Son Suk-ku

Son Suk-ku, also credited as Son Seok-koo, is a South Korean actor whose profile rose sharply through a run of streaming dramas. Born on February 7, 1983, in Daejeon, he studied film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before building an acting career in Korea. His screen credits include the 2016 film Black Stone and the Korean portion of Netflix’s Sense8, in which he played Detective Mun in the series’ second season. He subsequently took supporting parts in the television dramas Matrimonial Chaos (2018) and Designated Survivor: 60 Days (2019), establishing a record across broadcast television and streaming projects. In 2019, Son played filmmaker Son Beom-su in Be Melodramatic. He then played First Lieutenant Im Ji-seop in Netflix’s D.P., adapted from Kim Bo-tong’s webtoon about military police soldiers assigned to pursue deserters. Im initially appears as a rigid officer at the 103rd Military Police Unit, but the series develops his moral and professional conflict with the abuse embedded in the conscription system. Son reprised the role in D.P.’s 2023 second season, alongside Jung Hae-in as An Jun-ho and Koo Kyo-hwan as Han Ho-yeol. The character’s shifting position within the unit gave Son one of his most sustained television arcs. His defining 2022 television performance came in JTBC’s My Liberation Notes, written by Park Hae-young and directed by Kim Seok-yoon. Son played the enigmatic Mr. Gu, a withdrawn outsider who works alongside the Yeom family in the village of Sanpo and forms a crucial bond with middle sibling Yeom Mi-jeong, played by Kim Ji-won. The drama follows the Yeom siblings’ commutes from rural Gyeonggi to Seoul, their unsatisfying jobs, and their effort to “liberate” themselves from constricted lives. Mr. Gu’s history is gradually disclosed rather than supplied at the outset, and Son’s restrained performance became central to the show’s reception. Also in 2022, Son made a film turn as Kang Hae-sang in The Roundup, the sequel to The Outlaws. Kang is a killer operating in Vietnam whose crimes bring Detective Ma Seok-do into the case. The film exceeded 12 million admissions in South Korea. Son appeared as casino executive Chang Jun in Disney+’s Big Bet, whose story spans the rise and collapse of casino operator Cha Mu-sik, played by Choi Min-sik. In Netflix’s 2024 A Killer Paradox, he played detective Jang Nan-gam, pursuing Lee Tang, played by Choi Woo-shik, whose killings begin with an apparently accidental death.