List of Famous people born in South Korea

HoYeon Jung is a South Korean fashion model and actress. Vogue has dubbed her as “Korea’s next top model”, and she appeared on the namesake show’s 4th season. She was ranked as one of the “Top 50” fashion models by models.com.

Lee Jung-jae is a South Korean actor and model. He debuted as a fashion model, then began his acting career on television, notably in the campus series Feelings (1994) and the iconic drama Sandglass (1995). After his acting breakthrough in An Affair (1998), Lee's film career took off. He has starred in a variety of film genres, among them romantic films such as Il Mare (2000) and Over the Rainbow (2002), melodrama Last Present (2001), comedy Oh! Brothers (2003), action films The Last Witness (2001) and Typhoon (2005), heist film The Thieves (2012), film noir New World (2013), and period film The Face Reader (2013). He won Best Actor awards at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for City of the Rising Sun (1999), and at the Fantasporto Director's Week for The Housemaid (2010).

Gong Ji-cheol, better known by his stage name Gong Yoo (Korean: 공유), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in television dramas Coffee Prince (2007) and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016–2017), and the films Silenced (2011), Train to Busan (2016) and The Age of Shadows (2016).

Choi Tae-joon is a South Korean actor. He is known for his lead role in melodrama Exit (2018).

Hwang Dong-hyuk is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.

Kim Tae-hyung, also known by his stage name V, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a vocalist of the South Korean boy group BTS.

John Cho is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek reboot film series.

Han So-hee is a South Korean actress. She has starred as a main cast in the Korean television series Money Flower (2017), 100 Days My Prince (2018), and the supporting role in Abyss (2019). She gained wide recognition after portraying the main character of Yeo Da-kyung in the smash-hit and record-breaking drama The World of the Married (2020).

Lee Byung-hun is a South Korean actor and singer. He has received critical acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably Joint Security Area (2000); A Bittersweet Life (2005); The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); the television series Iris (2009); I Saw the Devil (2010); and Masquerade (2012). His critically acclaimed film Inside Men (2015) won him the Best Actor prize in three prestigious award ceremonies: 52nd Baeksang Art Awards, 37th Blue Dragon Awards and 53rd Grand Bell Awards. Lee has five films—Joint Security Area, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Masquerade, Inside Men and Master—on the list of highest-grossing films in South Korea.

Park Shin-hye is a South Korean actress, singer and model. She gained recognition for starring in melodramas Stairway to Heaven (2003) and Tree of Heaven (2006). Considered one of the most prolific actresses of her age, Park received further recognition for her roles in the television dramas You're Beautiful (2009), The Heirs (2013), Pinocchio (2014–2015), Doctors (2016), Memories of the Alhambra (2018–2019) and #Alive (2020).

Shin Min-a is a South Korean model and actress. She is best known for starring in television dramas A Love to Kill (2005), My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox (2010), Arang and the Magistrate (2012), Oh My Venus (2015), and Tomorrow, With You (2017).

Yoo Young-chul (유영철) is a South Korean serial killer, sex offender, and self-confessed cannibal. Admitting to murdering 20 people, mostly prostitutes and wealthy old men, the Seoul Central District Court convicted him of 20 murders. Yoo burned three and mutilated at least 11 of his victims, admitting he ate the livers of some of them. He committed his crimes between September 2003 and July 2004, when he was arrested. Yoo explained his motives in front of a TV camera saying "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done."

Ahn Bo-hyun is a South Korean actor. He originally debuted as a model. Since his acting debut in 2014, he has appeared in various films and television dramas including, Descendants of the Sun (2016), Dokgo Rewind (2018), Her Private Life (2019). Ahn achieved success and made a turning point within his acting career through Itaewon Class (2020).

Jeon Jung-kook, better known mononymously as Jungkook, is a South Korean singer and songwriter. He is the youngest member of and vocalist in the South Korean boy band BTS.

Kim Seok-jin, also known by his stage name Jin, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and member of the South Korean boy band BTS since June 2013. Kim was scouted for the group while in university and joined Big Hit Entertainment as an actor, eventually transitioning to a Korean idol. Kim has co-written and released three solo tracks with BTS: "Awake" (2016), "Epiphany" (2018), and "Moon" (2020), all of which have charted on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart. In 2019, Kim released his first independent song, the digital track "Tonight". He also appeared on the 2016 Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth soundtrack alongside BTS member V. Kim has received critical praise for his falsetto and emotional range as a singer.

Song Joong-ki is a South Korean actor. He rose to fame in the historical coming-of-age drama Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010) and the variety show Running Man (2010–2011) as one of the original cast members. Since then, he played a diverse spectrum of roles in the television series The Innocent Man (2012), Descendants of the Sun (2016) and Arthdal Chronicles (2019), as well as the box office hits A Werewolf Boy (2012) and The Battleship Island (2017)—both on the list of highest-grossing films in South Korea.

Chun Doo-hwan is a former South Korean politician and Republic of Korea Army General who served as the President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. From December 1979 to September 1980, he was the country's de facto leader, ruling as an unelected military strongman with civilian president Choi Kyu-hah largely as a figurehead. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the Gwangju Massacre but was later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam, with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun's administration had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.

Song Hye-kyo is a South Korean actress. She gained international popularity through her leading roles in television dramas Autumn in My Heart (2000), All In (2003), Full House (2004), That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013), Descendants of the Sun (2016), and Encounter (2018). Her film work includes Hwang Jin Yi (2007), The Grandmaster (2013), My Brilliant Life (2014), and The Queens (2015).

Hyun Bin is a South Korean actor. Hyun Bin first gained wide recognition for his role in the 2005 romantic comedy television drama My Name is Kim Sam-soon. Since then, he has appeared in leading roles in other successful television shows including; the romantic fantasy drama Secret Garden (2010–2011), fantasy drama Memories of the Alhambra (2018–2019), and romantic drama Crash Landing on You (2019–2020). Hyun Bin's popularity was further widened by starring in a series of box office hits; the action thriller Confidential Assignment (2017), the crime thrillers The Swindlers (2017) and The Negotiation (2018) as well as the horror movie Rampant (2018).

Kim Woo-bin is a South Korean model and actor. He began his career as a runway model and made his acting debut in the television drama White Christmas. He subsequently gained attention in A Gentleman's Dignity (2012), and made his breakthrough with School 2013 (2012-2013) and The Heirs (2013). Kim later starred in box office hits Friend: The Great Legacy (2013), The Con Artists (2014) and Twenty (2015). In 2016, he took on his first leading role on television in Uncontrollably Fond.