6 K-drama actresses to watch this October, from Kim Ji-won to Seo Hyun-jin

Another beloved K-drama actress headed to Netflix this October is Kim You-jung. Fresh off the success of the dark thriller Dear X, where she played a manipulative sociopathic actress, she headlines the spy romance 100 Days of Deception alongside GOT7’s Jinyoung.

Set in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation, the drama casts her as Lee Ga-gyeong, a crafty pickpocket recruited by the Gugukdan, an underground resistance group, to spy on the Japanese Government-General. What seems like easy enough work for someone with her set of skills hits a snag when she finds herself dangerously drawn to interpreter Kim Tae-woong (Jinyoung), the adopted son of Sato Shinichi (Jin Sun-kyu), a high-ranking colonial government official.

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Kim So-hyun, whose credits include River Where the Moon Rises and Netflix’s Love Alarm, stars opposite Choo Young-woo this month in ENA’s youth romance Between Steps, streaming on Disney+. The series, the last from the late director Ahn Pan-seok of Something in the Rain and One Spring Night, follows two university students who find love while trying to regain their footing after life knocks them off course.

The MZ generation K-drama actress slips into the role of Im Yoo-jin, a fashion student whose route into graduate school closes after an incident in her department earns her an unfavourable reputation. Landing in a robotics lab instead, she meets doctoral researcher Park Min-jae, whose competitive swimming career ended after osteosarcoma cost him a leg. What begins as an unexpected meeting gradually opens the door to a new chapter—and a second chance neither sees coming.

See more: 7 K-dramas that share the same universe, from ‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty’ and ‘Seorabeol Knife’ to ‘Moving’ and ‘Light Shop’

Chae Soo-bin, the leading lady of MBC’s sleeper hit When the Phone Rings, is back on the small screen this month in Take Charge of My Heart, the upcoming Netflix rom-com K-drama with a literal spark. She and co-star Kim Young-kwang play Na Bo-bae and Baek Ho-rang, two strangers who somehow end up being a perfect match.

Na Bo-bae is a drama screenwriter struggling to conjure romantic scenarios for her scripts. A childhood run-in with lightning left her with a touch that shocks, making her wary of getting close to people, let alone falling in love. Enter Baek Ho-rang, a chaebol heir who is immune to her touch and whose artificial heart—dangerously low on battery—gets a boost whenever she’s near. With his heart surgery still months away, he proposes a deal: she stays close enough to recharge his heart, while he helps her get some firsthand dating experience for her scripts. But as their arrangement brings them closer, it isn’t long before hearts start racing for real.

In the TVING rom-com Make Me Tingle, coming to HBO Max on October 15, Nam Ji-hyun plays Gong Yeon-su, a marketer whose conservative upbringing has left her with some decidedly old-fashioned ideas about love and relationships. Those ideas meet their match when a blind date arranged by her grandparents sets her across the table from Dokgo Dal (Kim Jae-young), the irreverent CEO of a sex toy startup.

Things take an even more awkward turn when Dal hires her agency to promote its sex toy business, putting Yeon-su in the uncomfortable position of marketing a product that clashes with her more traditional values. But working closely together, the two are forced to reconsider the long-held ideas about love and intimacy that have shaped their lives, opening the possibility of an unlikely romance.

In MBC’s The Perfect Lie, set to stream on Disney+ from October 30, Seo Hyun-jin reunites with her Dr. Romantic co-star Yoo Yeon-seok. Directed by Jo Young-min, who also made last year’s award-winning Netflix K-drama You and Everything Else, it’s a psychological thriller that explores memory and deception.

Seo Hyun-jin plays Kang Ji-seon, an elementary school librarian who goes on a date with Yoo Yeon-seok’s Min Jun-ho, a cardiac surgeon and single father. By all accounts, it’s the perfect first date. But by the next morning, the two remember the evening in irreconcilable ways, and neither will yield. Each is certain of what happened, and each is certain the other is wrong. As the story sets one version of events against the other, the real question becomes whose memory to trust.

With new K-dramas arriving throughout October 2026, there is no shortage of female-led stories to add to your watchlist. From Kim Ji-won’s high-stakes medical noir and Kim You-jung’s period spy thriller to Kim So-hyun’s and Chae Soo-bin’s very different romances, the month’s lineup spans an unusually broad mix of genres. And with Nam Ji-hyun and Seo Hyun-jin rounding out the slate with a provocative rom-com and a psychological mystery, October offers plenty of reasons for K-drama fans to keep their streaming queues busy.

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