Kim Garam, a former member of the K-pop group LE SSERAFIM, is starting a new career as an actress. On June 16, Management Koo announced that it had signed Kim Garam and would support her to become an actress. The agency said it will fully support her as she starts her new acting career.
How Fans Predicted This Before the Announcement
This news wasn’t a surprise. Over the last few months, Kim Garam has been quietly posting on her YouTube channel, “garamonly.” She has shared acting practice, monologue videos, and short clips of her daily life. Fans noticed these updates and saw that she was slowly moving into acting rather than changing careers overnight.
How She Was Preparing for This Moment
Since then, she has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. Still, she kept studying to reach her main goal. She graduated from the School of Performing Arts Seoul (SOPA) on February 7, 2024. Following her high school graduation, she was accepted into Konkuk University as part of the 2024 freshman class. She is pursuing her degree in the Department of Media Acting, which officially falls under Konkuk University‘s College of Art & Design.
People online have mixed feelings. Some think she shouldn’t return to the entertainment industry because of her past trouble in 2022. Others have defended her signing with Management Koo as a fair second chance and are curious to see what kind of project she takes on first.
Why She Was Dropped From LE SSERAFIM
In July 2022, LE SSERAFIM announced that member Kim Garam would leave the group after facing school bullying accusations. The group’s agencies, Source Music and Hybe Corporation, confirmed her departure in a statement on Wednesday, July 20. Source and Hybe added that Kim will not be replaced and that Le Sserafim “will continue as a five-member group.” The statement concluded: “We will spare no effort to support the group so they can grow further as artists through their music and performances.”
[공지] 르세라핌 향후 활동 계획 안내 pic.twitter.com/OUZBSFgjeb
— SOURCEMUSIC (@SOURCEMUSIC) July 20, 2022
Bullying Allegations
Le Sserafim formed earlier in 2022, with their agency introducing the members in April. Right after Garam was named as a member, people started posting rumors online about her bad behavior in school. Reports of Ga-ram’s alleged bullying resurfaced when a photo of a “Notice of School Violence Committee” document featuring her name spread online. The record, which appeared to be from a 2018 meeting at Kyeongin Middle School, listed Ga-ram as a “perpetrator” of school violence.
As Vulture reports, one photo seemed to show Garam and others standing in front of a chalkboard covered in naked drawings of genitals and sex acts (the word “sex” was also written in giant capital letters on the board). People also claimed that Garam frequently bullied her classmates and that one of her supposed victims even collapsed after finding out she was joining Le Sserafim.
Source Music firmly denied these accusations at first, stating that it had “taken legal action against the spread of unilateral and distorted allegations and false information related to this case.” Le Sserafim released their debut EP, Fearless, on May 2, and it did well. However, on May 15, someone leaked what seemed to be school records about Garam’s alleged bullying. A Korean law firm, Daeryun, which represented one of the alleged victims, released a statement saying the information in the documents matched their client’s experience.
HYBE and Source Music’s Stance in This Case
HYBE and Source Music also admitted that the school violence record was real but claimed that Garam was “wrongly accused.” At the time, they did not say how long her break would last. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, Daeryun released another statement saying that LE SSERAFIM’s fans had been criticizing the victim. They added that “HYBE has failed to respond to the situation, making her condition worse.”
On May 20, Garam went on an indefinite break from LE SSERAFIM, and the group kept performing with five members. Although there were reports that Source Music and Hybe wanted to bring her back, they eventually decided to end her contract and keep the group as a five-member group.