Kim Yong-man

Biography

In 1991, at the KBS college comedy contest, the grand prize went to two people: Kim Yong-man and Yang Won-kyung. The award is regarded as the official start of his career, although he had first appeared on stage earlier: in 1986 he made his debut as a theatre actor.

He was born on 30 November 1967 in Seoul. He finished school in 1986 and then studied broadcasting and performing arts at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Later he took a degree in acting at Sungkyunkwan University; in 2005 he studied there in the School of Art, in order to improve his acting for the sitcom “Nonstop 5”.

In the early 1990s he belonged to a group of comedians called Team Potato (Gamjagol), whose members all made their debuts on KBS in the same year. Later Kim Yong-man worked in a pair with Kim Gook-jin, and then formed a successful partnership with the younger comedians Seo Kyung-suk and Lee Yoon-suk; in the 1990s this company was called one of the best comedy combinations. His nicknames were “Hoppangman” (after the hero of a sweet bun) and “Gorgeous Hips”. The popularity of his double-act partner Kim Gook-jin was for a long time higher. The turning point came in 2002, when he became host of “Brain Survivor”, a segment of the Sunday-night show “Sunday Sunday Night”. It ran until 2005, and that was when, by the judgement of Korean writers, his fame reached its peak. In the same show he formed a comic pair with Lee Kyung-kyu: in the segments “Health Treasure” and “Great Challenge” their mock brawls made audiences laugh.

The advertising he appeared in from 1992 included Shin Ramyun noodles, baked goods, baby toiletries and mobile phone services. He was also an honorary ambassador for many campaigns: reading for teenagers, giving up smoking, Pyeongchang’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and the Gwangju Design Biennale.

In 2011 he hosted the SBS Entertainment Awards together with Shin Bong-sun and Kim Won-hee. In 2012, with Kim Soo-yong, he founded the website StarLogin, through which companies invite celebrities to lectures, festivals and corporate events.

In March 2013 prosecutors summoned him for questioning over illegal gambling and online sports betting between January 2008 and May 2011. The sum wagered was about 1.3 billion won. He left all the programmes he was taking part in. In April 2013 he was charged, the prosecutor asked for a year in prison, and on 27 June 2013 the court sentenced him to eight months in prison, suspended, with a two-year probation period. For almost three years he did not appear on television.

He returned in 2015 in the tvN show “Useful Men”. In the following years he hosted “TV Loves Love” (“TV Shilgo Wa”) on KBS1, “Korean vs Foreigners” on MBC every1 and “Problem Children in the Rooftop” on KBS2; since 2019 he has taken part in the JTBC show “Let’s Play Together”, and in 2020 he hosted “Trot Queen” on MBN. Since 2025 he has hosted the talk show “Dongchimi” on MBN.

In October 2021 he did not renew his contract with the agency FNC Entertainment, and on 15 November of the same year, together with Ahn Jung-hwan, Kim Sung-joo and Jung Hyung-don, he founded the agency Matched Project.

He also takes part in a charity group, God is Love Ministry, which raises money to pay for the treatment in South Korea of Haitian children born with heart defects.