Born in 1984, Yoo Yeonseok decided to become an actor in his sophomore year. He took acting classes, and after his graduation from high school, he moved to Seoul and was admitted to Sejong University. A one of a kind opportunity presented itself when the former accountant of the acting school he used to attend, with whom he became friends, happened to be working as a costumer on Park Chanwook’s <Oldboy> (2003). She helped him land an audition, which he eventually pas...More

Born in 1984, Yoo Yeonseok decided to become an actor in his sophomore year. He took acting classes, and after his graduation from high school, he moved to Seoul and was admitted to Sejong University. A one of a kind opportunity presented itself when the former accountant of the acting school he used to attend, with whom he became friends, happened to be working as a costumer on Park Chanwook’s <Oldboy> (2003). She helped him land an audition, which he eventually passed, and so he was able to portray Yu Jitae’s younger character in the seminal work. Following his studies and his military service, he returned to acting, first in TV series starting with the second season of <General Hospital> (2008-2009). He quickly got his chance on the big screen again and it wasn’t long before he made a name for himself in both independent and commercial fare. 2011 saw him take on the role of a young man looking for his adopted son in the critical darling <Re-encounter>. More arthouse fare followed with <Hoya> (2010) and <Two Weddings and a Funeral> (2012). 2012 was also the year when he became more well-known as he took on prominent roles in a number of more commercial features such as <Horror Stories> and the enormously successful melodramas <Architecture 101> and <A Werewolf Boy>. It was however with his leading role in the hit youth drama series <Reply 1994> (2013) that he was brought to fame. He then appeared in Jang Joonhwan’s thriller <Hwayi: A Monster Boy>, and at the end of 2014 he starred as the King in Lee Wonsuk’s <The Royal Tailor> as well as a researcher who blows the lid off a case of stem cell fraud in Yim Soonrye’s <The Whistleblower>. Next for Yoo was his first top-billing role in the romcom <Mood of the Day>. After he was offered the male lead role in the period drama <LOVE, LIES> (2015), his popularity shot up when he starred as a Korean orphan who is helping Japan take over the Peninsula in the historical drama series <Mr. Sunshine> (2018), and he reached an even wider audience when he played an assistant professor of paediatric surgery in the medical drama series <Hospital Playlist> (2020-2021). In the political anticipation thriller <Steel Rain2: Summit> (2019), he portrayed the North Korean leader against Jung Woosung’s South Korean president and Kwak Dowon’s North Korean guard command chief. In 2021, he fronted the Korea-France co-produced thriller <Vanishing> (2021), and the next year he starred as the legal advisor working for a drug cartel in the Netflix series <Narco-Saints> (2022).Less