Born in 1973, JEON Do-yeon started out as a model, making her first appearances in TV ads, before moving to TV series starting with <Our Heaven> in 1992. After a series of small roles, she was first noticed in the series <Our Sunny Days of Youth> (1995) and gained wider recognition in 1997 with a supporting role in <Star in My Heart>, one of the earliest Korean shows to find success in other Asian countries. JEON shot to stardom later that year when she was ...More

Born in 1973, JEON Do-yeon started out as a model, making her first appearances in TV ads, before moving to TV series starting with <Our Heaven> in 1992. After a series of small roles, she was first noticed in the series <Our Sunny Days of Youth> (1995) and gained wider recognition in 1997 with a supporting role in <Star in My Heart>, one of the earliest Korean shows to find success in other Asian countries. JEON shot to stardom later that year when she was cast as the female lead of <The Contact>, her first film project, starring alongside Han Sukkyu. Having received Best New Actress at both the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards, she was offered a lot of roles during the next few years which allowed her to exhibit the full range of her acting skills. From an attractive career woman who gives a sleeping pill to her new-born baby in <Happy End> (1999) to a teenage student who has a crush on her teacher in <The Harmonium in My Memory> (1999), Jeon perfectly captured two extremely different personae without losing her distinctive style and charm. In <No Blood, No tears> (2002), she was a strong, battle-hardened woman while in <Untold Scandal> (2003) she played a morally upright widow who falls victim to a Casanova. She delivered striking performances as a HIV-positive prostitute who falls in love in <You Are My Sunshine> (2005), and her turn as a mother who wails at the loss of her son in <Secret Sunshine> (2007) received rave critical reviews as well as the Best Actress award when it debuted in Cannes, bringing her international fame. She was invited to the French festival a few years later for her role in <The Housemaid> (2010). 2011 saw Jeon in a rare genre film appearance in <Countdown>. Jeon took on her next role in Pang Eunjin’s drama <Way Back Home> (2013), in which she appeared as a mother and wife who ends up unfairly incarcerated in a distant country. The star earned many plaudits for her performance. Also in 2013, she was invited to join the jury for the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival, after <Secret Sunshine> director Lee Chang-dong became the first Korean to receive such honor. She next appeared in the 2014 period blockbuster <Memories of the Sword> alongside Lee Byunghun. In 2015, she starred in OH Seung-uk’s <The Shameless> in which she played the girlfriend of a murder suspect who becomes involved with the detective (played by Kim Namgil) investigating the case. The film was invited to screen at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. In 2019, Jeon earned more Best Actress awards with her performance in Lee Jongun's <Birthday> in which she played a mother who lost her son in the tragic Sewol Ferry incident. She then joined the star-studded black comedy <Beasts Clawing at Straws>, which won the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Jeon was last seen in the aviation disaster movie <Emergency Declaration> (2021).Less