In 2009, the year she turned 15, she made her debut in a Duracell battery commercial for P&G Korea. In 2010 she appeared in the film The Yellow Sea as Kim Tae-won’s daughter. In fall 2017 she played the stylist Mi-dal in MBC’s Children of the 20th Century.
In 2018 she played the runaway teenager Se-jin in the film Park Hwa Young, and in December KBS2’s Just Dance ended. In spring 2020 she appeared in MBC’s 365: Repeat the Year, and in September she signed an exclusive contract with Baro Entertainment. In October her lead film, Young Adult Matters, won two awards at the Busan International Film Festival.
The breakthrough yearOn Sept. 17, 2021, the year she turned 27, Netflix’s Squid Game was released, and she became known as Ji-yeong. It came 12 years after her debut. Earlier that year, Young Adult Matters and Hostage: Missing Celebrity had opened in quick succession. In October she won Best New Actress at the Buil Film Awards, and in December she was named Cine21’s New Actress of the Year.
In January 2022 she appeared in Netflix’s All of Us Are Dead as Lee Na-yeon, and in May she won Best New Actress (Film) at the Baeksang Arts Awards. In September she won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Squid Game, and tvN’s Mental Coach Jegal began airing that month.
In October 2023 she took the title role of Gang Nam-soon in JTBC’s Strong Girl Nam-soon. In November the film New Normal was released, and Strong Girl Nam-soon ended with a final-episode rating of 10.4%.
In 2024 the film We May Not Go to Heaven, but We Can Love was released, and in November Netflix’s Mr. Plankton came out. In September 2025 she received the Face of Asia Award at the Marie Claire Asia Star Awards, and in November she appeared in Netflix’s As You Stood By. In June 2026 it was reported that she will appear in SBS’s Nightmare.
Lee Yoo-mi (born Jul 18, 1994) debuted in 2009, the year she turned 15, in a battery commercial, and became known when Netflix’s Squid Game was released on Sep 17, 2021, the year she turned 27. In 2022, the year she turned 28, she won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.