Born in 1977, KIM Hee-seon entered the show business upon winning the Fair Face Beauty Contest in 1992 while still in middle school, allowing her to embark on a career as a model for teen magazines. After a first screen appearance in a commercial for chips in 1993, she made her acting debut later that year in the TV series <Dinosaur Teacher> (1993-1995). Quickly achieving fame, she was one of Korea’s top TV stars in the mid-to-late 1990s, featuring in notable TV show...More

Born in 1977, KIM Hee-seon entered the show business upon winning the Fair Face Beauty Contest in 1992 while still in middle school, allowing her to embark on a career as a model for teen magazines. After a first screen appearance in a commercial for chips in 1993, she made her acting debut later that year in the TV series <Dinosaur Teacher> (1993-1995). Quickly achieving fame, she was one of Korea’s top TV stars in the mid-to-late 1990s, featuring in notable TV shows such as <Men of the Bath House> (1995), <Propose> (1997), <Wedding Dress> (1997), <Sunflower> (1998) and <Tomato> (1999). When she won the Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards for her role in <Mister Q> (1998), she became the youngest actor at the time to receive such honors. Less successful has been however her film career so far. Having embarked on a dual career as a film actress in 1997 by starring opposite JANG Dong-un in <Repechage>, she followed it up with <Ghost in Love> (1999) from the same director. Her biggest role to date was in martial arts blockbuster <Bichunmoo> which came out in 2000 and gave her international recognition, particularly in the Chinese-speaking world. She changed her image by cutting her hair short for her next part as an animator in the romantic comedy <Wanee and Junah> (2001). After her last Korean film <A Letter From Mars> (2003), she has remained active on TV, but received one more film role during that decade in the HK martial arts title <The Myth> (2005), co-starring Jackie CHAN. She then took a break in her career to get married and raise her child, and made her comeback in 2011 with a cameo in the Chinese period war film <The Warring States>, soon followed by a leading role in time-slip medical drama series <Faith> (2012). She managed to shake off her reputation as an “eye candy” by portraying in melodrama series <Wonder Days> (2014) a woman who remained upbeat despite all the hardships she has been through, earning the praises of critics. In 2017, she claimed another success with TV series <The Lady in Dignity>, as it recorded some of the highest ratings ever for a TV series on cable network. Less