Kang Ha-neul

Kang Ha-neul (born Kim Ha-neul on February 21, 1990) is a South Korean actor born in Busan. He studied theatre at Chung-Ang University and first built experience in musical productions, including Thrill Me in 2007. His television profile rose through supporting parts: Min Hyeon-jae in SBS’s 2012 youth series To the Beautiful You, vocalist Jung Sun-woo in Mnet’s 2013 drama Monstar, and ambitious intern Jang Baek-ki in tvN’s office drama Misaeng (2014). In Misaeng, Jang enters One International after a privileged upbringing and initially clashes with colleagues while competing to prove himself. His historical-drama work includes Prince Wang Wook in SBS’s 2016 Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Wang Wook’s relationship with Hae Soo, played by IU, and his later pursuit of the throne form a central thread in the series’ court intrigue. Kang returned to contemporary television as Hwang Yong-sik, the forthright police officer who loves single mother Oh Dong-baek (Gong Hyo-jin) in KBS2’s When the Camellia Blooms (2019). The series combines their romance with a murder-case storyline involving the serial killer called Joker. For this performance, Kang received the Grand Prize (Daesang) at the 2019 KBS Drama Awards and Best Actor in television at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards. In cinema, he played one of the three friends in the 2015 coming-of-age comedy Twenty, as Kim Kyung-jae, an aspiring comic artist. He portrayed poet Yun Dong-ju in Lee Joon-ik’s black-and-white 2016 biographical film Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet, which follows Dong-ju’s life under Japanese colonial rule and his bond with cousin Song Mong-gyu. In 2017’s New Trial, inspired by the Iksan Yakchon five-way intersection case, he played Hyun-woo, a young man coerced into a false confession; Jung Woo played the lawyer seeking a retrial. That year he also played cadet Kang Hee-yeol opposite Park Seo-joon in Midnight Runners and Jin-seok in the thriller Forgotten. Kang enlisted for mandatory military service in September 2017 and was discharged in May 2019. During service he appeared in the military musical Shinheung Military Academy. Later projects include the 2022 drama Curtain Call, in which his character Yoo Jae-heon is a struggling theatre actor asked to pose as a North Korean hotel owner’s grandson, and the 2023 romantic comedy Love Reset, where he played Jung-yeol opposite Jung So-min. Love Reset became a major Korean box-office success, led the domestic weekend box office after release, and was released internationally under the title 30 Days.