Jin Ki-joo

Jin Ki-joo is a South Korean actress born on January 26, 1989. Before entering entertainment, she studied computer engineering at Chung-Ang University and worked in several non-acting jobs, including at Samsung SDS and as a reporter for the regional television station G1. Her route into acting became widely noted because it followed a career change rather than a conventional childhood or teenage entertainment debut. In 2014, Jin competed in the 23rd Supermodel Contest and received the Oliv Young Award. She began building her television résumé with supporting roles, appearing in dramas such as The Second 20s, One More Happy Ending, and The Good Wife. In 2017, she played Han Ji-won in the legal and political drama The Good Wife’s successor project, Misty, starring Kim Nam-joo and Ji Jin-hee. Her performance as a younger version of the central character helped raise her profile. Jin received major attention through the 2018 MBC drama Come and Hug Me. She played Han Jae-yi, an actress whose childhood trauma is connected to the father of her first love, Chae Do-jin, played by Jang Ki-yong. The drama follows the pair as they reunite as adults after a serial killer’s crimes shattered both families. Jin won the Best New Actress award in television at the 2018 MBC Drama Awards for the role. Her film work includes the 2018 healing drama Little Forest, directed by Yim Soon-rye. In the film, Kim Tae-ri plays Hye-won, who returns to her rural hometown; Jin appears as Hye-won’s longtime friend Jae-ha. The film became a well-regarded Korean adaptation of Daisuke Igarashi’s manga and was praised for its seasonal food imagery and calm rural setting. In 2019, Jin starred in SBS’s romantic comedy The Secret Life of My Secretary as Veronica Park, the flamboyant CEO of a film-production company. Her character’s distinctive fashion, blunt delivery, and comic rivalry with lead character Do Min-ik made Veronica one of the drama’s most discussed figures. She later led KBS2’s weekend drama Homemade Love Story, playing Lee Bit-chae-woon, an architect whose life changes after she discovers secrets about her family. Jin also starred in the 2021 thriller Midnight, portraying Kyung-mi, a deaf woman pursued through Seoul at night by a serial killer played by Wi Ha-joon. In 2022’s From Now On, Showtime!, she played police constable Go Seul-hae opposite Park Hae-jin. In 2023, she led the time-travel mystery My Perfect Stranger as Baek Yoon-young, a publishing editor investigating events surrounding her mother’s past.