Kim Ok-bin

Kim Ok-bin was romantically involved with her ‘Yoo-na’s Street’ co-star Lee Hee-joon, but after six months of dating, the couple broke up.

Kim has been extremely close with both her younger sisters. After she moved to Seoul, and found success in the industry, she invited both her sisters to stay with her and even supported the career growth of her sister, Chae Seo-jin, as an actress.

Kim Ok-bin was born in Gwangyan, South Korea on December 29, 1986 in a very humble family. Her family wasn’t one of the richest ones in the area, and often struggled with finances. Kim grew up as the eldest one of the three siblings and both her younger sisters looked up to her.

In order to cope up with dire circumstances, Kim looked for an outing and trained in martial arts to be mentally strong enough to deal with her troubles. She got herself trained in taekwondo, muay thai, boxing and Hapkido.

During her middle school days, she developed a flair for acting, and paired with her stunningly good looks, she was a popular figure during her middle school and high school years.

Due to unwanted circumstances, she had to drop out of the school. According to the reports, she did it in order to provide her sisters better opportunities to study and grow while Kim opted for self studies.

She had a recorded IQ of over 140, which helped her greatly in designing her own education and when her financial condition got better, she enrolled at the Kyung Hee University for further studies.

She was selected for the horror film ‘Voice’. She was one of the three new actresses chosen for the role, and hit a home run with her debut film itself. In the film, Kim played the role of a wandering soul. She received several award nominations for her acting in the film.

Still a teenager, she started getting offers of mature roles owing to the success of her first film.

Starting her TV career with ‘Hanoi Bride’ in 2004, she also did a music video in the same year for Lee Seung-chung’s song ‘A Cold Heart’. Both of these stints provided her further exposure.

In the 2006 film ‘Dasepo Naughty Girls’, she played the role of a young girl who had to resort to prostitution in order to support her family. The director of the film felt that Kim was one of the most matured actresses he ever worked with or auditioned. The film was filled with explicit sex scenes, but considering the gravitas of the role she was being offered, Kim did it and received a lot of appreciation.

In 2006, she was selected to feature in the drama ‘Hello God’, but while shooting for the role, she developed self-doubts and as the shooting schedule was very tight, she got only two-hours of sleep every day. As a result of this she was reported to have collapsed on the sets.