Born in Busan in 1981 to a major company executive, Gang Dongwon graduated with honors from Hanyang University in Mechanical Engineering. His life took an unexpected turn when he was noticed by a modelling agent, putting him on the patch to a successful career as a runway model. Following an appearance in a music video, Gang decided to pursue an acting career, becoming a full-time performer in 2003 when he got his start on TV. His first film followed soon after, with 2004’...More

Born in Busan in 1981 to a major company executive, Gang Dongwon graduated with honors from Hanyang University in Mechanical Engineering. His life took an unexpected turn when he was noticed by a modelling agent, putting him on the patch to a successful career as a runway model. Following an appearance in a music video, Gang decided to pursue an acting career, becoming a full-time performer in 2003 when he got his start on TV. His first film followed soon after, with 2004’s <Too Beautiful to Lie> and his breakthrough <Romance of Their Own> (2004), based on a popular internet novel, earning several awards in the process. His popularity shot up, even growing fanbases in other Asian countries such as Japan. He next starred in Lee Myungse’s idiosyncratic period swordplay film <The Duelist> (2005); as a prisoner in the praised drama <Maundy Thursday> (2006); and the elusive antagonist in the hit kidnapping drama <Voice of a Murderer> (2007). In 2007, Gang also appeared in the fiercely artistic <M>, as a writer getting lost in his own head. Hits started to come one after the other, with Choi Donghoon’s <Woochi> (2009), in which he played a charismatic time-hopping Joseon Era magician, and then Jang Hoon’s <Secret Reunion> (2010), starring alongside Song Kangho as a North Korean agent, his performance earning him to be named Best Actor by the Korean Association of Film Critics. He took one more role, the sci-fi superhero pic <Haunters>, before performing his mandatory military service. His return came in 2013 with a short by Kim Jeewoon, <The X>, followed by Yoon Jongbin’s period action film <Kundo: Age of the Rampant> and E J-yong’s melodrama <My Brilliant Life>. Gang’s star power came back in a big way at the end of 2015 when he appeared alongside Kim Yunseok in the hugely successful exorcism thriller <The Priests>. Just a few months later, his pairing with Hwang Jungmin in the prison thriller <A Violent Prosecutor> proved even more potent. He then tackled the magical realism genre with <VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED> (2016), in which he played a boy who comes back as an adult just a few days after disappearing in mysterious circumstances. After his successful turn as a detective hellbent on catching the head of the company that is behind a massive scam in <Master> (2016), he received top-billing in the Korean remake of <Golden Slumber> (2017). He was then cast in the Hollywood blockbuster <Tsunami LA>, but the project has been in limbo due to scheduling issues and the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, he contributed to turning <Peninsula>, the follow-up to <TRAIN TO BUSAN>, into one of the few success stories in a global film industry gripped by the unprecedented health crisis. In 2022, he was part of the star-studded cast of Koreeda Hirokazu’s Korean film <Broker>.Less