Yoo Ji-tae

Yoo Ji-tae (유지태), born April 13, 1976, in Seoul, is a South Korean actor and director with one of the most formally varied careers in Korean cinema. He began as a fashion model before transitioning to acting in 1998, and his early film credits established him as a performer drawn to complicated, psychologically dense roles. His breakout came through two films: "Attack the Gas Station" (1999), a dark comedy that became a major commercial hit, and "Ditto" (2000), a romantic drama that brought him his first sustained public attention. The films that followed placed him at the center of Korean cinema's most acclaimed work of the 2000s. He played the villain Woo-jin Oh in Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" (2003), the second film in the Vengeance Trilogy and winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. It is the role most international audiences associate with him. He also worked with Hur Jin-ho in "One Fine Spring Day" (2001) and Hong Sang-soo in "Woman Is the Future of Man" (2004), positioning himself as a performer who moved across commercial and art-house registers with equal ease. Yoo began directing short films in 2003, earning recognition on the film festival circuit before making his feature directorial debut with "Mai Ratima" (2012). He has pursued dual actor-director ambitions since, contributing to major television productions alongside his film work. International audiences encountered him again as The Professor in "Money Heist: Korea" (2022), a high-profile Netflix adaptation of the Spanish series. He is married to actress Kim Hyo-jin; they have two children. His education spans three universities: a BA in Theatre and Film from Dankook University, an MFA in visual arts from Chung-Ang University, and an MSW from Catholic University of Korea.