Top 10 Most Successful and Beautiful Korean Drama Actresses

Here’s the list of top 10 most successful and beautiful Korean drama actresses who have wonderful screen presence, or can sing and dance, are TV and radio hosts or have successful modeling careers! Their brilliant talent, appearance, good personality and charm are hard not to notice! Here you will also find some K-drama recommendations! You can’t miss the movies where these charming ladies are starring!

1. Han Hyo Joo
2. Song Hye Kyo
3. IU
4. Bae Suzy
5. Kim So Hyun
6. Jun Ji Hyun
7. Park Shin Hye
8. Lee Sung Kyung
9. Park Bo Young
10. Kim Yoo Jung

One of the best known and most successful child actresses in South Korea, Kim Yoo Jung has won a great number of Best Young Actress awards! Soon, “Korea’s Little Sister” transitioned into teen roles and became known for her performances in Dong Yi, May Queen, Moon Embracing the Sun and Angry Mom. She even starred in her first adult role as a lead actress! Love in the Moonlight, the domestic and international hit series, perfectly shows she has a wonderful presence on the screen! Unlike many other acclaimed child actors and actresses, Kim Yoo has successfully transitioned her roles from child to teen actress, and even to leading adult roles! It’s not that easy to achieve! Here are some of the most popular dramas in her career!

• Moonlight Drawn By Clouds (Love in the Moonlight)

It’s not only the coming-of-age high-quality drama phenomenon but also is considered to be Kim Yoo’s first adult and leading lady role! Here, the actress stars as a girl disguising as a man and lives at the palace as a eunuch. Watch this sweet love story of the girl in disguise and the crown prince if you haven’t yet!

• Clean With Passion for Now

Kim Yoo continues to make her transition into adult roles and stars as a leading heroine again. This time it’s a young and fresh romantic K-drama! The actress plays a grubby girl looking for a full-time job who ends up falling in love with her polar opposite!

Everyone knows Park Bo Young for her leading roles in such hit films as Scandal Makers, A Werewolf Boy, On Your Wedding Day, Oh My Ghost and Strong Woman Bong Soon. Making her acting debut at sixteen, this incredibly talented and beautiful woman became one of the most beloved and most popular actresses in drama land! She hasn’t had free time since her debut and for a good reason! She’s got incredible range of dramas. We have so many options of what to choose from, so it gets even harder to pick and highlight only several of her works. However, here are some of them!

• Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Park Bo plays a funny and charming lead Do Bong Soon, an unbelievably strong woman with superpowers! One day, a man finds out about her super strength and becomes intrigued by her. The actresses’ chemistry with fellow lead actor is awesome!

• A Werewolf Boy

Meet Park Bo Young as a girl who falls for a boy with a beast inside of him! It won’t be easy for her to get along with the beast side of her loved one. It can hardly be tamed!

Lee Sung literally became an overnight celebrity after her acting debut in Okay, That’s Love. She was a successful model at that time, with no thought of appearing on TV. However, the director of the series was desperately in need for new, fresh faces and that’s where he stumbled upon the Instagram page! After her role as a rebellious high school student in the drama, Lee builds her fanbase and many other roles flood in! She lands her next roles as a mentally unstable student in Cheese in the Trap and Doctor Crush. Soon after this, she takes her first leading role in a coming of age TV drama, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo!

Park Shin was noticed when she appeared in singer Lee Seung Hwan’s music video and she received formal training in singing, acting, and dancing. The actress debuted in K-drama Stairway to Heaven and it didn’t take long for her to gain fame! She successfully portrayed the younger version of the lead heroine! You’re Beautiful brought another hit title for the young talent. The drama was a hit on the Internet! We also know Park Shin Hye for her amazing performances in such popular K-dramas as Pinocchio, Flower Boys Next Door, Heirs, and Heartstrings.

To those of you who remember Jun Ji for her role in My Love from the Stars, the fact that she had a much bigger role some time ago might be surprising! My Sassy Girl is one of the most popular K-dramas of all time! The romantic comedy won her the Best Actress Award and became a real breakthrough in her career. The success of the series and films she has starred in internationally established her as a top Hallyu star. You can see her in fantasy-romantic comedy Windstruck, major hit, blockbuster drama Legend of the Blue Sea, and in other notable films like The Thieves, The Berlin File, Assassination, and Il Mare.

One of the highest paid Korean actresses, Jun Ji is also considered one of the most demanded advertisement spokespersons in the country: she has advertised for a wide range of popular brands like Samsung, Lotte Duty Free, and many Chinese brands.

Kim So started her acting career in her childhood, at the age of 7, and even was labeled as “Nation’s Little Sister”! Her famous roles in Moon Embracing the Sun and Missing You rose her to fame, but there are so much more dramas to choose from! Who Are You: School 2015 was her first film where she got the leading role, and since those times she has starred in a wide range of K-dramas: Hey Ghost, Lets Fight for the fans of horror genre, The Emperor: Owner of the Mask for historical melodrama lovers, Radio Romance for those who want to run away from real world and dive into a romantic comedy. You might also want to check out some of her other dramas: Page Turner, Goblin, The Suspicious Housemaid, Rooftop Prince, Reset, I Hear Your Voice, The Girl Who Sees Smells, Nightmare Teacher, and Rooftop Prince.

Suzy (Bae Su Ji) is one of the most in-demand actresses in Korea. However, not everyone knows that she started out as an online shopping model! She was one of the contestants in the reality show “Superstar K”, she was noticed by a scout there. So, it didn’t take her long to transfer from a modeling career and become a music trainee. Soon, she debuted with Miss A and what’s more, became a host in some music shows. Only after all these successes, the young talent transferred into acting! It was Dream High that made her recognized among millions of K-drama lovers. Here are some of her career-defining performances! Take a look!

• Gu Family Book

You can’t miss this one, especially if you call yourself a fan of historical fantasy drama genre! Suzy plays a tomboy here, a skilled in archery and martial arts girl who crosses her paths with an unusual guy. He turns out to be a mythological nine-tailed fox, but half-human at the same time.

• While You Were Sleeping

After a tragic event, a girl (played by Suzy) receives a gift (or a curse, it depends on how you see it) to dream about the accidents that will happen to different people in the future. It may be her relative or friend, or it can be a complete stranger. She tries to stop these horrible events from happening in real life. However, things become even more interesting when she finds out there are two more persons in her life who have the same gift.

Lee Ji Eun, best known by her stage name IU (which stands for “I and You” – to become one with music (you and me) is not only one of the best-selling K-Pop solo artists (in the entertainment industry dominated mostly by K-Pop groups), radio and television host and the most influential celebrity in the country in general. She has also ventured into acting! You can see the actress not only in commercials selling smartphones but also in highly popular nowadays K-dramas. She acted in You're the Best, Pretty Man, The Producers, Lee Soon Shin, Moon Lovers, and My Mister.

• Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

IU plays a 21st-century woman who travels back in time due to the strange sequence of events during a total eclipse of the Sun. She gets trapped in the Goryeo era and lives in the body of another woman. A member of the royal family, many palace intrigues are ahead of her. As some time goes by, she realizes she falls for the violent fourth Prince who is known for being an outcast. This historical is a real roller-coaster of emotions! Don’t miss this gem with IU as a leading heroine!

Though Song Hye first debuted as a model, she decided to transfer into acting and gained not only Asia-wide popularity but became an internationally known top Hallyu star. The actress made her debut starring in KBS2’s Autumn in My Heart and in All In, both dramas gained fame abroad including Taiwan, Japan, and Europe. Song is also well-known for her leading roles in television dramas Full House, That Winter, the Wind Blows, Descendants of the Sun and Encounter.

• Descendants of the Sun

Descendants of the Sun was a mega-hit during its broadcast on TV. In this popular love story, Song Hye plays a lead. Basically, the story revolves around a medical team that saves lives and a Special Forces unit that deals with various secret missions. The series is set in Uruk, a fictitious country which is in a state of war.

• Encounter

Song Hye Kyo stars here as the daughter of a powerful politician. The girl is tired of living life controlled by others, where she doesn’t have the right to make her own choices. After divorcing her husband from an arranged marriage, she travels overseas. The trip changes her life, as she meets a simple, kind and free-spirited guy on the way. They are instantly drawn to each other, even despite the fact that they are complete opposites.

Han Hyo Ju got her first leading role in K-drama Spring Waltz. However, it was Brilliant Legacy that brought her commercial break-out role. The series showed her brilliant acting and she got signed by a popular filmmaker soon after. She was cast in film Ad Lib Night, which brought her many honors. This success brought many more opportunities for the talented actress! It gained her roles in other big TV dramas - Ilijimae, Shining Inheritance, and Dong Yi! Every K-drama lover knows these gems; they became hits, so Han became even more famous! You will also enjoy watching her acting in a period K-drama Masquerade, where she played a queen. It turned out to become the highest grossing film in Korea as of that time! Don’t hesitate a second and check out her other works, such as Miracle: Devil Claus' Love and Magic, Cold Eyes, The Beauty Inside, Golden Slumber, and W: Two Worlds!

Who is your favorite Korean drama actress? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!