Kim Tae Hee

Name: Kim Tae-hee (Kim Tae-hui, Gim Tae-hui)
Korean name: 김태희
Chinese name: 金泰熙 (金泰希)
Birthdate: March 29, 1980
Birthplace: Ulsan, South Korea
Height: 165cm
Blood type: O
Family: Parents, an elder sister and a younger brother
Religion: Christian (Roman Catholic)
Education: Seoul National University (fashion design, graduated)
Profession: Actress and model

Kim Tae Hee (born March 29, 1980) is a South Korean actress from Ulsan. Kim, who is bachelor of medical science at the Seoul National University, rose to stardom via her portrayal of the evil stepsister in the popular SBS TV series Stairway to Heaven. Her recent TV projects include the supernatural KBS series Forbidden Love and the SBS campus romance Love Story in Harvard. Both series were successful. For her performance in Forbidden Love, Kim was honored with the Best Female Newcomer award. Her younger brother is Lee Wan, who is quietly making a name for himself as well in the entertainment industry.

Kim Tae-hee started her entertainment career in modeling, and began acting in 1998.
Tae-hee’s noticable acting role only came in 2002 with TV sitcom “Let’s Go.” Then in 2003 Tae-hee began to gain real popularity with the evil sister character in “Stairway to Heaven,” co-starring Kwon Sang-woo and Choi Ji-woo.

Kim Tae-hee became one of Korean most popular actress after starring in 2004 popular romance “Love Story in Harvard,” starring alongside actor Kim Rae-won. In 2006 Tae-hee made her movie debut with “Restless,” which was not a huge success by her popularity. Kim Tae-hee has just started filming her latest TV drama recently, namely “Angel” or “Lobbyist.”

Park Chae-rim

Park Chae-rim(박채림) (born March 28, 1979) is a South Korean actress. She was noted for her role in the MBC drama All About Eve. Park made her debut in the drama Kaist. She is widely known and addressed as "Chae Rim" to many of her fans as well as fan propaganda magazines. Park married singer Lee Seung-hwan (14 years her senior) on May 24th, 2003. On March 31st, 2006, Lee's agency "Cloud Fish" released news of the couple's divorce. The reason stated was because of the couple personality differences, which caused the couple to separate since early December 2005.

Chae Rim (originally Park Chae Rim) is referred to as "Korea's Sweet Sister," and entered the entertainment world through a beauty test in 1994. Ever since her premier TV series "Hot River," Chae has mostly portrayed gentle characters, and her pleasing appearance and sweet smile has won the hearts of many viewers. Among her well-known works are the MBC series All About Eve (2000) and Four Sisters (2001). In 2000 Chae was also honored with SBS' Most Popular Artist award for her role in Cheers for Women. Chae's primary focus has been on television roles, and in recent years she has even been able to break into the Chinese TV market. In 2003 and 2004, she appeared in the Taiwanese TV series Love of the Aegean Sea a.k.a. Romance at the Aegean Sea and the Mainland China TV series Warriors of The Yang Clan. Furthering her crossover success, she signed up for the 2005 Hong Kong TV series "Princess Sheng Ping" (temporary title). After marrying singer Lee Seung Hwan in 2003, Chae continued her Korean TV series career in 2004 with Oh! Pil-Seung Bong Soon, in which she co-starred with An Jae Wook. The drama earned record-breaking viewing rates, once more confirming Chae's top TV star status.

Park Eun-Hye

Park Eun-Hye (박은혜) (born February 21, 1978 in South Korea) is a South Korean actress. She starred in the famous drama, Dae Jang Geum in 2003, as Jang Geum's best friend, Lee Yeun-seng. As a participant of the Korean Wave, she also starred in the Taiwan drama "Silence" with Vic Zhou, a member of F4, the popular Taiwanese music group.

In Dae Jang Geum, Park's character eventually wins the favor of the king and becomes pregnant with his child. After being pressured by the queen and the king's mother to inform them of Jang Geum's plans, Yeun-seng goes into a difficult labor. With Jang Geum's help, she gives birth to a baby princess.

Park Eun-Hye's character in Silence is mute. She meets her childhood love again and helps him realize the most precious things can not be bought with money. He finds out that he has liver cancer and tries to live life to its fulliest before his time is up.

Park is also known for having strikingly similar features to Han Hye-jin, another Korean actress.

Dramas

Exhibition of Fireworks (MBC, 2006)
Silence (CTV, 2006)
18 vs. 29 (KBS2, 2005)
Little Women (SBS, 2004)
What Happened on Island (SBS, 2004)
Dae Jang Geum (MBC, 2003-2004)
Everyday With You (2001)
Time Machine (2001)

Movies

Daddy-Long-Legs (2005)
Dream of a Warrior (2001)
Rec (2000)
Zzang (1998)

Kim Hee Sun

Birthday: August 11, 1977
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
Height: 168 cm
Weight: 45 kg
Blood Type: A
Talent: Playing the Piano, Ping Pong, Billiards, Modern Dance
Hobbies: Scuba, Singing

Kim Hee-sun (born 25 February 1977, Seoul) is a South Korean actress who has been acting in Korean TV dramas and films for over a decade.

Kim Hee Sun debuted on TV as a year 11 student and later majored in Drama at Chung-Ang University. Since then Kim Hee Sun has acted in many TV dramas, becoming well known in South Korea.

In recent years, Kim Hee Sun has also gradually build up a career in film, beginning in 1997 with Repechage opposite Jang Dong-gun. Director Lee Kwang-hoon subsequently put her in his next film, Ghost in Love in 1999. Kim Hee Sun's most high-profile role to date has been in the big-budget martial arts fantasy Bichunmoo, shot in China and released in the summer of 2000. Kim Hee Sun played the daughter of a Mongolian general in love with her childhood sweetheart. Although criticised for her acting in the film, it gave her more local and international exposure than any of her other films. The film cemented Kim Hee Sun's position as one of Korea's leading actress not only in her home country, but also in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and throughout South-east Asia.

In late 2001, Kim Hee Sun took on a completely different kind of role, cutting her hair short and starring as an animator in Wanee and Junah. Although Kim Hee Sun isacting in this film drew a favorable response from critics, the film itself was a flop at the box office. Kim Hee-sun is currently living in Seoul and is still popular as a model and presenter. Kim Hee Sun is renowned within the industry for her longevity as an actress. In 2003 she will co-star with Shin Ha-kyun in the film A Letter From Mars by Kim Jung-kwon, the director of Ditto. She is popularly known as the "first beauty of South Korea".

Through acting and promotional work (such as for Samsung), Kim Hee-sun now has an income of some USD 7 million. It is rumoured that her next move will be to try to break into the Japanese market.

Bae Doo-na

Bae Doo-na (whose name means "beautiful star") was born on October 11, 1979. In 1998 she was walking along the streets of Apkujong, Seoul when a recruiter approached her about a job in modeling. She soon branched out from modeling into TV dramas (her debut was the KBS drama School), and in 1999 she had her first film appearance as the psychic girl/ghost in The Ring Virus, Korea's remake of the Japanese film Ring.

In 2000 Bae continued to act in TV dramas and also expanded her presence on the screen, starring in the critically-acclaimed Barking Dogs Never Bite and later in Plum Blossom, a well-received film about adolescence and sex. At the time she concurrently studied in Hanyang University's department of Film and Drama.

Bae's 2001 film Take Care of My Cat was highly acclaimed by critics and screened in many festivals including Rotterdam and Berlin. She also starred in Park Chan-wook's grim followup to JSA, the acclaimed Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Her next features were more light in tone: Saving My Hubby, about a mother who straps her baby onto her back and goes out to rescue her husband from a band of gangsters, subway action film Tube, and Spring Bears Love, a melodrama by debut director Yong Yi. She also appeared in multiple TV dramas. To date, however, Bae has yet to star in a solid box office hit.

Bae's next film will be a Japanese film by Nobuhiro Yamashita titled Linda Linda Linda, in which she plays a Korean exchange student who joins an all-girl rock band. She is also rumored to have a part in Bong Joon-ho's creature movie The Host.

Excerpt from an interview with Bong Joon-ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite):

Bae Doo-na is a very beautiful young woman. But in the film you make her look very mundane, dishevelled, with no make-up... "You're right (laughs). Many actresses in Korea hate to act without make up, they want to look shiny! But Doo-na was great because she had no desire to show off, rather she really threw herself into the character. I was really happy with her."

Lee Young Ae

* Name: 이영애 (李英爱) / Lee Young Ae
* Profession: Actress and model
* Birthdate: 1971-Jan-31
* Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
* Height: 165cm
* Weight: 48kg
* Blood type: AB
* Star Sign: Aquarius
* Family: Parents and two older brothers

Lee Young-Ae (born January 31, 1971 in Seoul) is a famous South Korean actress who has a great fan base in numerous countries, particularly in the East and Southeast Asian countries which have been hit by the Korean Wave. She earned a title as 'Oxygen Lady' when she made her debut as TV model. Recently years, she captured the hearts of many fans as a sweetheart of Asia due to her cherubic beauty.

Her popularity among East Asian countries has grown in an exponential manner due to her poignant performance in the popular Korean drama Dae Jang Geum. The drama was such a success that several countries had re-runs of the drama shortly after the last episode had ended. In Hong Kong, the last episode had almost half of the Hong Kong population staying at home just to watch it. In China, hundreds of million viewers watched the drama even it was shown at late nights.

Since then, Lee Young-Ae has been invited to visit Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Japan. The fan crowds were phenomenal; in the first time in 12 years, NHK had to use NHK Hall to host the show. Her recent trip was the 2007 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China as an Image Ambassador. Many fans came from around the world and spent hours waiting for her under the temperature of -20 degrees Celsius. She flew in an Asiana airplane with four of her Dae Jang Geum portraits painted on the side of the plane.

Beside her acting career, she is also involved in many charity events. In 1997 she went to Ethiopia as a NGO Goodwill Ambassador and experienced the poverty and illness of African children. She went to Thar Desert in 1999 doing a TV show of the lowest caste people in India (see 1999 KBS2 Journey to Thar Desert in exterior link below). Later in 2001, she published these experiences in her autobiography “A Most Special Love” (partial English translation can be seen here) and donated all the income from the sale of the book to charity.

She was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador in 2004 by UNICEF and held several charity functions from that time on. She made many donations to schools and hospitals, which include an elementary school in China such that the school was renamed Lee Young-Ae Elementary School and the Chosun First Middle School in Harbin.

From her 2006 autobiography “Young-Ae’s Vow” (partial English translation can be seen here), she talked about how she became an actress. She recalled what made her go into show business was working with Andy Lau in a 1991 chocolate advertisement. In 1995, she made a decision to go to graduate school to learn theory of acting. Since then, she has not changed to challenge various kinds of acting roles, like that in Dae Jang Geum and later a very different role in Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. One thing she never wants to lose it, she said, is to act from her heart.

She was awarded Best Actress awards in the Blue Dragon Film Festival (青龍電影節)[12] in 2005 and Baeksang Art Awards (百想藝術大賞)[13] in 2006 for the film Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. In 2007, she received Medal of Culture Merit for her contribution to Korean Wave from the South Korean government.

Lee Young-ae has become very popular in CF’s (commercial films) of advertisements since her first debut. Her beauty in CF’s is loved by many fans around the world and a compiled CF’s shot before 2006 can be seen here[14]. In 2007, she was voted the most trustable product spokesperson in Korea[15].

Her major contract in 2006 and 2007 is with LG Group, a large South Korean conglomerate. She became the spokesmodel (Pan-Asia) for all LG Electronics' products. In January of 2007, she received a gratitude frame from LG Electronics for her successful promotion of their products.

Lee Hyori

Lee Hyori (Korean: 이효리, also Romanized as Lee Hyolee and officially E Hyo-lee), born on May 10, 1979, is a popular South Korean singer and actress. She started off as part of the successful K-pop girl group Fin.K.L, but has since become a solo artist. Her first album was very successful, winning many "Daesangs" (a Korean award equivalent to "Artist of the Year") for that album. She has since become the highest-paid female singer in South Korea.

Lee started her career as part of the Korean pop girl group Fin.K.L. Lee Hyori, who would become the group leader as she was the oldest member, was discovered while taking sticker pictures with her friends and was actually the last to join the group, just before their launch in January 1998. Fin.K.L. debuted officially on May 22, 1998 with their first single "Blue Rain." It was received quite well, but it was not until their second release from their first album: To My Boyfriend, that Fin. K.L. truly proved their popularity. "To My Boyfriend" became the first of their numerous number one hits. Fin K.L. became one of the most popular and successful Korean groups of all-time and rivaled with fellow popular girl group S.E.S

Although Lee has done many endorsements for various companies (including Dole), her most prominent commercials were made for Samsung Anycall. In late 2004, Lee signed an advertising contract with Samsung, for which she would make three musical commercials and songs for their Anycall cell phones. The first commercial and song, "Anymotion", were released in early 2005, featuring Eric Mun from K-pop group Shinhwa. In early 2006, the followup commercial "Anyclub" was released in two parts; this also featured Eric Mun in addition to Korean actor Kwon Sang Woo. The song "Anyclub," however, did featured neither Eric Mun nor Kwon Sang Woo. Instead, Park Teddy of 1TYM was featured. The songs from the commercials served as singles for Lee in between her albums. The final commercial was released in December 2006, titled "Anystar". The commercial differed from the first two in that it featured mostly dialogue. The commercial starred Korean actor and singer Lee Jun Ki and also YG Family trainee Park Bom.

Lee Hyori finished her contract with Biotherm early February 2007. Lee is no longer a Biotherm representative. She was recently chosen as first ever Asian-wide model for Calvin Klein Jeans, modeling for the "Pure Calvin" Collection.

BoA (Kwon Boa)

Boa Kwon (born November 5, 1986 in Guri, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea) is a South Korean singer, commonly known by her stage name BoA, and the letters of her first name have been backronymed to Beat of Angel. She has been active in both South Korea and Japan. Aside from Korean, she also speaks Japanese and conversational English.

At the age of thirteen, after two years of training, BoA released her debut album ID; Peace B on August 25, 2000. The album received positive reviews and climbed into the top ten chart, going on to sell 218,114 copies. Meanwhile, her Korean record label SM Entertainment made arrangements with Japanese company Avex Trax to launch her music career in Japan.

In early 2001, the singer released her first mini-album Jumping into the World. After this album was released, she took a hiatus from the Korean music industry to focus on the Japanese market. During this time she struggled to solidify her skills in Japanese.

BoA entered into the Japanese music industry soon after signing with Avex Trax. In 2001 she debuted with a Japanese version of ID; Peace B. The single reached #20 on the Oricon chart. ID; Peace B was followed by subsequent singles Amazing Kiss (#23), 気持ちはつたわる (Kimochi wa Tsutawaru) (#15), and Listen to My Heart (#5). The single Listen to My Heart became her first major success in Japan and went on to sell over 180,000 copies.

Her Japanese debut album, Listen To My Heart, was released on March 13, 2002. The album debuted at #1 on the Oricon chart in which the album charted for 91 weeks. It sold over 932,000 copies domestically and over 1,300,000 copies worldwide. A breakthrough in her career, her album was one of the few albums by Korean artists to enter the top five, and performed well despite the disputes and tensions between Japan and South Korea due to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. On the same day as the album's release, BoA's fifth single Every Heart-ミンナノキモチ- (minna no kimochi, everybody's feelings) was released. The song was the ending theme for the hit anime series InuYasha; the single peaked at #10 on the charts.

A month later, BoA released her second full studio Korean album, No.1. This album is her most successful Korean album to date, selling over 572,000 copies. The album peaked at #15 on the Japanese charts. In September of the same year her second mini album Miracle became another commercial success selling 327,000 copies. Later in the year she became the youngest artist ever to receive a "Artist of the Year" in South Korea.