Kim So-yeon

Kim So-yeon (born November 2, 1980) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for starring in a number of well-known television dramas, notably All About Eve (2000), Iris (2009), Prosecutor Princess (2010), Happy Home (2016), and The Penthouse: War in Life (2020–2021). Career When she was 14, Kim So-yeon entered the Miss Binggrae beauty pageant without her parents' approval. She had no makeup, so she used a marker pen as her eyeliner and ended up winning the top prize thus launching her entertainment career. She debuted with a role in the SBS Drama Dinosaur Teacher, and continued to star in popular TV shows such as Reporting for Duty (1996) and Soonpoong Clinic (1998). She also hosted the music program Inkigayo and appeared in numerous commercials, becoming the first Korean teen star to earn more than from commercial modeling. Because of her preternaturally mature looks and poise, she was often cast in older roles notably as a manipulative, villainous, anchorwoman in All About Eve, which drew a peak viewership rating of 45.2% when it aired in 2000. However, being typecast as prim, cold-hearted characters had a negative effect on Kim's career, and her fame went downhill in the mid-2000s. Her attempt to crossover to China via Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's wuxia film Seven Swords (in which she played a Joseon noblewoman-turned-slave) and the Chinese dramas Just Like a Beautiful Flying Butterfly and Anhui Merchants also proved unsuccessful. Kim took a break for three years, questioning whether she wanted to continue being an actress. She returned to television in 2008 with Gourmet (adapted from Huh Young-man's titular manhwa). A year later, Kim's career saw a resurgence with the 2009 high-budget series Iris. She cut her trademark long hair and worked hard on her action scenes in order to look convincing in her role as a North Korean spy, drawing praise for her portrayal of a tough woman conflicted about her loyalty to her country and her love for a South Korean agent.