Kim Ji-seok South Korean Actor Born 1981 in Seoul

Early life

Kim Ji-seok was born in Seoul on 21 April 1981 under the name Kim Bo-seok. His agency later gave him the stage name Ji-seok because his birth name sounded close to those of several established actors. He spent his middle and high school years in England and is fluent in English. He is the grandson of Kim Seong-il, an independence activist who worked in Manchuria during the Japanese colonial period and studied under the activist Kim Gu.

He first appeared in public in 2001 as a rapper in LEO, a five-member boy band that broke up after about eight months. Having failed an entrance exam for a theatre department, he studied German at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and in 2006 earned a secondary teaching certificate in German and English. He later completed a master's degree at Kyung Hee University, in cultural contents planning.

Career

Kim began acting in 2004 with an appearance in a music video for the singer Kim Hyung-joong's "She's Laughing", followed by a run of small parts. The daily drama "Likeable or Not" drew ratings above 40 percent in 2007 and 2008, though he was not yet widely recognised. In 2009 he played a member of the national ski jumping team in the film "Take Off", the second-highest-grossing Korean film of that year. He then appeared in the period drama "The Slave Hunters", in the comedy "Lady Daddy" (2010), where he played the lover of a transgender woman, and in the series "Personal Taste", as a competitive former boyfriend.

His mandatory military service began in May 2010 with basic training, after which he served with the Defense Media Agency in Seoul. He was discharged in March 2012. His first project afterwards was the horror film "Two Moons", released in July that year. It was followed by the romantic comedy "I Need Romance 2012" in June and by "Cheongdam-dong Alice" in December, which remains one of the works he is best known for.

In the years that followed he took leading or major parts in "Wonderful Mama" (2013), "Angel Eyes" (2014) and "Unkind Ladies" (2015), and appeared on the talk show "Hot Brain: Problematic Men". In 2016 he starred in the romantic comedy "Another Oh Hae-young", and he then played King Lee Yong in the historical drama "The Rebel". In 2017 he took the male lead in "Children of the 20th Century" opposite Han Ye-seul, and played the title character in "Top Star U-back".

In 2019 he starred in the romantic comedy thriller "When the Camellia Blooms", one of his most widely covered series, with articles in 17 language editions of an online encyclopedia. A book of his writing, "Writing your name on the breath of dawn", was scheduled for publication on 13 December 2021. He returned to television in 2022 in "Kiss Sixth Sense", and his later credits include the film "Husbands in Action" and the series "OK! Let's Get Divorced", both from 2026.

His filmography on record covers two films and four television series from 2010 to 2026, in addition to the earlier television work and music-video appearances described above. Over that span his roles moved from supporting parts to romantic leads and, in "The Rebel", a historical role as a king.