35 Facts About Gong Hyo-jin

Gong Hyo-jin is considered to be the queen of romantic comedies due to her successful portrayals in her rom-com dramas.

Gong Hyo-jin was born in 1980 in Sinwol-dong, Gangseo District, Seoul, South Korea.

Gong Hyo-jin has spoken fondly of her memories of her time there, and in 2011 she was designated as one of the goodwill ambassadors for "Year of Friendship," the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between Australia and South Korea.

Gong Hyo-jin played a high school teacher who meets her childhood sweetheart again, now a gigolo and single dad with a sick daughter.

Gong Hyo-jin was dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting, and felt she was being typecast in ingenue roles.

Gong Hyo-jin received a Best Actress nomination from the Korean Film Awards, and shared Best Actress honors with co-stars Moon So-ri, Go Doo-shim and Kim Hye-ok at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece.

Family Ties marked a turning point in her career, and gave Gong Hyo-jin a renewed passion for acting.

Viewer response to the drama had been mostly heartwarming and life-affirming, which Gong Hyo-jin said she treasures.

The maternal role served to soften and feminize her image, but Gong Hyo-jin was praised for her nuanced portrayal that grounded her character in reality, helping to prevent the drama from being overly maudlin or saccharine.

Gong Hyo-jin had wavered at first when presented with the script, given the character's excesses.

Gong Hyo-jin won numerous acting awards in Korea, among them Best Actress trophies from the Korean Film Awards, Director's Cut Awards, and Women in Film Korea Awards.

Gong Hyo-jin received nominations from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards, as well as a Rising Star Award from the New York Asian Film Festival.

Originally written as the usual brash and spunky rom-com heroine, Gong Hyo-jin thought it would be boring and cliched to play her as such, and instead made the significant acting decision to play against type by creating the character as an ordinary girl who was seemingly meek, but had a quiet strength and slyly got her way.

Gong Hyo-jin played a widow traveling with her poet ex-boyfriend in Yim Soon-rye's part-Buddhist meditation, part-road movie.

In 2011, Gong Hyo-jin acted opposite Cha Seung-won in the TV series The Greatest Love.

Gong Hyo-jin was praised for her naturalistic, no-nonsense acting, which served to balance Cha's wacky antics.

Gong Hyo-jin later won Best Actress for TV at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Gong Hyo-jin worked again with Kim Tae-yong for Beautiful 2012, a series of four Micro Movies produced by Chinese internet platform Youku.

Uninterested in stereotypical pretty roles, Gong Hyo-jin said she preferred playing multi-faceted women, like the laidback, unpredictable female lead with unshaved armpit hair in Love Fiction.

Gong Hyo-jin then reunited with Love Fiction co-star Ha Jung-woo in 577 Project, a documentary that follows a group of actors walking 577 kilometers across the nation.

In 2013 Gong Hyo-jin starred in comedy film, Boomerang Family, adapted from Cheon Myung-kwan's novel Aging Family about a grown-up trio of siblings who embark on a series of misadventures after they move back in their mother's home.

Gong Hyo-jin said she felt catharsis from her character's constant cursing, and pleasure from acting in an ensemble whose actors share great chemistry with each other.

In 2014, Gong Hyo-jin starred as a psychiatrist who falls for a mystery novelist with schizophrenia in the medical-melodrama series It's Okay, That's Love.

Gong Hyo-jin said she chose the project because of screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung, who had written a drama Gong appeared in a decade ago, Wonderful Days.

Gong Hyo-jin then made her stage debut in the Willy Russell play Educating Rita, which depicts the relationship during the course of a year between a young working class hairdresser and a middle-aged university lecturer.

Gong Hyo-jin plays a Music Bank variety show producer who has been working in broadcasting for 10 years.

In 2016, Gong Hyo-jin starred in the SBS romantic comedy drama Don't Dare to Dream opposite Jo Jung-suk, playing a weather broadcaster.

Gong Hyo-jin then starred in the mystery film Missing, in the role of a babysitter who one day disappears with someone else's child.

In 2017, Gong Hyo-jin starred in the thriller Single Rider with Lee Byung-hun.

Gong Hyo-jin played a former violinist who lives in Australia with her son.

In 2018, Gong Hyo-jin starred in Door Lock, a mystery thriller about the horrors faced by women.

In 2019, Gong Hyo-jin starred in a police action film Hit-and-Run Squad alongside Ryu Jun-yeol and Jo Jung-suk, a car chase thriller that focuses on hit and runs; followed by romantic comedy film Crazy Romance alongside Snowman co-star Kim Rae-won.

Gong Hyo-jin won the Grand Prize award at the KBS Drama Awards.

Gong Hyo-jin recorded the duet "I Think I Love You" for K-pop singer MY Q's 2011 album Ready for the World.

Gong Hyo-jin was named jury president for the 2009 International Women's Film Festival in Seoul.