The year she turned 15, she entered the entertainment business through a chocolate drink ad. The production team was looking for a model for taekwondo scenes. In 1986, she debuted as Na-young in director Lee Hwang-rim’s film Ggambo. She and Park Joong-hoon, who debuted in it too, both won new performer awards at the Baeksang Arts Awards.
The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 17, she played Bo-ok, the lead of the KBS historical drama Samogok. The Hankook Ilbo and Sports Seoul describe this drama and the Sun Shim-yi that followed as the time she drew attention as a top star and a high-teen star.
In 1988, she took the lead in the drama Sun Shim-yi. In 1989, she entered Dongguk University’s theater and film department. The Hankook Ilbo wrote that she decided to commit to acting from the film Oseam, which she made in 1990. In 1992, she worked as assistant director on the short film Gabyeon Chaseon.
The year she turned 23, she won best actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for First Love and hosted the ceremony for the first time. In 1994, she began appearing in the MBC drama Partner. In 1995, she won best actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards again, for Dr. Bong. In 1996, she won the MBC Drama Awards grand prize for Partner.
In 1998, she hosted the SBS talk show Kim Hye-soo Plus You. In 1999, she played the title character Min Kuk-hee in MBC’s Kuk-hee. In 2000, she ended the talk show after 100 episodes. In 2001, Kick the Moon drew 1.6 million in Seoul. In 2003, she won the KBS Drama Awards grand prize for Royal Story: Jang Hui-bin.
In 2004, Hypnotized was released, and The Red Shoes the next year. In 2006, she played Madam Jeong in Tazza: The High Rollers and won best actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards that year, 11 years after Dr. Bong. In 2009, she played Park Ki-ja in SBS’s Style. In 2010, she hosted the MBC international current affairs program World Wide Weekly.
In 2012, The Thieves passed 10 million admissions. In 2013, she apologized for plagiarism in her master’s thesis and then appeared in KBS’s The Queen of Office, winning the KBS Drama Awards grand prize again that year, 10 years later. In 2016, she played Cha Soo-hyun in tvN’s Signal and won best actress in television at the Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2017, she became a goodwill ambassador of the Korean Committee for UNICEF. In 2018, she played Han Si-hyeon, head of the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy team, in Default.
In 2020, she appeared in SBS’s Hyena. In 2022, Netflix’s Juvenile Justice and tvN’s Under the Queen’s Umbrella came out in succession. In 2023, Smugglers was released, and she finished hosting the Blue Dragon Film Awards, which she had done since 1993, with the 44th ceremony. In 2025, Disney+’s Unmasked was released and she hosted the second day of the 2025 MAMA Awards. In 2026, she appeared in Coupang Play’s The Affair Was Just the Beginning.
Kim Hye-soo (born Sep 5, 1970) debuted in 1986, the year she turned 16, in the film Ggambo, and became known in 1987, the year she turned 17, as the lead of the KBS historical drama Samogok. She won her first Blue Dragon best actress award in 1993, the year she turned 23.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.