Kim Go-eun

Kim Go-eun is a South Korean actress who has earned recognition for her work in cinema and television. Born in Seoul on July 2, 1991, she moved to Beijing, China, with her family in 1994, spending ten years there and acquiring fluency in Mandarin. Her interest in filmmaking and theater was sparked after viewing the film Together. After returning to South Korea, she studied at Kaywon High School of the Arts and subsequently joined the Department of Acting in the School of Drama at the Korea National University of Arts in 2010.

While attending college, Kim made her professional acting debut in Jung Ji-woo's 2012 film A Muse, securing the lead role out of nearly 300 auditioning performers. Her breakthrough performance earned her multiple Best New Actress honors. Despite receiving numerous subsequent offers, she temporarily paused her acting career to complete her degree. She returned to the screen in 2014 in the thriller Monster, followed by several 2015 projects, including Coin Locker Girl—which brought her to the Cannes Film Festival—Memories of the Sword, The Advocate: A Missing Body, and Canola.

Kim made her television debut in 2016 starring in the drama series Cheese in the Trap, winning a Baeksang Arts Award for Best New Actress in television and contributing a song to the show's soundtrack. She achieved wider prominence later that year co-starring in the hit fantasy drama Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. Over the following years, her film projects included Sunset in My Hometown, Tune in for Love, and the musical drama Hero. On television, she led the fantasy series The King: Eternal Monarch, the combined live-action and animated series Yumi's Cells, and the adaptation Little Women, while also starring in the 2020 short film Untact.

In 2024, Kim reached another major career milestone by playing a young shaman in the occult-thriller film Exhuma, which debuted at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. The feature became a massive box-office hit, exceeding 11 million domestic admissions, and garnered Kim Best Actress awards at both the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards and the 45th Blue Dragon Film Awards. She followed this success with the romantic film Love in the Big City, earning a Buil Film Award. In 2025, she starred in the Netflix streaming series You and Everything Else and The Price of Confession.

Beyond her acting career, Kim was appointed a Chanel Ambassador for South Korea in 2019 and participated in the brand's J12 campaign in 2020. She was also named an honorary ambassador for the Korean Ministry of the Environment's Resource Circulation in 2019. Kim frequently engages in philanthropic initiatives, regularly donating tens to hundreds of millions of won toward disaster relief, including forest fires, floods, and earthquakes, alongside ongoing contributions to pediatric medical care at the Seoul National University Children's Hospital.