Kim Ha-neul

Kim Ha-neul
Kim at the press conference of My Girlfriend Is an Agent, March 2009
Born	(1978-02-21) 21 February 1978 Seoul, South Korea
Education	Seoul Institute of the Arts - Film
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present
Agent	S.M. Culture & Contents
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Korean name
Hangul	김하늘
Hanja	金하늘
Revised Romanization	Gim Haneul
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Hanŭl

Kim Ha-neul (Hangul: 김하늘; born February 21, 1978) is a South Korean actress. After starting her career as a model, she rose to fame by starring in romantic-comedy films My Tutor Friend (2003) and Too Beautiful to Lie (2004) and the action-comedy film My Girlfriend Is an Agent (2009). In 2011, Kim won Best Actress at the 48th Grand Bell Awards and the 32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards for her performance in the serial killer thriller Blind. Her television work includes starring in the romance series A Gentleman's Dignity (2012) and the melodrama On the Way to the Airport (2016).

Biography

Kim Ha-neul was born on 21 February 1978 in Seoul, South Korea. Her given name "Ha-neul" means “sky” in Korean. Her immediate family consists of her parents and one younger brother.^[2] She attended Seoul Institute of the Arts.^[3]

Kim married her fiance, a businessman, on March 19, 2016.^[4][5][6]

Career

1996–2000: Early career

Kim Ha-neul started her career by modeling for clothing brand Storm in 1996. She then made her acting debut in the 1998 film Bye June alongside Yoo Ji-tae. In 1999, she starred a medical drama film Doctor K, which earned her first acting award nomination. In the same year, she made appearances in television dramas Happy Together and Into the Sunlight, and featured in the music video for "To Heaven" by Jo Sung-mo. Later, she reunited with Yoo Ji-tae in 2000 sci-fi romance Ditto, and rose to fame as an actress.^[7]

2001–2007: Rise to popularity and decline

Kim's breakout role was in romance melodrama series Piano, in which she played a pure, fragile young woman. The series was the second most successful drama of 2001, achieving a peak rating of 40.2%. She then starred in 2002 hit Romance alongside Kim Jae-won, which won her Top Excellence Award in acting. In 2003, she raised her profile through the huge box-office hit My Tutor Friend, where she acted as a college girl tasked with helping a delinquent student her own age graduate from high school alongside her opposite Kwon Sang-woo. In 2004, she appeared in Too Beautiful to Lie, as an ex-convict who pretends to be the fiancee of a man being pressured to marry by his nosy, close-knit family. Due to the success of her films, Kim was dubbed "the queen of romantic comedies" by the Korean press.^[8]

During the next couple years, her succeeding projects would be less commercially successful. In 2004, she starred in mountain-climbing drama Ice Rain, horror film Dead Friend.^[9] and the melodrama Stained Glass. Kim then returned to the familiar romance genre with 2006 romantic comedy Almost Love, in the role of an aspiring actress with stage fright, which also reunited her with My Tutor Friend co-star Kwon Sang-woo.^[10] This was followed by Lovers of Six Years, about a longtime couple facing relationship problems.^[11]

2008–2012: Revived career

In 2008, Kim starred in On Air, a Kim Eun-sook penned drama which gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at a television drama production. Kim plays a top actress with an arrogant personality in the series.^[12][13] The drama received high ratings during its airing and earned her numerous awards. The following year, Kim starred in spy romantic comedy My Girlfriend Is an Agent.

Kim Ha-neul in October 2011

The film was a box-office success, becoming the fourth top-grossing Korean film of 2009. In 2010, Kim played a medical student torn between two soldiers in Korean War drama Road No. 1.^[14][15][16] Despite strong hype and a ₩13 million budget, the series received low ratings.^[7][17][18]

Kim Ha-Neul in 2011

She bounced back in 2011 with serial killer thriller Blind, where she challenged herself by portraying a visually impaired former detective who becomes witness to a murder. Her performance won her Best Actress honors at the Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.^{[19][20][21][22]} This was followed by another rom-com You're My Pet, adapted from the Japanese josei manga Kimi wa Petto.^[23][24]

In 2012, Kim returned to the small screen as a high school ethics teacher who falls for a playboy architect (played by Jang Dong-gun) in the hit drama A Gentleman's Dignity.^[25] Made by the same team behind On Air (writer Kim Eun-sook and director Shin Woo-chul), the series revolved around the love lives of four male friends in their forties.^{[26][27][28][29]}

2015 – present

In 2015, Kim is cast in her first Chinese film, romantic comedy Making Family opposite Aarif Rahman.^[30][31] She has also confirmed for the film Female Teacher, playing an unloved teacher at a boys' high school.^[32][33]

In 2016, Kim starred in crowdfunded indie feature Don't Forget Me opposite Jung Woo-sung.^[34] In September, she made her small-screen comeback in four years, starring in romance melodrama On the Way to the Airport opposite Lee Sang-yoon.

Kim will be appearing in upcoming blockbuster With God, which stars veteran actors Ha Jung-woo, Lee Jung-jae and Cha Tae-hyun. The two-part fantasy saga is based on a webtoon of the same name, and is about reapers and gods who rule over the afterlife and the ordinary humans who get judged by them when they die.

Her first project after her marriage in March 2016 is the television series On the Way to the Airport, which premiered on September 2016 on KBS2.

Filmography

Film

Television drama

Variety show

Music video

Discography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kim Ha-neul.

• Kim Ha-neul on S.M. Culture & Contents (Korean)
• Kim Ha-neul at the Korean Movie Database
• Kim Ha-neul at the Internet Movie Database