Yunjin Kim

Yunjin Kim (Hangul: 김윤진), also known as Kim Yun-jin (born November 7, 1973) is a South Korean-born American film and theater actress. She is best known for her role as Sun-Hwa Kwon on the American television series Lost, and as the North Korean spy Bang-Hee in the South Korean film Shiri. She has also starred in the series Mistresses and XO, Kitty. Early life Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1983-1984. They lived in Staten Island, New York. She joined the middle school drama club in the 7th grade and performed in the musical My Fair Lady. Kim attended high school at the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a public high school located in Manhattan. From there, she went on to study drama at the London Academy of Performing Arts and later earned her BFA degree in drama at Boston University. Kim has remarked that in her zeal to become Americanized quickly, she studied acting, academics and pronunciation with equal intensity. She is also a trained dancer and martial arts fighter. Career After graduation, Kim devoted herself full-time to acting. She garnered several minor parts on MTV, in soap opera-style dramas on ABC, and on the off-Broadway stage. In 1997, she starred in Splendid Holiday, a Korean TV drama shot on location in New York. Kim decided to return to Korea. She was cast in the TV drama Wedding Dress and was also invited to act in Lee Kwangmo's feature Spring in My Hometown, although she ended up not taking this role. Her breakthrough debut came in the 1999 film Shiri, South Korea's first blockbuster film. Shiri became the highest-grossing film in Korean history at the time. In November 2000, she continued her association with Kang Je-gyu in The Legend of Gingko.