Cha Eun-woo
Cha Eun-woo is an actor, born 1997.
Lee Dong-min was famous for his face before he had a career to attach it to. Signed to Fantagio and launched as a member of the boy band Astro, he picked up the press nickname Genius Face early, and his first screen work was a small part in the film My Brilliant Life in 2014, followed by supporting turns as the idol MJ in The Best Hit and a long stretch as a fixed cast member on the variety show Master in the House.
The acting took longer to arrive than the fame did. His first lead came in 2018 with the campus romantic comedy My ID is Gangnam Beauty, and the run since shows what he is actually built for: not volume, but reserve. He is best playing men who are withholding something, and the parts that use him well hand him a second self to hide behind. Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung lists him under three names in a single show, a Joseon prince who publishes under a pen name, and the doubling suits him considerably better than straightforward charm does.
True Beauty, which ran from 2020 into 2021, made him a Korean Wave figure abroad, and he has been steering away from the high school register ever since: the supernatural action of Island, the thriller Decibel, the revenge drama Wonderful World, the film The First Ride. He released a solo EP, Entity, in 2024. The face is still the first thing anyone mentions about him. The work is slowly making it the second thing.
Movies (4)
TV (22)
- The WONDERfools (2026)
- True Beauty (2020)
- Show! Music Core (2005)
- Master In The House (2017)
- Island (2022)
- A Good Day to be a Dog (2023)
- Blue Dragon Series Awards (2022)
- Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (2019)
- Crime Scene (2014)
- My ID is Gangnam Beauty (2018)
- Wonderful World (2024)
- MBC Music Festival (2005)
- Sweet Revenge (2017)
- On the Border (2018)
- Master Key (2017)
- The Villainess Is A Marionette (2022)
- The Best Hit (2017)
- KCON:TACT ALL-ACCESS (2020)
- SBS Entertainment Awards (2007)
- KBS Song Festival (2006)
- Rented in Finland (2024)
- Super Hearer (2019)
Where to start with Cha Eun-woo
Start with My ID is Gangnam Beauty. It is the show where the reserve reads as acting rather than shyness, and the campus setting keeps the stakes small enough that nobody has to carry a genre on their own. From there, True Beauty is the international entry point and the more conventional watch: charming, formulaic, and the reason his name travels.
The interesting swing is Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung, where a costume drama gives him a role with the layers built in, and it is still the most rewarding thing on the list. For the pivot away from sweetness, try Wonderful World and the supernatural Island, both of which ask him to be harder than he looks comfortable being. Keep A Good Day to be a Dog for a light evening, and The First Ride if you want him outside the drama format entirely.