Hwang Jung-min

After dating for many years, Hwang married his co-actress, Kim Mi-hye, in 2004 and fathered a son sometime later.

Hwang Jung-min was born in Masan, South Korea on September 1, 1970 to film-loving parents. Hwang got interested in the film world at a young age due to that, and started dreaming of a possible career in films.

His interest levels peaked while he was in third grade and caught a theatre production of ‘Peter Pan’, which transformed his psyche.

When he discussed his plan to enter entertainment world with his parents, his mother was in full support of him. She encouraged him further and brought him an application for Keywon High School of Arts, one of the most famous art schools in the country.

During his time there, Hwang learned nuances of acting and started doing theatre. He eventually started a theatre company of his own, along with other actor friends from the school, but disheartened with the lack of interest of general public in his productions, the company was shut down soon.

Rather than getting hopeless with this early failure, Hwang decided to take one step further towards realizing his dreams and joined the Seoul Institute of Arts, for a professional degree in theatre. During his time there, he started auditioning for roles in films and TV and although his performances were regarded well, he was considered unfit for an acting career due to his very average looks.

All the hard work finally paid Hwang in a grand style in 2001, when he was signed on for the film ‘Waikiki Brothers’. The film, which was set in the 80s, revolved around the lives of some struggling young musicians and was featured in Jeonju International Film festival. It was a big deal for Hwang as the success of the film helped him get bigger and important roles in films.

After that, Hwang produced a string of solid performances in films like ‘Road Movie’, ‘Heaven’s Soldiers’ and ‘A Bittersweet Life’. For the ‘Road Movie’, Hwang swept almost all the major film awards that year as the Best New Actor. His performances in those films were appreciated unanimously, but he was far from being considered as a solo actor.

In the defining performance of his career, Hwang played the role of a lonely man who falls in love with a prostitute suffering from AIDS in the film ‘You are my Sunshine’. For his performance, Hwang received many awards and several nominations, eventually becoming a household name in South Korea. He went home with a Blue Dragon Film Award and Max Movie Award.

As a result of the huge success of the film, more and more mainstream directors approached Hwang with powerful and different roles.

Hwang decided to experiment and played some lighter role in subsequent films such as ‘University of Laughs’ and ‘The Wedding Singer’.