The Most Famous

ACTORS from South Korea

This page contains a list of the greatest South Korean Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 13,578 Actors, 415 of which were born in South Korea. This makes South Korea the birth place of the 6th most number of Actors behind Canada, and France.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary South Korean Actors of all time. This list of famous South Korean Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of South Korean Actors.

1. Song Hye-rim (1937 - 2002)

With an HPI of 66.99, Song Hye-rim is the most famous South Korean Actor. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Song Hye-rim (Korean: 성혜림; 24 January 1939 – 18 May 2002) was a North Korean actress, best known for being the one-time favored mistress of Kim Jong Il.

2. Lee Sun-kyun (1975 - 2023)

With an HPI of 64.70, Lee Sun-kyun is the 2nd most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Lee Sun-kyun (Korean: 이선균; March 2, 1975 – December 27, 2023) was a South Korean actor. Internationally, he was best known for his role in Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award–winning film Parasite (2019), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award along with his castmates. He received several other awards, including a nomination for an International Emmy Award. Lee debuted as an actor in 2000 and starred in TV dramas and musical theatre. The dramas Behind the White Tower and Coffee Prince (both 2007) brought Lee mainstream popularity, which he followed with Pasta (2010), Golden Time (2012), and My Mister (2018). On the big screen, he was known for his collaborations with director Hong Sang-soo in the arthouse films Paju (2009), Oki's Movie (2010), and Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013). His other high-profile films include mystery thriller Helpless (2012), romantic comedy All About My Wife (2012), and action thriller A Hard Day (2014), the latter of which won him the Baeksang Arts Award for Best Actor. Following the success of Parasite, Lee continued to take on diverse and critically acclaimed roles. He starred in the first Apple TV+ Korean-language series, Dr. Brain (2021), the political drama Kingmaker (2022), the crime thriller Payback: Money and Power (2023), and the psychological thriller Sleep (2023). On December 27, 2023, Lee died from suicide at the age of 48. At the time of his death, Lee had been investigated for alleged drug consumption.

3. Ma Dong-seok (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 64.11, Ma Dong-seok is the 3rd most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Lee Dong-seok (Korean: 이동석; born March 1, 1971), better known by the stage names Ma Dong-seok (마동석) and Don Lee, is an American actor and film producer based in South Korea. He gained early recognition for his supporting roles in Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012) and The Neighbor (2012). Ma rose to prominence with his breakout performance in Train to Busan (2016), where he played a tough yet compassionate survivor, earning widespread acclaim. He cemented his status as a leading action star with The Outlaws (2017), in which he portrayed the relentless detective Ma Seok-do, a role he reprised in the highly successful The Roundup film series. His subsequent leading roles include Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (2018), The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (2019), The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos (2019), Start-Up (2019), and Ashfall (2019). In 2021, Ma made his Hollywood debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals, which further expanded his global recognition. He remains one of South Korea's most bankable stars and was named Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year in 2018, 2023, and 2024.

4. Lee Byung-hun (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 63.43, Lee Byung-hun is the 4th most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Lee Byung-hun (Korean: 이병헌; born July 12, 1970) is a South Korean actor. He has received acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably Joint Security Area (2000); A Bittersweet Life (2005); The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); I Saw the Devil (2010); Masquerade (2012); and the television series All In (2003), Iris (2009), and Mr. Sunshine (2018). His other notable South Korean films include Inside Men (2015), Master (2016), Ashfall (2019), and The Man Standing Next (2020). In the United States, he is known for portraying Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and its sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), and starring alongside Bruce Willis in Red 2 (2013). He portrayed T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015), and Billy Rocks in The Magnificent Seven (2016). He appeared in a recurring role as the Front Man in season 1, and as part of the main cast of season 2 of the Netflix hit survival series Squid Game. Lee has been named Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year in 2012 and Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year in 2018. He was also the first South Korean actor to present an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Lee and Ahn Sung-ki were the first South Korean actors to imprint their hand and foot prints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

5. Lee Min-ho (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 62.33, Lee Min-ho is the 5th most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Lee Min-ho (Korean: 이민호, born June 22, 1987) is a South Korean actor and singer. He gained widespread fame with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers (2009), which also earned him the Baeksang Arts Award for Best New Actor. His other notable works are television series City Hunter (2011), The Heirs (2013), The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016), and The King: Eternal Monarch (2020), as well as the action thriller film Gangnam Blues (2015). In 2022, he starred in the Apple TV+ period drama Pachinko based on the novel of the same name. The success of Lee's television career established him as a top Hallyu star. He became the first Korean celebrity to have a wax figure made in his image at Madame Tussauds, with figures being unveiled in Shanghai in 2013, and Hong Kong in 2014.

6. Choi Eun-hee (1926 - 2018)

With an HPI of 62.16, Choi Eun-hee is the 6th most famous South Korean Actor. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Choi Eun-hee (Korean: 최은희; November 20, 1926 – April 16, 2018) was a South Korean actress. She was one of South Korea's most popular stars of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, Choi and her then ex-husband, movie director Shin Sang-ok, were abducted to North Korea, where they were forced to make films until they sought asylum at the United States embassy in Vienna in 1986. They returned to South Korea in 1999 after spending a decade in the United States.

7. Lee Young-ae (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 61.57, Lee Young-ae is the 7th most famous South Korean Actor. Her biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Lee Young-ae (Korean: 이영애; born January 31, 1971) is a South Korean actress. She is known for her appearances in the Korean historical drama Dae Jang Geum (2003), and as a revenge-seeking single mother in Park Chan-wook's crime thriller film Lady Vengeance (2005). For her performance in the film, she received Best Actress awards at the 38th Sitges Film Festival, 26th Blue Dragon Film Awards and 42nd Baeksang Arts Awards.

8. Choi Min-sik (b. 1962)

With an HPI of 61.48, Choi Min-sik is the 8th most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Choi Min-sik (Korean: 최민식; born January 22, 1962) is a South Korean actor. Known for his intense and transformative performances, he first gained recognition with the television series The Moon of Seoul (1994). His film breakthrough came with Shiri (1999), which established Choi as a leading actor. However, it was his role in Oldboy (2003) that cemented his status as one of South Korea's greatest actors. His performance was critically acclaimed and won him Best Actor at the 40th Baeksang Art Awards, the 24th Blue Dragon Awards, and the 41st Grand Bell Awards. Choi continued to showcase his range with notable performances in films such as Lady Vengeance (2005), I Saw the Devil (2010), Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012), New World (2013), and The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014), which became the highest-grossing film in South Korea. For his performance in the latter, Choi won the Grand Prize at the 51st Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2014, Choi came to prominence in Hollywood with his role in Lucy (2014). He was also listed as Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year. Following this, he remained active in South Korean cinema with works like Forbidden Dream (2019) and Exhuma (2024). Choi also made his return to television with Big Bet (2022), his first drama series in over two decades.

9. Song Kang-ho (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 61.27, Song Kang-ho is the 9th most famous South Korean Actor. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Song Kang-ho (Korean: 송강호; born January 17, 1967) is a South Korean actor. Regarded as one of the most influential actors in Korean cinema, he has appeared in critically acclaimed films across various genres. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award, three Baeksang Arts Awards, four Blue Dragon Film Awards, and five Grand Bell Awards. In 2020, The New York Times named him one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. Song first gained recognition with the crime thriller No. 3 (1997), and later rose to prominence with Park Chan-wook's critically acclaimed film Joint Security Area (2000). He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker Bong Joon-ho in Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013), and Parasite (2019). Song rose to international prominence for his performance in Parasite, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also worked extensively with director Kim Jee-woon, starring in five of his films: The Quiet Family (1998), The Foul King (2000), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), The Age of Shadows (2016), and Cobweb (2023). His other notable South Korean films include Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007), Thirst (2009), The Attorney (2013), The Throne (2015), A Taxi Driver (2017), and Broker (2022). He has been named Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year four times (2013, 2017, 2019 and 2020).

10. Kim Hae-sook (b. 1955)

With an HPI of 61.03, Kim Hae-sook is the 10th most famous South Korean Actor. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Kim Hae-sook (Korean: 김해숙; Hanja: 金海淑; born December 30, 1955) is a South Korean actress.

People

Pantheon has 415 people classified as South Korean actors born between 1926 and 2006. Of these 415, 395 (95.18%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living South Korean actors include Ma Dong-seok, Lee Byung-hun, and Lee Min-ho. The most famous deceased South Korean actors include Song Hye-rim, Lee Sun-kyun, and Choi Eun-hee. As of April 2024, 71 new South Korean actors have been added to Pantheon including Kim Young-ae, Kyeon Mi-ri, and Lee Seo-jin.