Kim Hye-soo

Kim began her career in an advertisement for Nestlé Milo in 1985. She made her film debut as a leading actress in the film Ggambo (1986), for which she received her first accolade as Best New Actress at 1987 Baeksang Arts Awards. She was the youngest winner of the Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Leading Actress in First Love (1993). Her most commercially successful role was Madam Jeong in the crime film Tazza: The High Rollers (2006), which also won her third Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Actress. Aside from her performances in films, Kim has appeared in many successful television series, including Partner (1994–1998), Did We Really Love? (1999), Royal Story: Jang Hui-bin (2002), The Queen of Office (2013), Signal (2016), Hyena (2020), Juvenile Justice (2022), and Under the Queen's Umbrella (2022).

Kim Hye-soo was born on September 5, 1970, in Busan, Dongnae District, the second of five children. She moved to Seoul Midong Elementary School while she was in third grade at Busan National Elementary School due to her father's work. While in elementary school, she was a member of the national Taekwondo children's demonstration team, and in April 1982 was the flower girl to present a bouquet to Juan Antonio Samaranch, the seventh President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In 1985, Kim featured in a commercial for Nestlé Milo and as well as the first K-pop music video, Cho Yong-pil's title song Empty In The Air. In 1986, Kim made her film debut on Kambo when she was a first-year high school student. She also won Best New Actress for Kambo at 23rd Baeksang Arts Awards. Kim went on to play the leading roles in the television series Samogok (1987), Sun Shim-yi (1988), and Senoya (1989). She co-starred with Roh Joo-hyun in When The Flowers Bloom And The Birds Cry (1990). In 1991, she landed the main role in Lost Love.

Over two decades, she amassed a sizeable filmography of leading and supporting roles, notably in the television series Did We Really Love? with Bae Yong-joon and Revenge and Passion with Ahn Jae-wook, as well as the film Tie a Yellow Ribbon (1998). In the 2000s, Kim focused more on her career in film rather than television, featuring in Kick the Moon, YMCA Baseball Team and Three. At this time, she reinvented her image as a glamorous and confident femme fatale in Hypnotized (2004).

Kim's roles in The Red Shoes (2005) and Tazza: The High Rollers (2006) were her most recognised and ushered her into the highest ranks of the Korean film industry A-list. Various film roles followed, such as a housewife secretly dating a college student in A Good Day to Have an Affair; a non-plussed aunt in Shim's Family; a prostitute in Eleventh Mom and a bar singer in Modern Boy (2008). She considers her collaboration with Han Suk-kyu in 2010's Villain and Widow as one of the highlights of her acting career. In 2009, Kim returned to television with Style, which was set in the fashion industry. She followed that with the mystery melodrama Home Sweet Home in 2010. A frequent host of film awards ceremonies and TV variety shows, Kim became a host of MBC current affairs show W in 2015. Kim, an avid documentary fan, was considered a perfect it for the programme as it shifted its focus more to environmental and global issues. W with Kim Hye-soo premiered in July 2010, but was cancelled in October 2010, with Kim criticizing the network's decision.

Kim has been a popular Korean sex symbol since she wore a low-cut dress as a Blue Dragon Film Awards host and Best Actress winner in 1993, and came to epitomize the era's sexual revolution. Kim is known for caring about younger actors, and has been described by co-star Ma Dong-seok in Familyhood (2016) to be "the most considerate person to care for others." Her co-star Lee Sang-hee in the TV series Juvenile Justice said "Kim would write down unknown actors' names when she thought their acting was good, so that she could recommend them for suitable scripts in the future." Many actresses had expressed special thanks and gratitude to Kim for her care, including Son Ye-jin, Han Ji-min, Kim Nam-joo, and Yum Jung-ah. Kim has a bachelor's in theater and film from Dongguk University. In 2013, Kim admitted to having plagiarized her master's thesis "A Study on Actor Communication," with parts copied verbatim from at least four books. She apologized for her actions, which she said stemmed from her busy schedule and ignorance of the seriousness of plagiarism. Kim consequently forfeited her master's degree in journalism and mass communications.

Kim and character actor Yoo Hae-jin first met in 2001 after shooting the film Kick the Moon and became close in 2006 after appearing together in Tazza: The High Rollers. Rumors of the two dating surfaced starting 2008 although both continuously denied any romantic involvement until early 2010 when paparazzi photographs of the two were released, and the couple officially confirmed their relationship. Kim and Yoo broke up in 2011.

In 2008, Kim donated the full amount of the narration fees of the documentary film "Forgiveness, Are You at the End of the Way" to the crime victim support fund. In April 2009, Kim displayed her pop art at the Seoul Open Art Fair. One of her collage paintings was sold for ₩5 million, and she donated the sum to charity. On July 7, 2009, Kim participated in the "Style Meets Art" campaign co-hosted by cable channel OnStyle and Korean National Commission for UNESCO and donated the proceeds of her donated works to the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. Kim donated ₩100 million for forest fire victims affected by the Goseong Fire of 2019. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic exposed a shortage of masks, Kim donated ₩100 million to Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association. On March 7, 2022, Kim donated ₩100 million to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association to help the victims of the 2022 Uljin and Samcheok wildfire as emergency relief funds. On August 9, 2022, Kim donated ₩100 million to help those affected by the 2022 South Korean floods through the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association. On February 10, 2023, Kim donated ₩100 million through UNICEF to help children who were effected by 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake and in the same month Kim posted a photo of the briquette service, which were the briquettes she donated. On July 17, 2023, Kim donated ₩100 million to aid recovery from the 2023 South Korea floods through Hope Bridge National Disaster Relief Association.

Kim is referred to as a "Pencil Board Star" of the 1980s due to the popularity of pencil boards printed with her image. She has also been named a part of the "Troika of the 1990s" in Korea along with her contemporaries Kim Hee-sun and Shim Eun-ha for their nationwide fame. In 1993, Kim led the main role in the film First Love and gained critical acclaim for her portrayal of the archetypal innocent girl, winning a Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Leading Actress and earning her the title "Nation's First Love" although the film was a box-office failure.

In 2012, she reunited with Tazza director Choi Dong-hoon in The Thieves. Set amongst the casinos of Macau, the heist film became one of the highest-grossing films in Korean cinema history. Kim won the Award for Best Actress in a Film at the 20th Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards This was followed with a supporting role in Han Jae-rim's historical film The Face Reader. In 2013, she headlined the romantic comedy The Queen of Office (also known as Goddess of the Workplace), an adaptation of the 2007 Japanese drama Haken no Hinkaku ("Pride of the Temp"). Kim next starred in Coin Locker Girl (also known as Chinatown) in 2015, the rare female-driven noir film. She said she didn't mind looking unattractive for her role as a ruthless crime boss, with makeup artists adding age spots to her face, gray to her hair, and flab to her stomach and hips with prostheses. Kim said it was "mentally agonizing" deciding whether to accept the role, but once she did, she felt "a surge of excitement" every time she stepped onto the set, and considered the film "a new challenge that (made her) heart race and (scared her) at the same time."

Kim made her small-screen comeback in 2016 with tvN's Signal, which was both critically and commercially successful. Kim as Cha Soo-hyun, acted opposite Lee Je-hoon and Cho Jin-woong as the first female police officer in the Special Task Force, later becoming the leader of the Seoul Cold Case Aquad. She won Best Actress at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards and the tvN10 Awards for her performance. Kim then starred in the comedy drama Familyhood, a film directed by Kim Tae-gon, co-starring Ma Dong-seok and Kim Hyun-soo. Kim was nominated for Best Actress at 25th Buil Film Awards, 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards, and the 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards In 2017, Kim also starred in the noir film A Special Lady. Directed by Lee An-gyu, Kim played Na Hyun-jung, a woman who becomes the second-in-command of a gangster organization-turned-leading business entity, opposite Lee Sun-kyun and Lee Hee-joon. "Kim Hye-soo's Refugee Diary" was a documentary that aired on KBS1 in September 2017. Directed by Park Hye-ryeong, Jang Hyun-ho, and Lee Byung-han, with the script written by Kwon Hyeon-jeong. The documentary followed Kim Hye-soo's visits to refugees who had survived near-death experiences in the Mediterranean. During her travels in June 2017 to Serbia, Italy, and Greece, which were major refugee destinations, she witnessed the challenges faced by refugees. Despite restrictions, the number of refugees, especially children, continued to rise. Kim Hye-soo shared vivid stories of their journeys and expressed admiration for their resilience, particularly among children living alone without family or guardians. In 2018, Kim starred in the IMF crisis film, Default, alongside Yoo Ah-in. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 55th Baeksang Arts Awards. Then she was cast in the science fiction film Return. in June 2019, Kim signed on to appear in The Day I Died: Unclosed Case, Park Ji-wan's directorial debut. The film was released on November 12, 2020. Kim was nominated at the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards for the Best Actress in a Film category. In 2020, Kim starred in the legal drama Hyena. She played Jung Geum-ja, a hyena who chased money and success no matter the cost. It aired on SBS TV from February 21 to April 11, 2020. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards. She was honoured with Excellence Award at the 2020 Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards for her performance in Hyena. In March 2022, Kim gained international recognition for her lead role as judge Shim Eun-seok in the Netflix series Juvenile Justice, the most popular non-English show for two weeks straight. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 58th Baeksang Arts Awards. The same year she starred in the tvN historical drama Under the Queen's Umbrella as Queen Im Hwa-ryeong. In 2023, Kim starred in 'Smuggling'. The film surpassed 5 million admissions 36 days after its release, becoming the highest-grossing South Korean summer film of that year. For her performance, received the Best Actress award at the 28th Chunsa International Film Festival, in eight years.