Jo Byeong-gyu (조병규)

Jo Byeong-gyu could have been a football star if he hadn’t thought twice about the demanding training schedule of his New Zealand school. Now, his fans get to see him play, not in a football field, but in the screen in diverse, interesting roles.

Photo from HanCinema

Birthday: April 23, 1996 Instagram: @bk_arta

He debuted as an actor in the KBS2 youth series Who Are You: School 2015 (2015). This was followed by a few TV and film projects until he shot to fame in the critically acclaimed hit JTBC family drama SKY Castle (2018). He took on the role of Cha Ki-joon, a high school student who is physically abused whenever he and his twin brother fall short of his father’s academic expectations. He then portrayed Sateunik, an abused slave in the tvN historical fantasy Arthdal Chronicles 1 (2019).

Thankfully, his next role did not have anything to do with assault. As Han Jae-hee, he played an Operations gopher for a professional baseball team in the SBS series Hot Stove League (2019). He won Best New Actor in the 28th SBS Drama Awards, prompting adoring greetings from “Mama” OCN, “auntie” tvN, Netflix Korea, CJ ENM, and KBS on the OCN Instagram account.

In his first lead role in the tvN fantasy action TV show The Uncanny Counter (2020), he proved his great acting chops as So-mun, an orphan recruited to fight evil spirits. He was as convincing in his action-packed sequences as he was emotive in his dramatic scenes. In fact, this webtoon adaptation is the most popular OCN series and is such a top-rated Netflix show that season 2, The Uncanny Counter Season 2: Counter Punch, was released in 2023.

Hot on the heels of this success, however, he was accused of bullying in early 2021. Eventually the police cleared him of these charges. As if to signal his hiatus is over, he starred in the short film School Caste (2022) as an aspiring writer. His next movie was released early this month, the time travel fantasy Again 1997.

He is set to star in the upcoming thriller series Paradise.