Profile | Who is Park Shin-hye, Korean actress known for hit drama series The Heirs and Pinocchio, Netflix thriller The Call – and new mother of a baby boy with husband Choi Tae-joon?
- Korean star Park Shin-hye was a child actress and ever present on our screens until, having married actor Choi Tae-joon, she took a break in 2022 to give birth
- Park, 33, is a versatile actress, having appeared in romances, thrillers, comedies and horror productions, yet, growing up in Gwangju, she eyed a police career
While we patiently await her return to our screens, let’s take a look at Korean actress Park Shin-hye’s sparkling career to date – and what it is about her that has made her such a big draw for viewers time and again.
Born in Gwangju in southwest South Korea in 1990, Park began her screen career early, appearing as the child version of Choi Ji-woo’s lead character in the 2003 drama Stairway to Heaven, and she’s been acting ever since.
Park, now 33 years old, initially harboured dreams of becoming a police officer when she was young, an ambition inspired by a burglary at the family home while she was in elementary school.
However, the young Park had many interests, among them singing, dancing and playing the piano and guitar, and it was acting that she eventually settled on – although she has from time to time displayed her other talents on screen.
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Why we love her
Whereas many popular young actresses command legions of fans thanks to a special aura that sets them apart from the rest of us, Park’s appeal has always been her relatability. Her girl-next-door quality is only amplified by her cute looks and photogenic dimples.
Park describes herself as an ordinary person. She credits this ordinariness with her ability to immerse herself in a variety of roles, seeing herself as a blank slate that can be easily moulded to fit different characters.
Like many of the characters she plays, in real life she throws herself into the things she commits to. She took an unusually long time to complete her university studies, as she was serious about never skipping classes while also pursuing her acting career.
She is open about how, after signing on to projects, she experiences strong migraines while preparing for roles – which disappear the moment she arrives on set.
What also sets Park apart is her daring choice of roles. She’s known primarily for acting in romances, but as a teenager she took on a cross-dressing role in You’re Beautiful and since then has often appeared in challenging horror and thriller roles.
The star-making roles
These days Park is best known for her roles in television drama series, but many of her most significant work has been on the big screen. A few notable projects put her on the path to superstardom early in her career.
Among them was the hit romantic comedy Cyrano Agency in 2010. Park plays a no-nonsense member of the titular agency, which, in a twist on matchmaking companies, orchestrates situations to help their clients’ crushes fall for them.
In early 2013, Park appeared in the heartwarming prison comedy-drama Miracle in Cell No. 7, playing the daughter of a man with an intellectual disability who was jailed for a murder he didn’t commit when she was a child.
She grows up to become a lawyer who tries to clear his name in this emotional tale that became a surprise hit, selling over 12.8 million tickets at the box office – which at the time made it the third highest grossing Korean film.
The iconic parts
In this story about the lives of children of the rich at an elite private school, Park played the diligent Cha Eun-sang, who, unlike her classmates, was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth and has to support herself through school.
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The unheralded performance
In 2017 Park co-starred in the Korean thriller Heart Blackened, a remake of the Chinese legal thriller Silent Witness.
Park wasn’t the only performer who showed a new and impressive side of herself in the film, as it also featured a compelling early role for Lee Ha-nee as the slain fiancée.
What’s next?
Having worked as an actress continuously since she was 13, the prolific Park finally took a breather in 2022, her first year without a screen credit. That’s only because she was pursuing an even bigger personal project: having married her partner Choi Tae-joon, also a K-drama actor, she became the mother to a baby boy last spring.
Park’s patient fans will finally be rewarded in the second half of this year, when she returns to screens in the JTBC medical drama Doctor Slump.
