In 2000, the year she turned 26, she debuted as Sun-im in Lee Chang-dong’s film Peppermint Candy. It was her first feature-film lead, opposite Sul Kyung-gu.
The breakthrough yearIn 2002, the year she turned 28, she played Gong-ju, a person with cerebral palsy, in Oasis and became known when she won the emerging actress award at the Venice Film Festival. That October she received the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit in connection with the award.
In 2003, she played an unfaithful married woman in A Good Lawyer’s Wife and was invited to the competition at the Venice Film Festival for a second year in a row. In 2004, she played the wife of the Blue House barber in The President’s Barber and won Best Actress at the Grand Bell Awards for A Good Lawyer’s Wife.
In 2006, she played the older sister who receives her suddenly appearing younger brother in Family Ties, and won Best Actress at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for it. In December she married director Jang Joon-hwan. In 2007, she debuted in TV drama in MBC’s The Legend, playing Ga-jin of the mythic age and her reincarnation Gi-ha in a dual role.
In 2008, she won an Excellence Award for an actress at the MBC Drama Awards for All About My Family. In 2009, she began her association with Hong Sang-soo with a brief voice-only appearance in Like You Know It All. In 2010, she won Best Actress at the Buil Film Awards for Ha Ha Ha. In 2011, she voiced Ipsak in the animated film Leafie, A Hen into the Wild, and her daughter was born in August.
In 2014, she played the older shaman Kim Geum-hwa in Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits. In 2015, she directed the short The Best Director. In 2016, she appeared briefly as Hideko’s aunt in The Handmaiden, and the next year won Best Supporting Actress at the Asian Film Awards for the role. In 2017, she released The Running Actress, which she directed, wrote and starred in herself.
In 2018, she played Hye-won’s mother in Little Forest. In 2019, she received the special award for Women in Film of the Year. In 2020, she played a mother who suspects her son in MBC’s SF8: Proof of Humanity. In 2021, she played the second sister, Mi-yeon, in Three Sisters and also took part in producing it. She won her first Blue Dragon Best Actress award for it.
In 2022, she appeared with Sul Kyung-gu and Chun Woo-hee in I Want to Know Your Parents. In 2023, she played the human rights lawyer Oh Kyung-sook in Netflix’s Queenmaker, working with Kim Hee-ae for the first time. In 2024, she made a special appearance in tvN’s Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born and also appeared in Netflix’s Hellbound season 2. In 2025, she played the middle-aged Oh Ae-sun in Netflix’s When Life Gives You Tangerines. In 2026, the year she turned 52, she played Jang Suk-jin in JTBC’s The Apartment Job.
Moon So-ri (born Jul 2, 1974) debuted on Jan 1, 2000, the year she turned 26, in the film Peppermint Candy, and became known on Sep 8, 2002, the year she turned 28, when she won the emerging actress award at the Venice Film Festival for Oasis. She first won Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards in 2021, the year she turned 47.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.