Neela Ratanaporn was born in Phuket, Thailand on December 31, 1996 to parents Apsara and Theo Ratanaporn who were investment brokers. Her parents passed when she 3, something she doesn't remember much of, in a workplace accident when their office building collapsed. Having no close relatives, Neela was put for adoption and ended getting adopted by a single mother in Sydney, Australia. With the adoption, Neela adopted the English name Nyla Yu. Her adoptive mother already had an older biological child, a son named Christian who was six years older than Nyla. She doesn't remember much of her birth parents besides fleeting memories, mainly due to traumatic repression, and has stated before that she had considered her adoptive mother, Mrs. Yu, to be mother and considers Christian to be the same.
Still wanting her to keep in touch with her heritage while far from Thailand, she was enrolled in Thai classes alongside preschool and as such was still able to learn and communicate in Thai. She began learning Korean from her mother and Christian; growing up trilingual.
A quiet but expressive child, Nyla grew up adoring her older brother, who in later years called her an 'adoring puppy'. She enrolled in free community dance classes growing up and adored it, spending much of her time outside of school dancing and exploring music. It was Christian who introduced her to metal music and their mother who introduced both of them to KPOP.
Nyla preferred metal music over KPOP, and began learning how to play the bass guitar. With friends from school, she formed a metal band called 'ECLIPSE' and began performing at the age of 13. However, the band only lasted a year-and-a-half and Nyla found herself struggling with the fact that metal music didn't allow her to dance during the songs. It was then that she got into KPOP more and fell in love with Seo Taiji and Boys and Epik High. She got into Seo Taiji specifically because he had originally come from a metal band, Sinawe, which encouraged her because she believed she could do the same.
Nyla auditioned for three kpop companies in early 2011: Yedang Entertainment (now Banana Culture; Seo Taiji and Boys's old label and where Christian was already a trainee), Stardom Entertainment (the label Block B was under), and YG Entertainment. Nyla didn't pass Yedang's auditions but passed Stardom and YG's. At the recommendation of Christian, she chose YG and became a YG trainee in March of 2011 at the age of 14.
While in YG she became friends with Lisa (future BLACKPINK member) as Lisa became a trainee a month after Nyla. The two roomed together in trainee dorms and attended school together. Through Lisa she met and became friends with BamBam (future GOT7). While at YG she got close with the rest of the future BLACKPINK members and was apart of its lineup - when it was PINKPUNK - along with Miyeon (future GIDLE), and fellow trainees Song Minho, Kim Jiwon, Kim Hanbin and Kim Donghyuk. The former becoming a member of WINNER in 2014 and the latter three becoming part of iKON in 2015 as BOBBY, B.I and DK respectively. Hanbin and Nyla were quite close due to being the same age. It was during her time at YG that she got into rapping more, being tutored by Jiwon and introduced to the rap scene in Korean by Jiwon who snuck her out of the dorms one night. Nyla started going by the name Y2[BLANK] as a reference to Y2K but later cut it down to Y2. It was also her introduction to the rap scene that led her to discovering her bisexuality.
However, in 2015, fed up with YG and their training system as well as questioning if she really wanted to become an idol she ended up finding work with SM who had heard of her talent and offered her a job with them as a dancer and choreographer. Taemin saw leaked videos of Nyla dancing that had been trending online and showed them to SM. She left YG to take them up on an offer and began working at SM.
Over the two years she spent at SM, she danced for f(x), Luna, Taeyeon, Tiffany, EXO-CBX, Seohyun, Taemin and SHINee - even participating in SHINee World IV which is a personal highlight of hers. In 2017, at the end of her two-year contract, as she was considering renewing her contract or joining one of her friend's dance crews, her by-now close work friend/mentor Taemin suggested that she try the idol life once more, saying that she was meant to perform front-and-center on stage rather than just be his or someone else's backup dancer. While hesitant after both hers and her brother's experience with the idol industry, she decided to take another risk and chance.
In 2017, at the age of 20, she was scouted by KQ Entertainment - BLOCKB's Entertainment, and accepted. She joined KQ and became friends with the other trainees there - Hongjoong, Yunho, Mingi, and San. As the other four joined, the nine of them had formed a close friendship. Hongjoong and Nyla particular became 'leaders' of sorts, with Hongjoong being the one with more leadership experience and Nyla having experience from SM and YG. Nyla was an original member of KQ Fellaz from the beginning, though did not compete in MIXNINE, but was present for all pre-debut promotional material.
As of 2025 Nyla, legally Nyla Yu Ratanaporn, is successful dancer and one of the key people behind ATEEZ and their foundation. Due to previous industry connections and her own talent, she's also had her fair share of solo music and features outside of the group and has even released two solo albums.
she's the oldest ateez member (seonghwa is a year and four months younger than nyla)
she's taller than hongjoong and san, making her the third shortest
she's apart of five "lines" in ateez: MATZ (hongjoong, nyla, seonghwa), demon line (hongjoong, nyla, san, seonghwa), hyung/elder line (nyla, seonghwa, hongjoong, yunho), rap line (hongjoong, mingi, nyla), princess line (mingi, nyla)
favourite colour is purple, followed by grey
her hobbies are learning new dance styles and journaling
her specialty is choreography (she works heavily on all of ateez's choreographer - aided by her good friendship with several dancers of bbtrippin)
she's friends with uzin and charlie park of bbtrippin + bada and lusher of bebe
she has two tattoos - a nine-point star on her left shoulderblade for ateez and five stars (three purple and two white) above her right kneecap for her family
wants more tattoos, just can't decide what to get
she's left handed
she has six piercings - vertical labret (lip), first and second lobes (both ears) and her left helix
her rapper/producer tag is "YU2" (audibly: "Youuuuuuuu 2!") referencing her last name. In performances she throws up a peace sign and then flips it down when her tag plays.
she plays the drums and the electric guitar
her favourite music is metal
her favourite artists are KORN, BABYMETAL, System of a Down, Kendrick Lamar, TABLO and Rihanna
her musical inspirations are BABYMETAL, Tom Morello, Childish Gambino, and Yoon Mirae
loves space and star themes - many of her personal items feature star or constellation patterns/detailing
her biggest fears are falling objects and fireworks
her favourite foods are udon, onigiri, and curry
she loves spicy food
is a heavyweight drinker; can drink a lot but doesn't often
only tends to be affectionate with people she's very close too
would describe her personal style as "leather grunge" and "skater chic"
her nicknames and their reasons are:
nii - a cute/short form of nyla/neela; most often used by her brother and mom
kq queen - kq's first female trainee and her position in the group
cosmo - a nickname created by her brother but used by ateez occasionally, mainly due to her love of space
right-hand - technically ateez's position name for her in place of "sub-leader", also has been used by atiny to refer to hongjoong and nyla as a pair "hands of heaven" (see ateez relationships)
have now just realized that the "modelling post" i posted on nyla was the wrong one and was in fact supposed to be posted on tsina's page lol. uni be messing with me brain
synopsis: nyla makes a new step in her career, for better or worse. but nothing else matters when she has her friends on her side.
year: 2015
warnings: n/a
••••
A sharp breath left her lungs as she stepped of the office.
It was done.
She had done it.
She was done.
As of five minutes ago, she was no longer a trainee. No longer in the BLACKPINK lineup. Would no longer have the chance to debut alongside her friends.
She supposed she should feel heartbroken or devastated – but she didn’t. She felt relief – from the demeaning comments about her look or told that she danced too masculine.
This was a new start for her.
“Ny!”
She turned around at the sound of a familiar voice and several pounding footsteps.
Lalisa, Jennie, Rosé, Jisoo and Miyeon ran up to her, feet skidding to a halt. It was Lalisa who had called her name out, the younger girl the closest to her.
“You’re leaving?”
Nyla smiled sadly, “Yeah.”
“Why?” Jennie asked, though it seemed her eyes already knew.
“I just… can’t do it anymore. Its too much. And idol life will be too much for me if I can’t handle it now.” Nyla admitted.
“But… you’ve spent the last four years training for this!” Jisoo pleaded. “The six of us!”
“I know, but I can’t.” Nyla admitted, the tears she had hidden spilling out. “Believe me I don’t regret training with all of you but the idol life just isn’t for me I guess.”
“What are you going to do next?” Rosé asked, hands fidgeting.
“Are you going to go to a smaller company instead?” Miyeon asked, her voice a lot softer and more hesitant.
“No, I–”
“Are you going to go back to Australia?” Jennie asked.
“No– I, I actually have a job lined up.” Nyla said, finally looking her friends in the eyes. “It’s an offer I’ve been sitting on for about a month now I guess. Something that feels more right than being an idol.”
“A job?” Rosé asked, “But you didn’t go to university.”
“It’s not that kind of job!” Nyla said, shaking her hands in front of her. “It’s with SM!”
“SM?”
“As in SM Entertainment?”
“Like SHINee? EXO? Girls Generation?”
“...Yeah.”
Her friends looked back at her, shocked at her revelation of her new place of employment. A sheepish smile spread on her face and her eyes dropped down to her feet again.
“Taemin sunbaenim saw one of the leaked predebut videos of us, particularly that one video of me. Apparently he talked to people about that, and SM’s choreography department reached out to me. I’m signing a two-year contract as a back-up dancer, choreographer, and position dancer for SM.”
“Woah.”
“That’s amazing!” Lalisa said, “You’re dancing for SM?”
“I’m dancing with SM.”
Nyla looked up for a moment, only to be immediately tackled into a hug by the girls. She relished in the hug, squeezing back anyone she could reach. It would be a long time before they could hug like this or even see eachother again.
“I know it's sudden and it changes the debut plans, but I know this is what I want to do. I want to dance, to experiment. And YG doesn’t– didn’t let me dance the way I do best.” Nyla said, speaking into Lalisa’s hair as the girl clung to her. “Besides, I’ll still be in the industry. Maybe, maybe I’ll even get to dance with you guys again. Maybe I can choreograph for you guys in the future.”
“We’ll succeed.” Jennie said, as the girls finally pulled apart, looking at all of them. There was no leader assigned yet, but Jennie was the closest thing to a leader. “Even if we don’t do it side-by-side, we’ll still succeed. Together.”
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