Kim Yunjin is a Korean-American actress best known for her work is US television series. Born in Seoul in 1973, she moved with her family to New York when she was 10. Having joined the drama club when she was in middle school and having even dabbled in musicals, she went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and later received a Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts from Boston University. First active as an off-Broadway actor, she ...More

Kim Yunjin is a Korean-American actress best known for her work is US television series. Born in Seoul in 1973, she moved with her family to New York when she was 10. Having joined the drama club when she was in middle school and having even dabbled in musicals, she went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and later received a Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts from Boston University. First active as an off-Broadway actor, she made a splash in Korea when she starred in the Korean TV series <Splendid Holiday> (1996), her cultural background and proficiency in both Korean and English making her the perfect choice to play a victim of sexual abuse during the May 1980 Gwangju Uprising who is trying to start a new life in the US. She appeared in a few other series, including <Wedding Dress> in which she played again a character living in the US, before making her first film appearance in <Film-making> (1997). Her breakthrough came in what many consider Korea’s first action blockbuster, <Swiri> (1999), in which she plays a secret agent from North Korea. The role, which Director Kang Jekyu offered her after discovering her through <Wedding Dress>, earned her huge popularity as well as the Grand Bell Award for Best New Actress. Staying true to her image of a strong woman, she worked again with Kang in his next project, fighting against the world in <The Legend of Ginko> (2000).
She decided to break away from that image by taking the lead role in the drama <Ardor>. Her performance as Miheun, the woman cheating on her husband as revenge for his infidelity but ending up desiring more as the relationship developed. Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Actress.
In 2003, turning her eyes to Hollywood, Kim signed a contract with a major management firm in the US. Soon after, she landed a role in the popular ABC TV series <Lost>, making her the first Korean actor to ever star on American television. In the show, Kim played Sunny, the Korean woman who is among the few survivors of a plane crash finding themselves stranded on a mysterious island. It was around that time that she also applied and eventually received US citizenship, a decision she took in order to remove the hurdles she was facing as a foreign actor. The hit show would run for six seasons until 2010, with a tight schedule that left her few occasions to take other roles, her most notable credit in film during that period being <Seven Days> (2008). After that, she was cast as one of the leads in another series produced by ABC, <Mistresses> (2013-2016). In 2014, she played opposite Hwang Jungmin in JK Youn’s smash hit blockbuster, globe-hopping melodrama< Ode to My Father> (2014), which became one of Korea’s most successful films of all time. After she took top billing for the supernatural thriller <House of the Disappeared> (2017), she made her comeback on Korean television when she starred as the title character in the 2018 series <Ms Ma, Nemesis>. In 2022, she could be seen in <Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area> (2022), le Korean spin-off of the Spanish series sensation <Money Heist>, and the crime thriller film <Confession> (2020).
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