NewJeans' Hanni: who she is, her nationality and real name, "Blue Coral Reef," and where she stands in 2026

Who is Hanni, and where is she from?

Hanni is a member of NewJeans, a girl group under ADOR. At debut the group had five members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein. The Korea Times describes her as the group's Vietnamese Australian member, reporting that she was born in Melbourne in 2004. Vietnam's Bac Ninh newspaper reported that she speaks Vietnamese, English and Korean.

Real name, spellings and age

According to the Korea Times, Hanni's birth name is Pham Ngoc Han (with Vietnamese diacritics, Phạm Ngọc Hân). In English she is commonly written Hanni Pham, with the family name last. Japan's Real Sound wrote her name as "HANNI" in its Tokyo Dome review. Her birthday is October 6 and she was born in 2004, which makes her 22 as of October 14, 2026.

NewJeans' debut and Hanni's work

• Debut. NewJeans skipped the usual teasers and debuted on July 22, 2022 by surprise-releasing the video for its first lead single, "Attention," followed by the debut album on August 1. The reports checked for this page do not state an official in-group position for Hanni.¹
• Fashion and beauty. In October 2022 she was named a Gucci ambassador for South Korea alongside IU and Lee Jung-jae, and in February 2023 she was announced as Armani Beauty's global make-up ambassador.^2,3
• Duet. At the 2024 Tokyo Dome fan meeting, Hanni and Danielle debuted their duet "Hold It Down."⁶

"Blue Coral Reef" at Tokyo Dome

NewJeans held the fan meeting "Bunnies Camp 2024 Tokyo Dome" on June 26–27, 2024, drawing 91,200 people over two days. On both nights Hanni sang "Aoi Sangosho" (Blue Coral Reef), Seiko Matsuda's 1980s hit. Newsis reported that videos of people singing along to Hanni spread on social media and that Tokyo record stores rearranged their Seiko Matsuda sections. Real Sound wrote that the performance sent the song climbing Korean charts as well.

The National Assembly hearing and the ADOR dispute

• Parliamentary audit (October 2024). On October 15, 2024, Hanni appeared before the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee as a witness on bullying and workplace harassment of idols. "If we respect each other as human beings, at least there would be no workplace harassment or ostracism," she said. ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young said at the same session that she believed Hanni's account but had not been able to secure evidence, and that the two sides' accounts differed.⁸
• Termination claim and injunction. NewJeans declared its exclusive contracts with ADOR terminated in November 2024. On March 21, 2025 a court barred the five members from independent activities without ADOR's prior consent, and in April it rejected the members' objection.⁹
• First-instance ruling (October 30, 2025). In ADOR's suit to confirm the contracts, the Seoul Central District Court ruled for ADOR, holding that the contracts "remain valid." NewJeans' side said trust had broken down so badly that normal activities after a return were impossible and that it would appeal at once, but no appeal was filed by the deadline and the ruling became final.^10,12
• Return. On November 12, 2025 ADOR announced that Haerin and Hyein would return; hours later Minji, Hanni and Danielle said through their lawyers that they also intended to return, and ADOR said it was verifying whether that intent was genuine. On December 29 ADOR announced that Hanni, after lengthy talks, had decided to stay with ADOR "in respect for the court's ruling." The same day ADOR said it had notified Danielle that her contract was terminated.^11,13

Where things stand in October 2026

Hanni remains with ADOR. In April 2026 ADOR confirmed that Hanni, Haerin and Hyein had visited Copenhagen with staff, describing the trip as "part of a pre-production process" for a new musical narrative. On July 22, the group's fourth anniversary, films and photos featuring Hanni, Minji, Haerin and Hyein were released. ADOR called them anniversary content and said "specific activity plans and formats will be announced once discussions with the members are fully concluded"; it said talks on Minji's return were still under way. As of a Star News report on September 25, no date had been set for a NewJeans comeback album. At a September 10 hearing in its damages suit against Danielle, former CEO Min Hee-jin and others, ADOR said that "the litigation may delay the resumption of activities, but that does not mean there is no activity plan."