Bang Si Hyuk

Bang Si-hyuk, known professionally as "Hitman" Bang, was born on 9 August 1972 in Seoul. He is a South Korean music producer and executive, the founder of Big Hit Music and chairman of HYBE Corporation. The credits "Bang Si Hyuk" and "Hitman" Bang are the same person.

He studied aesthetics at Seoul National University and won the Yoo Jae-ha Music Contest in 1994. He co-founded JYP Entertainment with Park Jin-young and produced hits for g.o.d and others, then set up Big Hit Entertainment, where he signed RM at 15, a step that led to the formation of BTS.

Big Hit's 2020 IPO lifted his net worth to about $2.8 billion; Forbes put it at $1.25 billion in April 2026, making him the only billionaire in South Korea's entertainment industry. He has received producer awards at the Mnet Asian Music Awards and in 2022 became the first entertainment figure given an honorary doctorate by Seoul National University. He has also donated billions of won, including 5 billion won to the Community Chest of Korea.

Since December 2024 South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service has investigated allegations that he arranged undisclosed profit-sharing before the IPO, and in September 2026 authorities froze about $193 million in alleged gains.