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: @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 was also featured as God of Betrayal Hell in the fantasy action movie Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017).

In 2022, she starred in the tvN thriller Kill Heel as one of three women desperate to succeed in the home shopping industry.

She will portray a TV host in the romance thriller Let’s Get Grabbed by the Collar, whose leads also include Yeon Woo-jin and Jang Seung-jo.