Youn Yuh-jung
Youn Yuh-jung (윤여정) is one of the essential actors in Korean screen history, with a career that stretches from New Cinema-era provocation to global awards recognition. She first became a major presence through Kim Ki-young's Woman of Fire in 1971, then spent decades building one of the most formidable résumés in Korean film and television. Her work has always carried unusual bite. Even when playing matriarchs, she tends to bring wit, abrasion, and emotional precision rather than passive prestige.
That sharpness is what made her Minari performance land so hard internationally. The film earned Youn the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first Korean performer to win an acting Oscar. She followed that with globally visible projects including Pachinko and a new turn in Netflix and A24's Beef Season 2, where she plays Chairwoman Park. Long before Hollywood caught up, though, Youn had already spent decades defining what authority, humor, and danger can look like on a Korean screen.
