Meet Kim Hye-jun, the serial killer in Netflix’s Inspector Koo: she rose to fame in hit K-drama Kingdom and calls her Chip In co-star Oh Na-ra ‘unnie’
So what do we know about the charismatic starlet?
How Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon became an overnight icon
She was in Saturday Night Live Korea
The 26-year-old star studied film and theatre at Hanyang University and started out doing commercials as side gigs. In 2016, Kim auditioned for Saturday Night Live Korea and joined the seventh season as a regular cast member. She appeared in multiple skits before leaving the show at the end of the season.
Why Koreans are only allowed to buy one Chanel bag per year
She is a versatile star
But she didn’t stop there. Kim also branched out to play a 15-year-old struggling with her dad’s dysfunctional affair in Another Child (2019), which earned her the best new actress award at the 40th Blue Dragon Film Awards. In 2021, she starred in the disaster drama Sinkhole (2021) where she plays a young woman who’s trapped in a building that’s being engulfed by a sinkhole.
5 K-pop idols with weird allergies, from garlic to contact lenses
She handles criticism like a pro
While many viewers loved her as the antagonist queen consort Cho in Kingdom, not everyone felt the same way. Kim was criticised for her “bad” acting in the first season, but the young starlet handled it like a pro by honing her skills and getting even better. She told Korea Times, “I lost my confidence at the time. It was my responsibility. I was embarrassed and became self reflective … But I thought it was the time to show better acting in the second season by understanding the genre more.”
For her work in the series, Kim was featured among 200 other Korean stars in “The Actor is Present” exhibition in New York and Seoul hosted by The Korean Film Council.
K-pop entrepreneurs: 5 Korean stars who founded businesses and brands
She is like sisters with Oh Na-ra
After Kingdom, Kim stole the spotlight again in the K-drama thriller Chip In (2020), starring as the daughter of a famous painter. According to Soompi, Kim revealed her memorable experience working opposite actress Oh Na-ra, who played her mother in the show: “She’s so friendly and fun. She asked me to call her unnie [older sister], so that’s what I call her. When we’re acting, she leads me well like a mother, but off-camera, we chat a lot and joke around like sisters.”
The actress added that they also got close during filming and spent time cooking together.
How Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon and Blackpink Jennie became BFFs
She will be playing a serial killer next
In the upcoming comedy-drama Inspector Koo, Kim will play Kei – a mysterious university student who is secretly a serial killer. According to Soompi, Kei will cross paths with Lee Young-ae’s character and, “unlike her bright smile on the outside, no one can tell what she’s thinking inside”. She joined Lee for the script reading back in May alongside director Lee Jung-heum and writer Sung Choyi.
- After hits Squid Game and My Name, streaming giant Netflix brings us Inspector Koo, described as the Asian version of BBC’s Killing Eve
- Kim will star as Kei opposite Lee Young-ae – and she’s played plenty of darker roles before, from a struggling teen in Another Child to a disaster victim in Sinkhole