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Pierce Conran

Having already appeared in three films this year, Park Ju-hyun continues a busy 2024 as a part of the main cast of the new KBS drama Perfect Family, alongside Kim Young-dae, Yoon Se-ah and Kim Byung-chul, which began airing this week.
Park became a fixture on big and small screens in Korea relatively quickly.
She made her acting debut in a small role five years ago in the body-swap comedy film The Dude in Me, and a year later secured a role in the acclaimed Netflix original drama series Extracurricular. The rest, as they say, is history.
From Busan on Korea’s south coast, Park showed an interest in the arts from a young age.

Initially, she thought her calling was music. In high school, she was a vocalist in a band; she was convinced to take up acting classes in order to improve the emotional range of her singing.
Although we now know her as an actress, Park almost did become a professional singer.
She took part in an open audition at Lotte World in Seoul and thanks to that received a call from SM Entertainment, the management agency behind K-pop acts including Girls’ Generation, which offered her a trainee position.
However, owing to logistical issues, in the end she was unable to take up the position.

It was after Park saw a production of the stage musical Cats that she chose to pursue acting as a career. She majored in drama at the Korea National University of Arts, during which time she appeared in several plays and student short films.
Why we love her
Park’s energetic screen presence makes her stand out from many of her peers. She often plays feisty characters who have no trouble going toe to toe with male protagonists.
Part of this may be down to her naturally athletic demeanour.
The actress regularly shares updates on social media, her posts showing her playing tennis and practising mixed martial arts. She is also a keen runner and cyclist, both of which she likes to do along the banks of Seoul’s Han River, and also enjoys bowling.

Park is known to interact a lot with her fans on Instagram, where she makes an effort to like and reply to comments.
While Park may not be a professional singer, she has kept up her passion for music. She is a poly-instrumentalist capable of playing drums, flute, violin and piano.
The star-making roles
After a successful audition, Park was cast as fan favourite Bae Gyu-ri in Extracurricular.
The series follows a high-schooler who secretly runs security for an illegal prostitution ring. Gyu-ri is the classmate the character has a crush on who eventually becomes involved in his business. Her performance earned her the prize for best new actress at the BaekSang Arts Awards in South Korea in 2021.

Park raised her profile further with a role in the horror fantasy comedy Zombie Detective. She plays a former investigative journalist who teams up with Choi Jin-hyuk’s detective, who is hiding the fact that he is a zombie.
The iconic parts
Park’s biggest show to date is undoubtedly the twisted serial killer thriller Mouse, starring Lee Seung-gi.
She plays tough high-school student Oh Bong-yi, who lives with her grandmother. She has a crush on Lee’s police officer and soon gets swept up in a giant serial-killer case taking the nation by storm.
Park also featured in the Netflix film Seoul Vibe, a heist action comedy set in the lead-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She plays plucky heist team member Park Yoon-hee, the younger sister of Yoo Ah-in’s lead character.

Another major drama sortie for the actress was in The Forbidden Marriage, in which she plays a scammer in the Joseon era of imperial rule in Korea who claims to be possessed by the spirit of the late crown princess.
For her work on the show, she earned the Excellent Actress Award at the 2022 MBC Drama Awards.
The unheralded performances
This summer, Park appeared in the disaster action thriller Project Silence which, despite poor box office returns in Korea, was well received on the international festival circuit.

In the film, several characters are stranded on a bridge following a structural collapse, and things get a whole lot worse when genetically engineered super dogs escape an armed truck. Park gets to show off her sporty side as archer Yoo-ra.
Project Silence debuted in the midnight screenings section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Other films Park has appeared in this year include the thriller Drive, in which she plays a popular live-streamer who is kidnapped and locked in the boot of a car, where she must earn 650 million won (US$480,000) in an hour during a live stream in order to survive.
She also features in You Will Die in 6 Hours, playing a young woman who is approached by a mysterious man who claims to have seen her death, which will take place in six hours.

The film debuted in competition in the Korean section of this summer’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea.
Tomorrow’s turns
Following Perfect Family, Park is currently not officially linked to any upcoming productions, but given the year she has had, perhaps she has earned herself a short break.


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Korean actress Park Ju-hyun. Photo: Instagram/@charmgirl_1005.

Korean actress Park Ju-hyun, star of new K-drama series Perfect Family, who is known for her roles in dramas Mouse and Extracurricular and appears regularly in big-screen roles. Photo: Instagram/@charmgirl_1005.

Park Ju-hyun in a still from Perfect Family.

Park Ju-hyun in a still from Extracurricular (2020).

Park Ju-hyun in a still from Mouse (2021).

Park Ju-hyun in a still from Zombie Detective (2020).

Park Ju-hyun as Park Yoon-hee in a still from Seoul Vibe (2022). Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix

Park Ju-hyun (centre) in a still from Project Silence (2023).

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Ju Ji-hoon (right) and Lee Sun-kyun in a still from “Project Silence”, a Korean monster thriller directed by Kim Tae-gon that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2023. Kim Hie-won and Kim Su-an co-star.

A still from “Project Silence”.

Lee Sun-kyun (left) and Kim Su-an in a still from “Project Silence”.

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Yoo Ah-in as Park Dong-wook in a still from Seoul Vibe. Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix.

Yoo Ah-in as Park Dong-wook in a still from Seoul Vibe, a 1980s-set action comedy thriller in the style of the Fast and Furious films. Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix

Yoo Ah-in (left) as Dong-wook and Moon So-ri as President Kang in a still from Seoul Vibe. Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix

(Front, from left) Kim Sung-kyun as Director Lee, Park Ju-hyun as Yoon-hee and Lee Kyoo-hyung as Bok-nam in a still from Seoul Vibe. Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix

(From left) Go Kyung-pyo as Woo-sam, Lee Kyoo-hyung as Bok-nam, Park Ju-hyun as Yoon-hee, Ong Seong-wu as Joon-gi, and Yoo Ah-in as Dong-wook in a still from Seoul Vibe. Photo: Song Kyungsub/Netflix

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Lee Seung-gi in a still from Mouse.

Park Ju-hyun in a still from Mouse.

Kyung Soo-jin in a still from Mouse.

Lee Hee-hoon (left) and Lee Seung-gi in a still from Mouse.

Lee Seung-gi in a scene from Mouse. The bemusing serial killer K-drama got the operatic ending it scarcely deserved.

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Lee Hee-joon (left) and Lee Seung-gi in a still from Mouse.

Lee Hee-joon (left) and Lee Seung-gi in a scene from bizarre serial killer K-drama Mouse.

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Lee Hee-joon in a scene from Mouse. In the Korean drama series, Lee plays an alcoholic and volatile detective, who witnessed his family being murdered as a child. 

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Lee Seung-gi (left) and Park in a still from Mouse.

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Athletic and a poly-instrumentalist, Park nearly became a singer before taking up acting. Her career took off with a role in Extracurricular


The South Korean star was close to becoming a K-pop trainee before pursuing an acting career. She’s been on the ascendant since 2020’s Extracurricular, and had a star turn in drama series Mouse.


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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Athletic and a poly-instrumentalist, Park nearly became a singer before taking up acting. Her career took off with a role in Extracurricular

Athletic and a poly-instrumentalist, Park nearly became a singer before taking up acting. Her career took off with a role in Extracurricular