Kim Eun-hee

Kim Eun-hee is a South Korean television screenwriter known for combining genre storytelling with social concerns, procedural detail, and emotionally driven characters. She began building her profile through dramas including *Lovers in Prague* (2005), a romance involving a diplomat’s daughter and a detective, and *On Air* (2008), which depicted the television-production industry through the work of actors, managers, directors, and writers.

Her later work became especially associated with crime, thriller, fantasy, and horror. *Sign* (2011), starring Park Shin-yang and Kim Ah-joong, centered on forensic pathologists investigating suspicious deaths. The series used autopsy rooms, evidence analysis, and conflicts with police and prosecutors as central elements rather than treating forensic work as background decoration. In *Phantom*, also known as *Ghost* (2012), she wrote a cybercrime thriller starring So Ji-sub as an officer in a police cyber-investigation unit. The drama focused on hacking, digital evidence, online identities, and the manipulation of public information.

Kim’s 2016 tvN drama *Signal* became one of her most acclaimed works. Adapted in concept from the Japanese series *Signal: The Long-Term Unsolved Case Investigation Team*, it follows a cold-case profiler, Park Hae-young, who communicates across time with detective Lee Jae-han through a mysterious walkie-talkie. Their conversations allow investigators in the present and past to reopen crimes, but each intervention changes consequences in unpredictable ways. *Signal* won the Grand Prize for Television at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards, and Kim received the Baeksang award for Best Screenplay in television.

She also wrote Netflix’s period zombie series *Kingdom*, whose first season premiered in 2019. Set during Korea’s Joseon era, the story follows Crown Prince Lee Chang as he investigates a plague that turns infected people into violent undead creatures. The series connected political succession, famine, class inequality, and a spreading epidemic. Kim returned for the second season in 2020 and wrote the 2021 special episode *Kingdom: Ashin of the North*, which explored the background of Ashin, played by Jun Ji-hyun, and the resurrection plant linked to the outbreak.

In 2021, Kim wrote *Jirisan*, a mystery drama set around rangers in Jirisan National Park. Starring Jun Ji-hyun and Ju Ji-hoon, it follows rescuers searching for lost hikers while uncovering a series of suspicious incidents on the mountain. Her 2023 SBS drama *Revenant* returned to supernatural horror. The series stars Kim Tae-ri as a young woman who becomes entangled with a malevolent entity after receiving a family heirloom. Across these works, Kim Eun-hee has remained notable for placing Korean institutions, landscapes, historical settings, and unresolved violence at the center of high-concept genre narratives.