Birth name	Lee Soon-kyu (이순규)
Also known as	Aegyo Queen, Energy Pill, Danshin, SoonKyu, Sunny Bunny, DJ Soon, Ssun, Strong Sunny, Choi Danshin
Born	(1989-05-15) May 15, 1989 (age 23)

Sunny was born on May 15, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Kuwait while she was still an infant. Her family moved to South Korea around the time of the Gulf War.^[1] She shares the same birthday with her two older sisters (Lee Eun-kyu and Lee Jin-kyu) and her mother. She speaks fluent Korean, along with basic English, Chinese and Japanese.^[2] Her father was in the college band Hwaljooro with Bae Chul-soo.^[3] She is the niece of Lee Soo Man, the founder of SM Entertainment.^[4] In 1998, Sunny entered Starlight Entertainment and became a trainee for 5 years before transferring to Starworld where she became a member of a duet called "Sugar" which never debuted.^[3][5] One of her older sisters was the manager for Sugar, but when the group disbanded, she became active in other parts of the music industry.
In 2007, Sunny was recommended by the singer Ayumi, who transferred to SM Entertainment.^[5] After several months of training under SM Entertainment, Sunny debuted as a member of Girls' Generation that same year.