In January 2009, media outlets reported that Bae Yong-joon, hallyu actor and chairman of KeyEast, would co-produce a television drama with Park Jin-young's entertainment company JYP.

[7] Bae being the creative producer of the drama, he provided overall concept, goals and ideas while Park composed the music and choreographed the dance for the series.

[11] Ok Taec-yeon and Jang Wooyoung from 2PM, Bae Suzy from Miss A, Hahm Eun-jung from T-ara, singer IU and Kim Soo-hyun were selected for the main cast.

[24][25] On October 5, 2011, Japan's daily paper Sankei Sports reported that Dream High was handed the Grand Prize and Hallyu award at the SKY PerfecTV!

On May 10, 2012, Dream High was honored at the Rose d'Or, the global entertainment television festival ceremony which took place at Lucerne, Switzerland.

The sequel Dream High 2 aired a year later with a different cast, starring Kang So-ra, GOT7's JB and Jinyoung, 2AM's Jinwoon, T-ara's Jiyeon, SISTAR's Hyolyn, Ailee, and Park Seo-joon.

[53] Another DVD box set featuring behind-the-scenes videos and interviews with the cast and staff was released on December 7 of the same year in Japan under Pony Canyon.

[59] The show was sold to various Latin American countries including Peru (2012), Ecuador (2012),[60] Chile (2012, 2013, 2017),[61] Panama (2013), Colombia (2013), Dominican Republic (2013), El Salvador (2013) and Bolivia (2014).