The year she turned 12, she played the female lead in the film On the Road.
The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 13, she became known for playing the young Eun-suh in KBS2’s Autumn in My Heart, and won the Youth Award at that year’s KBS Drama Awards.
In 2001, she played the young Empress Myeongseong in the historical epic drama Empress Myeongseong. In 2002, she appeared in the film Lovers’ Concerto. In 2003, she played the younger sister, Su-yeon, in A Tale of Two Sisters, which 2.61 million people had seen nationwide by June 29.
The year she turned 17, she played Bo-eun, a high school student of 16, in My Little Bride, which 3.1 million people had seen nationwide by May 26. Maeil Business Newspaper and Newsis say she got the nickname “the nation’s little sister” from the film. She also won the Popular Star Award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards that year. In 2005, Innocent Steps opened. In 2006, she entered the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Sungkyunkwan University.
The year she turned 21, she returned to drama after five years in Painter of the Wind, playing Shin Yun-bok, and won the Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards that year. Newsen wrote that she was the youngest Grand Prize winner at the time. In 2010, she appeared in Cinderella’s Stepsister and Marry Me, Mary!, and won the Top Excellence Award at the KBS Drama Awards. In August she also took the stage in the play Closer.
In 2012, she played Han Se-kyung in Cheongdam-dong Alice. In 2013, she played the lead in MBC’s Goddess of Fire. In 2015, she played Lady Hyegyeong in the film The Throne. In January 2016, her 13 years of donations were reported.
In 2017, it became known that she had undergone four operations over seven months for acute compartment syndrome. In 2019, she played a new subway police recruit in tvN’s Catch the Ghost. In 2024, she appeared in Netflix’s Hellbound season 2.
In 2025, she won Best New Actress at the Director’s Cut Awards for Hellbound season 2 and had a short appearance in Shin Su-won’s film The Mutation. In May 2026, she finished the run of the play Orphans, her return to the stage after nine years, and in July her agency said she had married the musical actor Jung Pyeong. In September she attended the press conference for Our Ballad 2.
Moon Geun-young (born May 6, 1987) debuted in 1999, the year she turned 12, as the female lead of the film On the Road, and became known in 2000, the year she turned 13, when she played the young Eun-suh in KBS2’s Autumn in My Heart. Maeil Business Newspaper says she got the nickname “the nation’s little sister” from My Little Bride, which opened on Apr 2, 2004, the year she turned 17.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.