Koo Hye-sun

Biography

The novel “Tango” sold thirty thousand copies in a week. Its author was a twenty-four-year-old actress, and together with the book her first solo exhibition opened in July 2009 at La Mer Gallery in Seoul.

Koo Hye-sun was born on 9 November 1984 in Incheon. As a schoolgirl she became known on the internet as an “ulzzang”, a Korean term for a girl with striking looks; in English one might say an online beauty. She then trained at music agencies and prepared to debut in a girl group. The group never came to anything. At YG Entertainment, where she moved next, the head of the company, Yang Hyun-suk, advised her to pursue acting rather than music. Her debut was a computer commercial in 2002. She was noticed after the television sitcom “Nonstop 5” (2004).

Her first lead role in a television series was in “Hearts of Nineteen” (2006). Historical dramas followed: “The King and I” (2007) and “Strongest Chil Woo” (2008). Her pan-Asian fame came from the role of Geum Jan-di in “Boys Over Flowers” (2009), opposite Lee Min-ho. For it Koo received awards at the KBS Drama Awards for outstanding performance and for best couple, as well as a popularity prize. Later she appeared in the series “Take Care of Us, Captain” (2012), “Angel Eyes” (2014) and “Blood” (2015), and in a Chinese series about Run Run Shaw.

But acting was not her only career. For the fourth studio album of the singer Gummy (2008) she drew ballpoint-pen illustrations. In 2009 came the novel “Tango” and “Breath”, an album of new-age music, all of whose pieces she composed herself. In 2012 a second exhibition, “Afterimage”, was held at the Hangaram Design Arts Center in the Seoul Arts Center; she gave the proceeds from the sale of her works toward buying germ-free cars for the Korea Leukemia Patient Group. In 2013 there was another exhibition and a visit to the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Fair.

She debuted as a director in 2008 with the short film “A Pleasant Helper”, which won the Audience Award at the Pusan Asian Short Film Festival. In 2009 “The Madonna”, a film about assisted suicide, was shown at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. She herself explained that she had not dreamed of directing since childhood: she was interested in music, art and literature, and film seemed a way to combine them. Her first feature, “Magic”, set in a music school, was released in June 2010 and shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

In 2011 she founded her own film company, Koo Hye-sun Film. Its first project was “The Peach Tree”, for which she wrote both the theme song and a novel. In 2012 she received a ministerial commendation for the film at the Republic of Korea Design Award. In 2014 came “Daughter”, in which she was screenwriter, director and producer, and played the lead, a mother who punishes her daughter harshly. The film addresses child abuse and was invited to the Busan International Film Festival. In 2021 her short film “Dark Yellow” had a special screening at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

She kept working in music: the second album, “Breath 2”, came out in 2015, her first concert took place the same year, and her first regular album, “And Spring”, with eleven songs, appeared in April 2016.

In 2011 she enrolled in the film studies department at Sungkyunkwan University but broke off her studies because of a heavy schedule, returning to them in 2020. She received her bachelor’s degree in February 2024 and then entered the science journalism programme at KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In January 2026 she defended her thesis, “The Fifth Wall: Reprojection in the Age of Monomedia”, and received her master’s degree in engineering ahead of schedule.

She also moved into business. In 2020 Koo Hye-sun applied for a patent on a foldable hair curler, registered in 2021. In July 2025 she founded the company Studio Ku Hye-sun, and curlers under the brand KuRoll went on sale in March 2026.