Have you just finished watching a K-drama and are now facing the tough decision of what to watch next? What helps you decide? Do you ask friends for recommendations, do you look for certain genres, or are you mainly interested in certain actors?
For us it's definitely the latter, because it's the actors who bring a role to life. They make boring stories more interesting and good stories into amazing ones!
Today we're introducing you to our top 5 favorite actors, whose projects we would watch anything of! We're curious whether you share our opinion. We've already told you one of our favorites: Hallyu star Hyun Bin! Do you want to know which place he took and who else is on the list?
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Place 5
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Place 4
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Place 3
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Place 2
- That's our number 1!
Place 5: Lee Minho
Born: June 22, 1987
It's no surprise that Lee Minho made it into our top 5, because for many years the actor has been adored by millions of fans not only in South Korea, but all over Asia and even beyond!
He started his acting career in 2002 at the age of 15 with small supporting roles. As early as 2006, however, Lee Min Ho landed his first lead role in a series called “Secret Campus”. In the same year he was involved in a dramatic car accident. The car in which Minho and three friends were sitting was hit by another car that was fleeing from a different accident. The two friends sitting in the front of the car died on the spot. Lee Minho and another friend, the actor Jung Il Woo, survived with serious injuries, but had to be treated in the hospital for months.
Fortunately, Minho recovered and returned to the screen in 2007 with a lead role in “Mackerel Run”. This was followed by another lead role in “Get Up” (2008). Although his career was undoubtedly going well at that point, the big breakthrough came in 2009!
In “Boys Over Flowers”, Lee Minho played Gu Jun Pyo, the heir to one of the biggest companies in South Korea.
The series is set largely in an elite school for children from rich families. Gu Jun Pyo and his three best friends are called F4 by the other students. The F4 are the most influential students and, of course, also the best-looking. Gu Jun Pyo's quiet school life gets properly shaken up when the poor Geum Jan Di is admitted to the elite school through a special permission. Boys Over Flowers became a cultural phenomenon across Asia and helped spread the “Korean Wave”!
Lee Minho rose to become one of the biggest stars in Asia and could hardly keep up with all the endorsement deals! For years, other K-dramas made references to the F4, and Lee Minho's iconic hairstyle in the series stayed in the memory of Korean drama fans for a long time.
Since then, Lee Minho has played the lead role in many more successful K-dramas and has steadily won even more fans.
These are some of his best-known series:
Boys Over Flowers (2009)
City Hunter (2011)
The Heirs (2013)
The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016)
The King: Eternal Monarch (2020)
Have you seen them all? We can highly recommend them, our personal favorite is City Hunter!
Place 4: Kim Soo Hyun
Born: February 16, 1988
This name is surely not only on our list, but also very high up on many others. But how could we leave him out? Like Lee Minho, Kim Soo Hyun is one of the highest-paid actors in South Korea, and not without reason:
After acting in theater at school, Kim Soo Hyun made his screen debut in 2008 in the series “Kimchi Cheese Smile”. Just one year later came his first lead role in “Jungle Fish”! After that, Soo Hyun played a few smaller roles, but in 2011 he landed another lead role in the musical drama “Dream High”. He was the only actor in the main cast alongside a number of idols, and for his roles he trained in singing and dancing for several weeks at JYP Entertainment. The drama was especially popular with teenagers and helped make Kim Soo Hyun's name known.
Since then he has only played lead roles, and the very next one, in a historical series called “Moon Embracing the Sun” (2012), catapulted him to the top!
He received so many offers for endorsement deals that he represented 17 products at the same time, breaking the record of figure skater Kim Yuna, which she had set in 2009. But that wasn't all.
His next series “My Love from the Star” (2013/ 14) increased Kim Soo Hyun's popularity even further! The romantic fantasy series tells the story of an alien who lands on Earth in 1609 and, many years later, falls in love with the currently hottest actress! The series was a massive success. Kim Soo Hyun became the most sought-after commercial model. He appeared in more than 30 commercials!
My Love from the Star is probably still his best-known and most iconic series to this day, one that every K-drama fan absolutely has to have seen.
After that, Soo Hyun filmed the series “The Producers” (2015) and the movie “Real” (2017), before he began his military service in 2017, which is mandatory for all men in South Korea. Kim Soo Hyun finished his service in 2019 and delighted fans with short cameo appearances in the successful series “Hotel del Luna” and “Crash Landing On You”. In 2020 he finally returned to the screen officially. His new series “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” was the most popular romantic series of the year on Netflix in South Korea.
These are Kim Soo Hyun's best-known works:
Dream High (2011)
Moon Embracing the Sun (2012)
My Love from the Star (2013/ 14)
The Producers (2015)
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)
Place 3: Yang Se Jong
Born: December 23, 1992
Yang Se Jong is the youngest actor on our list, not only in terms of his age, but also his acting debut. He was first seen on screen in 2016, in the medical series “Dr. Romantic”. In 2017 he played the young version of the male lead in the historical series “Saimdang, Memoir of Colors”, which revolves around a female artist. In fact, Se Jong filmed “Saimdang” even before “Dr. Romantic”.
His acting career took off almost instantly, because these first two roles were also his last supporting roles. Still in 2017, Yang Se Jong landed lead roles in the crime series “Duel” and the romantic melodrama “Temperature of Love”. In Duel he even played three different roles! But it was above all his role as a young chef in “Temperature of Love” that made Yang Se Jong famous. At the end of 2017 he won three “Best New Actor Awards” for his acting performance in the series!
After that, he delighted fans in the romantic series “Still 17” (2018) and the historical drama “My Country: The New Age” (2019).
From 2020 to 2021 Yang Se Jong did his military service and hasn't been seen in a new role since. However, since mid-2022 he has been filming the Netflix series “Doona!” (The Girl Downstairs) together with the singer and actress Bae Suzy. We're looking forward to his return and are curious what successes Yang Se Jong will achieve in the future!
Here is another overview of the series with Yang Se Jong in the lead role, in case you'd like to see more of him:
Duel (2017)
Temperature of Love (2017)
Still 17 (2018)
My Country: The New Age (2019)
We got to know Yang Se Jong in Duel, and since Temperature of Love at the latest he has been one of our favorites! He may not yet be able to look back on such a long success story as the others on our list, but all of his works so far have completely convinced us.
Place 2: Hyun Bin
Born: September 25, 1982
As you probably know, Hyun Bin can look back on a long and very successful career, because the actor made his acting debut as early as 2002 and has since starred again and again in extremely successful series, and he is an indispensable part of the K-drama world!
It's hard to sum up this career in a few sentences, but we'll still take a quick look at the most interesting milestones with you. Did you know, for example, that Hyun Bin's first film project “Shower” in 2002 was never aired? Due to financial problems, filming had to be stopped and the film never came out. Fortunately, Hyun Bin didn't let himself be discouraged and made his acting debut in a series called “Bodyguard” in 2003. In his very next drama “Ireland” in 2004 he already played one of the leads, and with the romantic comedy “My Lovely Sam Soon” in 2005 he became a star!
The series was a great success and reached average ratings of over 37%. That still makes it one of the most-watched Korean series of all time today! In the following years, Hyun Bin was praised again and again for his roles and received several awards.
In 2010, Hyun Bin's already very successful career was boosted even further! In the fantasy drama “Secret Garden” he played the arrogant company owner Kim Joo Won, who changes through his encounter with the stuntwoman Gil Ra Im. During the series people spoke of the “Hyun Bin Syndrome”, because no matter where you went, you couldn't get around the actor. Whether on the internet, in the newspaper or on TV, Hyun Bin was simply everywhere! In the same year he shot the English-language film “Late Autumn”, which to this day is the most successful Korean film in China! Despite all his earlier and later successes, 2010 is therefore a special year in Hyun Bin's career.
Hyun Bin's newer works have also all been able to show record-breaking successes. Both the fantasy drama “Memories of the Alhambra” (2018/ 19) and “Crash Landing on You” (2019/ 20) are among the Korean dramas with the highest ratings in the history of cable television. In Crash Landing On You, Hyun Bin also fell in love with Son Ye Jin, who played the female lead. The two are now married and have a son!
Hyun Bin will certainly keep amazing us in the future too. With all his successes he has earned a place in the top 5 of all K-drama fans, and as you can see, we are among his admirers as well.
These are Hyun Bin's most successful works, which you should definitely watch if you don't know them yet:
My Lovely Sam Soon (2005)
Secret Garden (2010/ 11)
Late Autumn (2011) - Film
Memories of the Alhambra (2018/ 19)
Hyde Jekyll, Me (2015)
Crash Landing on You (2019/ 20)
Confidential Assignment (2017) & Confidential Assignment 2 (2022)
Our personal favorite is Memories of the Alhambra with Hyun Bin & Park Shin Hye!
Let's get to place 1! Of course every actor on this list would have deserved this spot, but we had to make a decision:
Our number 1 is Lee Jong Suk
Born: September 14, 1989
Lee Jong Suk first became known as a model in 2005, because at just 15 years old he was the youngest male model ever to take part in Seoul Fashion Week! Since then he has walked the runway at several more fashion shows.
In between, Jong Suk even trained as an idol for three months, but left his agency because they didn't support his dream of an acting career. In 2010 he finally made his official acting debut in the romantic comedy “Prosecutor Princess” and thus laid the foundation for his successful acting career! In the following two years, Lee Jong Suk attracted attention with supporting roles in several dramas and films. Among other things, he had a recurring role in the cult series “Secret Garden”.
He had his breakthrough in 2012 with “School 2013”.
The series revolves around a problematic school class whose teachers help their students overcome problems. For his performance, Jong Suk was awarded the Best New Actor Award, and since then he has played one lead role after another!
His next series “I Can Hear Your Voice” (2013) was already a special success. In it, Jong Suk played a student who can read minds. The drama was so successful that it was even extended by two episodes!
In 2014 and 2015, two more hit series with him in the lead role were aired: “Doctor Stranger” and “Pinocchio”. Thanks to his acting performance in both dramas, Lee Jong Suk was given several awards, and among other things he became the youngest recipient of the “Best Actor” award at the 27th Grimae Awards! The following projects also brought the actor countless nominations and awards.
We personally just can't get enough of Lee Jong Suk. We have watched many of his K-dramas at least twice, so he has definitely earned first place in our top 5 list!
These are some of his best-known series:
School 2013 (2012/ 13)
I Can Hear Your Voice (2013)
Doctor Stranger (2014)
Pinocchio (2015/ 16)
W: Two Worlds (2016)
While You Were Sleeping (2016)
Romance Is a Bonus Book (2019)
Big Mouth (2022)
It's hard to choose a favorite among all these series, but if we had to name one, it would probably be Pinocchio! The series is the perfect mix of romance, humor, traumatic backstories, emotions and tears. Have you seen it?
