HUENINGKAI
| GIVEN NAME | Kai Kamal Huening (카이 카말 휴닝) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2002-02-05 (February 5th, 2002) |
| NATIONALITY | 🇺🇸 United States |
| HEIGHT | 183cm / 6 ft |
| MANAGEMENT | Bighit Music Entertainment |
| GROUP | TOMORROW X TOGETHER |
| DEBUT | 2019-03-04 as TOMORROW X TOGETHER with EP THE DREAM CHAPTER: STAR |
| MBTI | ISTP |
| SIGNATURE |  |
CAREER SUMMARY
PRE-DEBUT
Hueningkai was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to an American father and Korean mother. His father, Nabil David Huening, was an actor and singer that was active in Chinese media until the late 2000s. Hueningkai stayed in Beijing, China until 2009, when he came to live in South Korea. He has lived in South Korea from 2009, and is a native speaker in Korean, a fluent speaker in English, and can also speak some basic Chinese.
Hueningkai went to middle school in Korea and asked his teacher for permission to create a school band. He was the drummer and the front man of the band. Hueningkai entered the school singing contest in middle school, where he got the second place for two years in a row.
Hueningkai, along with his older sister Lea, auditioned for many different agencies as a brother-sister duo. He was not accepted by any one of them, however, until the staff member who saw him at the last agency he auditioned for, moved to Bighit Entertainment and remembered Hueningkai. He was then casted by the same staff member and became a trainee of Bighit Entertainment from June of 2016.
Hueningkai enrolled in Hanlim Arts School in Seoul, a prestigious school with the highest attendance by trainee and idol students, as a dance major. He was a trainee for a little less than 3 years before his debut in 2019.
AFTER DEBUT
In 2019, Hueningkai debuted as the youngest member of TXT, a 5-member group under Bighit Entertainment, with Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, and Taehyun with “CROWN.” Upon debut, he received a lot of attention for his visuals, as he had both Caucasian and East Asian features. He is the first American artist to debut in Bighit Entertainment.
In 2021, Hueningkai was a radio DJ on EBS FM radio with Taehyun on a program called Listen by TOMORROW X TOGETHER, from January 10th to May 2nd.
All 3 of the Huening siblings are celebrities. His older sister, Lea, had debuted as a member of the girl group Viva and is now a model and YouTuber. His younger sister, Bahiyyih, also went on to debut as a girl group member of Kep1er in 2022.
POSITIONS
VOCAL
Hueningkai has generally received praise for his vocals. He has a wide range and mostly sings the chorus and high notes of TXT tracks. His boyish, refreshing tones in the middle ranges have been called well-fitting for the group’s image. He also takes over some of the rap parts with Yeonjun.
DANCE
As the second-tallest member of the team, Hueningkai is also one of the skilled dancers in TXT. He changes up his dancing style for different concepts across TXT tracks, switching from light and smooth for emotional/mellow songs to heavy and powerful for energetic/groovy tracks.