Kim Ha-neul (김하늘)
It’s astounding how Kim Ha-neul could have amazing chemistry with both actors playing Hong Dae-yong, at age 37 (Yoon Sang-hyun) and at age 18 (Lee Do-hyun), in the fantasy melodrama series 18 Again (2020). But a deeper look at her filmography reveals that this is not surprising as she has been deservingly called “Queen of Romantic Comedies” in the early 2000s.
Photo from HanCinema/BOBORIS
Birthday: February 21, 1978
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimhaneul/
In 1996, she debuted as a Storm clothing model. Trying her hand in acting, she starred in her first movie about grieving teens in Bye June (1998), opposite Yoo Ji-tae. She gained recognition after reuniting with Yoo Ji-tae in the romantic sci-fi film Ditto (2000), where both leads living two decades apart communicate through radio. She then became a breakout star in the romantic melodrama about stepsibling love Piano, the second highest-rated 2001 TV series (peaking at 40%), which also cast Cho Jae-hyun and Jo In-sung. In the rom-com movie My Tutor Friend (2003) opposite Kwon Sang-woo and Gong Yoo, she portrayed a college student hired to tutor a high schooler her age. Starring alongside Gang Dong-woon as an ex-convict, she won a Baeksang Best Actress award for the film Too Beautiful to Lie (2004). Through this series of romantic movie hits, she earned the rom-com queen moniker.
Expanding her range, she won the Grand Bell and the Blue Dragon Film Best Actress awards for playing a police cadet who turns blind, opposite Yoo Seung-ho, in the crime thriller Blind (2011). She worked with screenwriter Kim Eun-sok and director Shin Woo-chul in two dramas, namely, the metadrama On Air (2008), alongside Song Yoon-ah, and the rom-com A Gentleman’s Dignity (2012), opposite Jang Dong-gun. She also featured as God of Betrayal Hell in the fantasy action movie Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017).
Last year, she starred in her in the tvN thriller Kill Heel as one of three women desperate to succeed in the home shopping industry. She is in talks to co-star with Rain in the action romance k-drama She, to be directed by Park Hong-kyun (The Great Queen Seon Dok).
