Kim Yoo-jung

Kim won "Excellence Award, Actress in a Mid-length Drama" for portraying Moonlight cross-dressing heroine at the 30th KBS Drama Awards.

Kim Yoo-jung (born September 22, 1999) is a South Korean actress.

She debuted as a model for a confectionery brand at the age of four.

Kim was born in Seongdong District, Seoul, South Korea on September 22, 1999 as the youngest of three siblings.

After her acting debut in 2003, she became one of the most in-demand child actresses in Korea.

In 2008, she received her first acting award as "Best Child Actress" for action-adventure series Iljimae and historical drama Painter of the Wind.

She gained public attention for starring in television series Dong Yi (2010), Moon Embracing the Sun (2012), May Queen (2012), Golden Rainbow (2013), Secret Door (2014) and Angry Mom (2015).

This was followed by acclaimed performances in Dong Yi (2010) and Flames of Desire (2010).

Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho (2010) marked Kim's first major role that wasn't the childhood counterpart of the female protagonist.

She rose to popularity in 2012 when she starred in the fantasy-period drama Moon Embracing the Sun, which reunited Kim with Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho costar Lee Tae-ri and Iljimae costar Yeo Jin-goo.

Moon surpassed 40% ratings and gained "national drama" status.

For her good portrayal of the young protagonist, she was nominated for the Best New Actress in the 48th Baeksang Arts Awards and she won Best Young Actress Award in the 1st K-Drama Star Awards and 2012 MBC Drama Awards.

She followed this with a well-received turn in May Queen (2012) and a supporting role in the 2013 film Commitment, and family drama Golden Rainbow (2013).

She also starred in the films Commitment (2013), Thread of Lies (2014), and Circle of Atonement (2015).

She hosted music show Inkigayo from November 2014 to April 2016.

In 2014, Kim's performance as a teenage bully in Thread of Lies drew critical acclaim and she was nominated for the Best New Actress in Blue Dragon Film Awards.

She next played a traditional funeral singer (or "gok-bi") in the single-episode Drama Special anthology, and was cast in the horror mystery Room 731, an English-language graduate thesis film by USC filmmaker Kim Young-min.

This was followed by a starring role in the period drama Secret Door.

Kim also began hosting music show Inkigayo in November 2014 and left the show in April 2016.

In 2015, she starred in the television series Angry Mom which tackled bullying and school violence.

The same year, she reprised her role as a cat-turned-woman in Love Cells, a two-season web series adapted from the webtoon of the same title and played a murderer's daughter in the thriller film Circle of Atonement.

She took on her first leading role in historical romance drama Love in the Moonlight (2016) and starred in romantic comedy film Because I Love You (2017), television drama Clean with Passion for Now (2018), Backstreet Rookie (2020), mystery thriller film The 8th Night (2021), historical fantasy romance drama Lovers of the Red Sky (2021), teen romance film 20th Century Girl (2022), and fantasy romance My Demon (2023–2024).

Kim has been nicknamed "Nation's Little Sister" after playing various child roles and "Sageuk fairy" after taking roles in several acclaimed historical dramas in her career.

She also gained the nicknames "Nation's First Love" and "Global First Love" following her well-loved performance in 20th Century Girl.

In August 2016, Kim starred in her first adult leading role in the youth historical drama Love in the Moonlight as Hong Ra-on - a girl who was raised as a boy and eventually became a eunuch of Crown Prince of Joseon, played by Park Bo-gum.

A domestic hit, Moonlight achieved peak audience rating of 23.3% and its popularity was referred to as "Moonlight Syndrome".

In 2017, she ranked 8th on Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list, the youngest to be included in the Top 10 at the age of 17.

Her older sister, Kim Yeon-jung, debuted as an actress in 2017.

Kim deferred taking the national College Scholastic Ability Test in 2017, and instead decided to focus on her acting career.

After Kim's acting debut when she was 4, she quickly became one of the most in-demand child actresses in Korea.

By the time she was a fifth grader, Kim had already appeared in 13 TV dramas and 15 movies.

In 2017, she starred with Cha Tae-hyun in the romantic-comedy film Because I Love You.

Kim also had her first overseas fan meeting tour with Taipei, Taiwan as the first stop, at ATT Show Box on February 4, 2017.

Kim attended Goyang High School of Arts and graduated in January 2018.

In 2018, Kim starred in the romantic-comedy drama Clean with Passion for Now, based on the webtoon of the same name.

She played an employee at a cleaning company who doesn't care about dirtiness.

In 2020, Kim was cast in the romantic-comedy drama, Backstreet Rookie, alongside Ji Chang-wook, based on a webtoon of the same name and played the role of a former high school troublemaker who becomes a part-time employee at a convenience store.

The actress is said to be attending action school in order to perform her own stunts and the production staff stated, "Kim has been working hard on fight scenes and wire action for her role as Jung Saet-byul. Please anticipate the unique transformation that Kim will undergo."

During the 2020 SBS Drama Awards held on December 31, 2020, Kim was chosen to be the main host together with Shin Dong-yup.

At the same event, Kim was awarded Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries Fantasy/Romance Drama for her great portrayal of her role as Jung Saet-byul in the series Backstreet Rookie.