Jo Jin-ho (Korean: 조진호; born April 17, 1992), commonly known by the mononym Jinho, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, composer, vocal coach and member of South Korean boy group Pentagon under Cube Entertainment. In 2023, he participated in the JTBC singing competition program Phantom Singer 4, where his quartet Crezl ultimately placed third and officially debuted.
He is a former SM Entertainment trainee and member of the project group SM the Ballad. After leaving SM Entertainment in 2015, Jinho became a vocal coach. Since then, he has trained Cube labelmates (G)I-dle and Yoo Seon-ho, among others.
Jinho was born in Bucheon, South Korea on April 17, 1992. When he was seven, his family moved to Daejeon. At the age of 15, he lived in Qingdao, China, for eight months due to family and work before settling in Seoul.
He decided to become a singer after watching Brian McKnight and Johan Kim perform a duet of McKnight's "One Last Cry."
2008–2014: Everysing win and SM the Ballad
In 2008, Jinho won first place in the SM Everysing Contest. He later became a trainee through SM Entertainment's casting system in the same year.
In November 2010, Jinho, under the name Jino, made his debut as a member of SM the Ballad alongside Super Junior's Kyuhyun, Shinee's Jonghyun, and TraxX's Jay. The group had great reception, and their debut EP Miss You reached number one on the Gaon Album Chart. He was then preparing to debut in another group, but plans fell through and the group was ultimately not formed. In 2013, he was cast in the musical Summer Snow.
2015–2020: Departing SM Entertainment, debut with Pentagon and musical roles
In 2015, Jinho left SM Entertainment and began working as a singing tutor at Modern K Academy. Modern K Academy encouraged Jinho to audition at Cube, as their CEO has close connections with Cube Entertainment and had a hand in creating Pentagon, being in charge of talent development. In February, he was part of a vocal project group, Seorin-dong Children (서린동 아이들) with Hui and another female singer. They released a remake of Lee Won-jin and Ryu Keum-deok's 1994 classic "For All the New Lovers". The group wasn't originally supposed to consist of them, but after receiving a good response from Cube Artist Development for the recorded guide, the company decided to release it on streaming sites. In February 2016, Jinho was featured in K.Shin's song "Perception" alongside Hwang Sung-dae under the name Mush. The name was intended to be Mu$h, but he forgot to tell K.Shin to add a dollar sign instead of an 's'.
Making it through the audition process, Jinho participated in Pentagon Maker making it to the final lineup and debuting with the group on October 10, 2016.
In 2017, Jinho started a personal project titled "Magazine Ho" releasing covers in various genres and languages on the last of each month. With this project he has worked with and featured other artists such as CLC's Sorn, (G)I-dle's Jeon So-yeon, HYNN, and band mates Hongseok, Shinwon, Hui, Kino, and Yeo One.
On March 17, 2018, Jinho held his first mini live concert which is a part of his Magazine Ho cover songs project.
In September, it was announced that Jinho would star in the musical Iron Mask as Raul, the son of Athos who admires his father and dreams of becoming a royal general. The musical ran from September 13 to November 18 at the Kwanglim Art Center, Seoul. He rotated the role with musical actor, Shin Hyun-mook and actor Yoo Hyun-seok.
On December 17, 2018, Cube announced his second mini live concert "Magazine Ho Vol.2 - Ready Ho" would be on 19 January 2019 at Ilchi Art Hall, and it sold out in seconds. Members Hongseok and Kino were present as special guests during the concert.
Jinho was cast in his fourth musical, Goddess is Watching You. He played as the role of an innocent and pure North Korean soldier Ryu Soon Ho, who overcomes his trauma due to war with the belief in a goddess. The musical ran from November 14, 2019, to February 26, 2020, at the Daehangno Arts Theater in Seoul.
Jinho held his 3rd solo mini live concert, "Magazine Ho Vol.3 - Off Stage" on January 11, 2020. Due to high demand from fans, Cube Entertainment added an additional date to the concert. Jinho is set to open the first performance on January 10 to meet more fans. He sang an unreleased song, "Gravity" together with member Kino which was composed and written by Kino. Members Hui, Hongseok and Yeo One were also present as special guest. In March, Jinho appeared on Mnet's music talk show Studio Music Hall 2. He was introduced as "high note terminator" performing a duet of Kim Kwang-seok's "At About Thirty" with Hui.
2021–present: Phantom Singer, Crezl, Japanese mini album
In March 2023, Jinho joined season 4 of Phantom Singer as a contestant. His quartet, Crezl, ended up placing third in the final round.