Uhm Ki-joon

The stage came first, and it never entirely stopped. Uhm Ki-joon built his name in Korean musical theatre, in productions of Singin' in the Rain, Grease, The Three Musketeers, Jack the Ripper, The Count of Monte Cristo, Catch Me If You Can and Rebecca, plus The Sorrows of Young Werther and Patrick Marber's Closer. That is a run of leads in exactly the kind of show that demands a large, clean, projected performance several nights a week.

Television took a while to catch up. His earliest credit here is Kimchi Cheese Smile in 2007, and for most of the decade after it he worked in support: Worlds Within, Dream High as a teacher, Ghost, Golden Cross. He was very good and largely uncelebrated.

Then he found the thing he is unmatched at in Korean drama, the immaculate man. Joo Dan-tae in The Penthouse is the full expression, a villain played with theatre-sized commitment inside a series pitched at operatic volume, and it works precisely because he never signals that he considers himself above the material. Defendant handed him two men with one face. Little Women used the same polish in a slower, colder key. I Am Not a Robot sits alongside those two as the role the record says he is best known for. He is the actor Korean television calls when a character has to be charming in a way the audience should distrust.