Jang Ja-yeon (Korean: 장자연; 25 January 1980 – 7 March 2009) was a South Korean actress. She was born in Jeongeup, South Korea. She debuted in the entertainment industry when she appeared in a television commercial in 2006. She was known for being part of the KBS television drama series Boys Over Flowers as Sunny, one of the antagonists of the series, at the time of her death. She died by suicide on 7 March 2009 at the age of 29. At the time of her death, Jang had been suffering from depression, and it was revealed in 2019 that the initial investigation into her death in 2009 had been corrupt.[unreliable source?] The 2009 investigation had concluded that her death was a suicide, but the investigation was reopened in 2018. Her death caused a national scandal in 2009 when it was widely reported that she had been sexually and physically abused by a number of prominent entertainment executives during her career, including the CEO of Jang's former talent agency, The Contents Entertainment, Kim Sung-hoon. After three witness testified against the CEO, Kim was found guilty of abuse by the Korean courts, specifically of forcing girls from his agency to come to his birthday party where he forced them to sexually entertain the executives.
