SuChin Pak ( ko, 박수진, born August 15, 1976) is a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

news correspondent and podcaster, best known from her early days working for

MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...

. She joined

as a correspondent in May 2001.

Life and career

Born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

, Pak immigrated along with her parents to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

when she was five years old. She grew up in

Union City, California Union City is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area in Alameda County, California, United States, located approximately south of Oakland, from San Francisco, and north of San Jose. Incorporated in 1959, combining the communities of Alvara ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...

southeast of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. Her parents own a small restaurant in downtown

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. Pak never planned on a career in television. While attending

James Logan High School James Logan High School (also known as JLHS or Logan) is a public high school located in Union City, California. It is part of the New Haven Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area. Awards In 1994 and 1998, Logan was recognized as ...

, she volunteered for the YMCA program Youth and Government, an organization aimed at involving and educating young people in the political process. She was also a member of the school's forensics team, in which she did expository speaking. In 1992, she placed 8th in the state of California. She was interviewed for the news by

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV ma ...

, the ABC affiliate in

for the show ''Straight Talk 'N Teens''. The program director for another station happened to see the piece and approached her to host the teen-based magazine show ''First Cut'' on KRON, the then- NBC (now MyNetwork TV) affiliate in San Francisco. This "after-school job" became Pak's introduction to the entertainment world. Her first big interview for the show was Ice-T. While attending the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

as a

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

major, Pak was once again discovered, when the producer of a PBS science show called ''

Newton's Apple ''Newton's Apple'' is an American educational television program produced and developed by KTCA of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and distributed to PBS stations in the United States that ran from October 15, 1983, to January 3, 1998, with reruns con ...

'' saw a tape of her. Following graduation, she was approached by ZDTV, a cable network devoted to technology and the Internet. After a year working on ''

Internet Tonight ''Internet Tonight'' (1998 – October 1, 2001) was a television program on the cable network ZDTV (later known as TechTV and G4). The show combined the "effervescent moxie" of Michaela Pereira with the "dry wit" of Scott Herriott, to bring t ...

'', a daily half-hour show at ZDTV, she was recruited to be a correspondent on KRON. Looking to move on from San Francisco, she sent in a tape to the start-up cable network

Oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...

. After a year-long audition process, she was hired as a host for the show '' Trackers'' and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. From there,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

spotted her and she was soon the first Asian face of MTV. Suchin Pak

She has covered the '' MTV Movie Awards'', the ''

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

'', and the ''

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

''. She also co-hosted, with

Kurt Loder Kurtis Loder (born May 5, 1945) is an American entertainment critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at ''Rolling Stone'', during a tenure that ''Reason'' later called "legendary". He has contribute ...

, MTV's pre-

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

show. As a correspondent for "MTV Daily News", she has interviewed

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...

, *NSYNC,

P. Diddy Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...

Jane's Addiction Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands fr ...

, Mary J. Blige,

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...

, and Fred Durst. On March 6, 2012, she hosted ''Demi Lovato: Stay Strong — The After Show''. Pak hosted her own MTV documentary about multicultural young people called ''My Life (Translated)''. She narrated later seasons of ''

MTV Cribs ''MTV Cribs'' (also known as ''Cribs'') is an American documentary television show that originated on MTV and features tours of the private homes of celebrities. It originally aired from 2000 to 2010. In 2017, MTV produced short-form episodes o ...

'' and '' True Life''. In 2007, she appeared on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'', revealing that she has struggled with confidence and

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

issues for many years. She mainly spoke about her

epicanthal fold An epicanthic fold or epicanthus is a skin fold of the upper eyelid that covers the inner corner (medial canthus) of the eye. However, variation occurs in the nature of this feature and the possession of "partial epicanthic folds" or "slight e ...

s, and explained how her family and other Asians believe a double eyelid is crucial to beauty. She also mentioned how

epicanthoplasty Epicanthoplasty is a rare eye surgery to modify the epicanthal folds. It can be a challenging procedure because the epicanthal folds overlay the lacrimal canaliculi (tear drainage canals). Although an epicanthic fold can also be associated with a ...

is the top form of

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes cranio ...

being done in Asia. In 2008, Pak had left MTV News for Planet Green to host ''G Word'', which is co-hosted by

Daniel Sieberg The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

. In 2010, Pak returned to MTV News and hosted the VMAs Pre Show. Recently, Pak has been the host for the National Constitution Center's "The Exchange", a program in which high school students discuss their views on relevant constitutional issues. In 2012, Pak was hired as the new on-air correspondent for DailyCandy, an email newsletter based in New York. In 2016, she co-hosted ''People's List'', a weekly summer primetime

infotainment Infotainment (a portmanteau of ''information'' and ''entertainment''), also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of inf ...

series associated with

People magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...

on ABC. In October 2020, it was announced that Pak would be joining Lemonada Media's podcast slate as the co-host of the new show ''Add to Cart'' alongside comedian and actress Kulap Vilaysack. The podcast launched on November 17, 2020 and is “a subversive and fun way about talking about consumerism, and how we all participate in it.” In 2021, Pak resumed her role as narrator of MTV Cribs.

Personal life

Pak married Mike Bender, co-founder of AwkwardFamilyPhotos, on March 24, 2012. The couple have two children together, their first being a son born in 2012.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Suchin 1976 births American television reporters and correspondents South Korean emigrants to the United States Living people People from Seoul People from Union City, California University of California, Berkeley alumni American women journalists American writers of Korean descent Journalists from California 21st-century American women