Peniel (프니엘) is a Korean-American rapper and singer based in South Korea. He is currently signed under Cube Entertainment and is a member of boy group BtoB.
I. Personal Life
Peniel was born Peniel Shin in Chicago, Illinois on March 10, 1993. He attended Barrington Middle School Prairie Campus in northwest Chicago and attended Chungdam High School after moving to Seoul to train.
Prior to joining Cube, Peniel was a trainee under JYP Entertainment and appeared in San E's "Tasty San" music video in 2010.
In November 2016, Peniel appeared on the reality show, Hello Counselor, and revealed that he suffers from Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes is hair loss.
II. Career
III. BtoB
Peniel debuted as a member of BtoB on March 12, 2012.
In November 2020, Peniel took part in the subunit BtoB 4U.
IIII. Solo Activities
Peniel became the main host of Arirang's music program, Pops in Seoul in 2013.
In 2016, Peniel began to update his fans with his official vlog channel, POV. The channel features activities from Shin's daily life. He released his first English mixtape with KAIROS, titled Homesick on May 1, 2016. On September 19, BtoB's subunit, BtoB Blue released a music video for their debut single "Stand by Me" which was directed by Peniel.
In 2017, he held his first photography exhibition titled "Penography" which took place at a gallery named White Studio located in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The exhibition was held from March 30 to April 12. "Penography" is a compound word of his name, Peniel and photography, and contains Peniel's thoughts of showing a picture containing his own gaze and color. Peniel also led the photography for bandmate Changsub's debut Japanese EP bpm 82.5. On June 27, he released the digital single "That Girl" as part of BTOB's 2017 solo project, Piece of BtoB.
In 2019, Peniel was selected to host an English K-Pop radio show, "Skool Of K-Pop" on tbs eFM starting February. He released his second digital single, "B.O.D", on May 13. Two months later, Peniel released the digital single, "Fly23", on July 31. On August 27, he released his fourth digital single, "Flip", featuring South Korean rapper Beenzino. On November 15, he was featured on the song "Beautiful Girl" by Woosung of The Rose.
In 2020, Peniel collaborated with bandmate Sungjae for the song "Hypnotized." The song, which was co-composed by Shin, was released on February 6 as a part of Sungjae's project single "3X2=6 Part 3". On February 12, he was cast in the DIVE Studios variety program HWAITING!. The program aired on Facebook Watch from February to April. In July, Peniel began hosting the DIVE Studios podcast GET REAL alongside BM (of KARD) and Ashley Choi (formerly of Ladies' Code).
On February 14, 2021, he released a new digital single "Valentine"