The most successful K-drama child actress: started her career at the age of 6, now a powerful face in the industry

Not every child actress can lead a career as successful as this K-drama star. 

Born in 1982, actress Kim Min Jung is now in her 40s and leading an admirable career. In fact, the actress has been so successful as an adult that many people forget she started acting at an extremely young age. 

With her pleasant and adorable looks, Kim Min Jung won an audition to become a child model for a clothing brand, eventually receiving numerous modeling offers and debuting in the entertainment industry. However, Kim Min Jung’s parents did not want her to enter showbiz, and so turned down various CF deals for 3 consecutive years. It was not until the actress was 6 years old that they finally relented, leading to Kim Min Jung’s child model career and appearance in the MBC Best Theater episode “Widow”. 

During the 90s, Kim Min Jung basically was a household name with an outstanding career. In 1991 alone, the actress starred in 20 CF films, at the same time hailed as an “acting genius” for her excelling acting performances. According to Kim Min Jung herself,  at the age of 10, she already realized that acting was her passion and that she was allowed to follow her dreams instead of being forced to act by her parents. 

Kim Min Jung’s image as a child actress was so deeply seared into the audience’s mind, that she faced quite a challenge breaking away from this image. Regarding this struggle, the actress once said: “I received a lot of recognition as a child actress, but now in my 20s, despite starring in a lot of projects, I have very few successful works and my popularity has gone down. To have a breakthrough from my previous image, I have to work extremely hard.”

And the actress has truly lived up to her promise, and continued to improve herself despite other child actresses from the same generation giving up. In the end, it took Kim Min Jung 10 years to truly shine again, and in her 30s, she finally managed to establish her name in the Korean acting scene. With spectacular visuals, unique allure, and a huge versatility that allows her to play all sorts of roles, Kim Min Jung nailed various iconic appearances in “Gap Dong”, “Man To Man”, “Mr. Sunshine”, and most recently, “The Devil Judge”.