-boy group Super Junior, which was to debut in November 2005. Several days before his official debut he made a brief appearance in November 2005 at SBS's Shin Dong-yup's There Is There Isn't panel.
On November 6, 2005, Donghae officially debuted on SBS's Popular Songs performing Super Junior's first single "TWINS (Knock Out)." Since debut, Donghae makes frequent appearances in Super Junior's reality and variety shows, such as M.NET's Mystery 6, SBS's Super Junior Full House, and M.NET's Super Summer. Donghae has also been an active guest on KBS's Star Golden Bell and has been a frequent dancer for Super Junior performances in other variety shows such as SBS's Love Letter and X-Man. Donghae debuted as an actor in 2007 when Super Junior's debut mystery film, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, was released in over four hundred cinemas in South Korea, which Donghae was featured as the lead supporting role. Donghae plays the witty side-kick of Kim Kibum, a high school student who investigates the attacks on the school. Donghae also performs key roles in other music videos, such as in BoA's "Key of Heart".
In early 2008, SM Entertainment placed Donghae in a seven-piece Chinese subgroup of Super Junior, Super Junior-M. The subgroup specializes in singing Chinese versions of Super Junior's Korean songs, bringing the K-pop influence over to the Chinese music industry. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent.[1] Super Junior-M debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Light Music Awards with the release of their first single music video, "U".
