Song Hye-kyo (송혜교)

To say Song Hye-kyo is beautiful feels like an understatement; “Goddess of beauty” feels like it comes close.

In the words of legendary Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai: “I think Hye-kyo has the most beautiful features of our Asian actresses. Her face is symmetrical… Perfect.” We can easily devote this entire profile to how exquisite Song Hye-kyo’s face is, or even to just the perfection of her nose. But we won’t because there is so much more to her than her beauty.

Photo from Naver/Dispatch

Birthday: November 22, 1981

Instagram: @kyo1122

“Once she gets motivated, she shines in front of the camera,” Wong Kar Wai said in the same 2013 interview, recalling her work on his movie The Grandmaster (2012), where she portrayed the wife of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man.

And she has shined. Since she started modeling at the age of 14. Since she helped launch the Korean wave at the age of 18 with her heartbreaking portrayal of a cancer-stricken teen in the classic k-drama Autumn In My Heart (2000). Since she charmed us with her bear dance in Full House (2004).

Throughout a career that spans over two decades, that shine hasn’t dulled. In 2013, her highly acclaimed portrayal of a blind heiress in the That Winter, the Wind Blows won her much-deserved acting awards.

And in 2016, the record-breaking K-drama Descendants of the Sun propelled her fame to stratospheric heights. Despite the drama surrounding her personal life in 2019, her poise and elegance remained unshaken, revealing a quiet strength that perhaps few are privileged to witness.

In 2022, she returned to the small screen in Now, We Are Breaking Up with Jang Ki-yong.

In 2023, Hye-kyo trades her warm demeanor for an icy revenge plan as she takes on the role of Moon Dong-eun in The Glory, a revenge drama written by Kim Eun-sook. She plays a homeroom teacher who used to be the target of constant bullying and physical abuse. Now older, she starts an elaborate plan of revenge on her bullies and uses her intelligence, skills, and resources to make the perpetrators pay for their crimes. Her performance as Moon Dong-eun was widely praised for her versatility and talent as an actress, eventually winning her the coveted Baeksang Award for Best Actress.

“She’s a very strong woman. To work in a foreign city, in front of strangers, [where] people speak no Korean, in a totally different working method, she shined,” Wong Kar Wai once remarked of the actresss.

When they started filming The Grandmaster, the director said he told Song Hye-kyo: “I want you to be… like a glowing sun.”

And she did. In fact, she always has, and we expect she always will.