Ha Jung-woo (하정우)

Only three Korean actors in history have made movies that sold over 100 million tickets, and Ha Jung-woo is the youngest of them.

Photo from HanCinema

Birthday: March 11, 1979

His enviable career has been the result of both nature and nurture. Ha grew up in a family who worked in the arts (his father is Kim Yong-geon, a veteran actor familiar to most drama fans), allowing him to receive training from a very young age. He later graduated as a theater major, and then immediately worked as an actor, director, writer, and producer.

He has performed in a number of Shakespearean plays, but it is on the silver screen that he shines the most. Most recently seen as the main Grim Reaper in the blockbuster hit Along with the Gods, Ha Jung-woo has long flexed his acting chops across the critical to the commercial. He rose to fame by starring in the now-classic thriller The Chaser (2008), a portrayal that impressed Martin Scorsese so much that he likened him to Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. He then went on to do a variety of roles such as a trafficker (The Yellow Sea), a spy (The Berlin File), a threatened journalist (The Terror Live), a conman (The Handmaiden), and a survivor (The Tunnel).

Like Midas, Ha has turned everything he's worked in into box-office gold. But his artistry doesn't stop there. He has also mounted solo exhibitions of his paintings, and has published a book replete with his musings and art.

He returned to the small screen after 15 years, via the Netflix series Narco-Saints with fellow Korean cinema heavyweight Hwang Jung-min.