Kim Soo-hyun
Kim Soo-hyun is an actor, born 1988.
Kim Soo-hyun made his television debut in 2007 in the family sitcom Kimchi Cheese Smile, which is an unremarkable start for one of the most recognisable faces in Korean television. Born in Seoul in 1988, he broke through with the music-school drama Dream High (2011) and then took the lead as King Lee Hwon in The Moon Embracing the Sun (2012), a historical romance that became a national event.
Film followed immediately and profitably: Zampano in the heist picture The Thieves (2012) and a double role in Secretly, Greatly (2013), both among the top-grossing Korean releases of their years. Then My Love from the Star (2013) made him a Hallyu star across Asia, playing an alien who has been quietly living in Korea for four centuries.
The specific skill is stillness under pressure. His best characters are men holding something down: Do Min-joon's enforced detachment, Moon Gang-tae's exhausted patience as a carer in It's Okay to Not Be Okay (2020), Baek Hyun-woo's collapsing composure in Queen of Tears (2024). He rarely raises his voice, and the effect is that when he does it registers.
Between the leads he has been happy to do less, taking a cameo as the Hotel Blue Moon boss in Hotel Del Luna, a small turn in Miss Granny (2014) and the industry comedy The Producers (2015). One Ordinary Day (2021) is the bleakest thing on the list. His awards include Grand Bell Awards, a Blue Dragon and multiple Baeksang wins.
Movies (4)
TV (13)
Where to start with Kim Soo-hyun
For the acting rather than the phenomenon, It's Okay to Not Be Okay is the one: a romance about damaged people that takes psychiatric care seriously, and Kim plays a carer whose patience is visibly running out. If you want the crowd-pleaser instead, Queen of Tears is enormous, funny and shameless about making you cry, and it is the most-watched thing he has done.
The historically important title is My Love from the Star, where the international audience started, and it is sillier and warmer than its reputation suggests. The Moon Embracing the Sun is the sweeping historical, One Ordinary Day the bleak legal thriller for anyone who wants him without romance, and Secretly, Greatly the film that puts his comic timing right next to the melodrama. Dream High and The Thieves are the early credits still worth an evening.