In new travel series K-Everything, Daniel Dae Kim puts Korean culture in the spotlight

Not too long ago, Daniel Dae Kim had an unusual encounter with a salmon. It had nothing to do with dinner. The actor, director and producer lay down in a doctor’s office in Seoul for microinjections into his face of DNA from salmon sperm. The hope was to reduce inflammation and improve elasticity. “I look like I got a little sunburn and a little redder than usual, but it’s not bad,” he said to a camera crew after the procedure. “OK, I’m camera-ready.” Kim was putting his face on the line as part of the new CNN series K-Everything – Kim’s love letter to K-beauty, K-pop, K-food, K-film that looks at the global rise of Korean culture. It debuted on May 9 on CNN International and is also available on CNN and HBO Max. “It’s an examination of how Korea has risen in the course of three short generations from a war-torn third-world country to one of the most modern places in the world,” Kim says. “We’ll take a look at how that’s happened through food, through cinema, through beauty products and through music.” At a vibrant kimchi festival in Pyeongchang, Kim explores how K-food is reshaping fine dining across the globe. In other episodes, he meets Squid Game actor Lee Byung-hun, Gangnam Style singer-songwriter Psy, BigBang’s Taeyang and the songwriters behind the Oscar-winning song Golden from KPop Demon Hunters. “For those who’ve never been to Korea, this is a nice introduction in a way that is not something taught in a classroom or in a textbook,” Kim says. In the beauty episode, Kim chats with make-up artist and influencer LeoJ and model Irene Kim on how beauty standards have changed. He tries various serums and face masks and even visits a factory where snail slime is collected to be used in various products. “I got to meet people from different walks of life, from different cities, from different economic classes, and it just broadened my understanding of the culture,” he says. Kim was born in South Korea but moved to the United States when he was one, returning frequently. That makes K-Everything a personal journey for him and his parents. Seoul has undergone such an economic and cultural boom that all the landmarks his parents knew from when they were teenagers have gone, and they relied on him to navigate. “It was almost a foreign country to them,” he says. Kim joins an already crowded field of celebrity travel hosts, which includes Tony Shalhoub, Rainn Wilson, Eugene Levy, Stanley Tucci, Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, José Andrés, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, Eva Longoria and Ewan McGregor. Kim, the Lost star who recently earned a Tony Award nomination for his part in a Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, is a fan of the late chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who helped create the role of modern TV travel host. “I wouldn’t say that this show is as irreverent as Anthony Bourdain’s show was, but I loved it because I felt like he was showing me his take on each country and he was a trusted guide,” he says. “If I can be that for some people then that’s the spirit that I’d like to bring into this show.” Amy Entelis, CNN’s executive vice-president for talent, CNN Originals and creative development, says Kim brings a deeply personal perspective to the series. “From the first time I met him, it was clear he was incredibly well equipped to tackle this – deeply passionate about the subject and highly knowledgeable. He was also very focused on making sure the way we look at Korean culture translates to a broad global audience, really putting a spotlight on it,” she says. Kim has never played a TV host, but he is an avid traveller and he is no fish out of water in Korea. He says despite stretching himself, he felt comfortable. “I get to introduce the world to a culture that I love and have got to know and has informed who I am as a performer and as a human being. So to me, it was strangely comfortable and it didn’t feel at all like I was stepping outside my comfort zone.” Kim hopes the series can help non-Koreans better understand a culture that has influenced so much of the globe of late and address anti-Asian racism, which surged during the Covid-19 pandemic. “If we can start to understand one another a little bit better through culture, then I think it is one step towards bringing together a global community. And I think the world could use a little more understanding in general,” he says.

In new travel series K-Everything, Daniel Dae Kim puts Korean culture in the spotlight

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From K-pop and K-film to K-beauty and K-food, actor Daniel Dae Kim’s new travel series examines the global rise of South Korean culture

From K-pop and K-film to K-beauty and K-food, actor Daniel Dae Kim’s new travel series examines the global rise of South Korean culture