Star Hunt Academy

**Star Hunt Academy** (abbreviated as **SHA**) is the artist/idol training ground of ABS-CBN Entertainment and managed by Star Hunt. SHA Trainees were selected thru scouting and audition on Star Hunt, ABS-CBN’s talent audition drive for their reality shows, talent competition and artists.

While the Star Hunt auditions started in 2018, the Star Hunt Academy and its trainees was officially launch in August 2019.

Star Hunt Academy has produced two Filipino idol Groups each for boys and for girls, BGYO (boy group) – officially launched on January 2021 and BINI (girl group) – officially debuted on June 11, 2021. They are now Managed by Star Magic Philippines, ABS-CBN's talent agency.

## Background

Believing the Filipino talents are world class and inspired by the success of Korean Idol industry, ABS-CBN Head of Entertainment Productions Direk Laurenti Dyogi in 2018 envisioned forming a training camp for groups of individuals to further develop their talents through training.

Therefore, ABS-CBN launch Star Hunt Academy, the training ground for young aspiring talents to hone their talents in singing and dancing and develop them holistically and nurture them physically, emotionally and mentally.

## History

In 2018, ABS-CBN held a nationwide audition caravan dubbed as "Star Hunt: The Kapamilya Grand Audition". From these auditions, which held throughout the country and overseas, they selected 250 aspiring individuals to undergo a 5-day boot camp and trim them down to 50 aspirants. After few weeks the management further trim them down, and with addition of aspirants recommended by talent scouts and former contestants from their reality show Pinoy Big Brother, the final casting included 19 trainees with 7 boys and 12 girls.

Star Hunt Academy was officially launched alongside its trainees on August 2019.

The academy trained its trainees from early 2019 to December of 2020 under renowned Filipino voice and dance coaches. The trainees were further trained by South Korean idol producer *MU Doctor Academy* to undergo the Korean idol training system and learn their practice and discipline.

SHA Trainees were occasionally invited to perform in various ABS-CBN mall shows and other events around the country. These performances were part of their training to gain confidence in front of a live audience, while showcasing the fruits of their hours of rigorous training. They performed in a Mall Show in Vista Mall Taguig, a Mall Show in Rosales Cavite along with The Gold Squad, they also performed in an event of Hado Pilipinas in 2019, and five SHA Girl Trainees were invited to perform in a festival in Palawan. They also appeared in a 2019 National Youth Commission event *FITFIL: Youth Against Drug*, where they were proclaimed as Youth Ambassadors, and invited to perform at the 2019 Manila Southeast Asian Games thanksgiving celebration.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the academy locked their trainees inside **Camp Star Hunt** for safety protocol where despite of being in community quarantine, the trainees were still be able to focus on their training and their education.

On May 2020, Direk Lauren Dyogi released training videos on both SHA Boy and SHA Girl Trainees on twitter which were widely praised by the online community. The trainees were also invited to perform in *Philippine K-Pop Convention's* *#HappyHallyDay4* where they performed K-Pop covers.

The Star Hunt Academy project was one of those affected because of *ABS-CBN's network shutdown* in May 2020 and the *denial of their franchise renewal* by the Congress in July 2020. Despite the network's difficulties that time, the management decided to continue with the project with the hope that this venture on idol industry would eventually help in the rebuilding and rebranding of ABS-CBN in the future.

On October 10, 2020, the last 8 remaining members SHA Girl trainees from the original 12 members, officially graduated from the Academy and announced to be pre-debuted on November 2020. Prior to their pre-debut, Star Hunt Academy Girl Trainees were given their official idol group name "BINI" derived from the Filipino word "binibini". They released their pre-debut song "Da Coconut Nut" on November 20, 2020.

On December 20, 2020, during the P-Pop Rise segment of ABS-CBN Christmas Special, the last 5 remaining members of SHA Boy Trainees officially graduated from the Academy and announced to be officially launched on January 2021. In early January 2021, their official idol group name was announced from being Star Hunt Academy Boy Trainees to BGYO. They released their debut single "The Light" on January 29, 2021.

## Graduated Trainees

Trainees that officially graduated from Star Hunt Academy and debuted as an Idol Group.

**2020**

* BINI
	+ Aiah
	+ Colet
	+ Gwen
	+ Jhoanna
	+ Maloi
	+ Mikha
	+ Sheena
	+ Stacey

* BGYO
	+ Akira
	+ Gelo
	+ JL
	+ Mikki
	+ Nate

## Former Trainees

Past members consist of former trainees who have left Star Hunt Academy prior to graduation.

* Girls
	+ Angela Tungol
	+ Luciana Andres
	+ Reign Parani
	+ Yana Pamular
* Boys
	+ Achilles Samain
	+ RJ Perkins

## Management

Star Hunt, Star Magic and ABS-CBN Entertainment

* Creator and Star Magic Head: **Direk Lauren Dyogi**
* Business Unit Head: **Raymund Dizon**
* Executive Producer: **Jovy Aberion**
* Training Head: **MQ Mallari**
* Creative Consultant: **Kring Kim**
* Marketing: **Brand Up**

## Coaches

Filipino Coaches

* Voice Coaches
	+ Coach Kitchy Molina (head voice coach)
	+ Coach Anna Graham (girls)
	+ Coach Jerwin Nicomedes (boys)
* Dance Coaches
	+ Coach Mickey Perz (head dance coach)
	+ Coach Matthew Almodovar

Korean Coaches

* MU Doctor
	+ Dok Suri
	+ Kwak Seong Chan