8 K-drama actresses who surprised fans with unexpected genre switches, from Son Ye-jin in ‘The Scandal’ to Song Hye-kyo in ‘The Glory’

Song Hye-kyo’s transition from romantic leading lady in K-dramas such as Autumn in My Heart, Full House, Descendants of the Sun and Encounter to the ruthless anti-heroine out to destroy her high school bullies in Netflix’s gritty revenge K-drama The Glory marked a striking departure from the roles that had long defined her screen image.

As the calculating and relentless Moon Dong-eun, Song Hye-kyo traded swooning romance for psychological tension and simmering rage, stripping back the warmth of her earlier performances to portray a character who was the very definition of icy restraint.

Her instincts paid off, as audiences embraced her in the role, making it one of Netflix’s biggest global hits of 2023. It also proved highly rewarding—literally—for the actress, who won the Daesang at the 2023 Blue Dragon Series Awards and Best Actress at the Baeksang Arts Awards in the same year. Next up, she stars in Tantara, alongside Gong Yoo, an upcoming Netflix period drama tracing the rise of Korea’s entertainment industry from the postwar era to the 1980s.

See more: 8 K-drama actors who made surprising genre switches, from Byeon Woo-seok to Lee Min-ho

Kim You-jung, nicknamed “Nation’s Little Sister”, has gone from a child actress audiences grew up with in The Moon Embracing the Sun and Dong Yi and a young romantic lead viewers fell in love with in Love in the Moonlight, 20th Century Girl and My Demon to an unhinged sociopathic actress in TVING’s buzzy K-drama Dear X.

Stepping away from the sweet and lovable roles that won her legions of fans, Kim You-jung threw herself into the role of the cunning and manipulative Baek Ah-jin, a woman willing to exploit those around her to get what she wants. Critics hailed it as a bold career shift and praised her intense performance, which left even her co-star Kim Young-dae, who plays Ah-jin’s steadfast protector since childhood, unsettled by her transformation.

Kim You-jung continues to expand her range as Lee Ga-gyeong, a pickpocket turned resistance spy, in tvN’s upcoming period spy romance 100 Days of Deception, set in 1930s Korea under Japanese colonial rule. The series, which premieres on October 10, 2026, sees her infiltrate the Japanese Government-General opposite GOT7’s Jinyoung, who plays the interpreter she gets entangled with along the way.

Released back-to-back in the same year, Nevertheless, and My Name saw Han So-hee make the leap from wide-eyed romantic lead to hardened action heroine look almost effortless. In Nevertheless, Na-bi was defined by her vulnerability, drifting into an on-again, off-again relationship with serial love bomber Park Jae-eon (Song Kang). Meanwhile, in My Name, Ji-woo was defined by her resolve, hardened by grief and driven entirely by revenge.

The stark contrast between the two characters, brought to life with such conviction by Han So-hee, demonstrated the actress’s range and her penchant for embracing roles at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. She would follow her action-heavy turn in My Name with another soft romantic role in Disney+’s friends-to-lovers romance Soundtrack #1, alongside Park Hyung-sik, before starring as the fiercely resilient and resourceful Yoon Chae-ok in Netflix’s period monster thriller Gyeongseong Creature with Park Seo-jun.

She also stars in the South Korean film adaptation of The Intern, playing Sun-woo, the fashion startup CEO portrayed by Anne Hathaway in the Hollywood original. Next year, she will return to battle-ready territory as Cha Hae-in in Netflix’s highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling.

Already an accomplished actress with memorable K-dramas such as Hello, My Twenties!, Do You Like Brahms? and Hot Stove League under her belt, Park Eun-bin became a global household name when she starred in the Netflix-ENA legal drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo. As Woo Young-woo, the endearing lawyer with autism spectrum disorder, Park Eun-bin won the hearts of audiences worldwide and the acclaim of critics, earning the Grand Prize at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards in 2023.

She followed that up with another lovable turn as aspiring singer Seo Mok-ha in Castaway Diva, before taking fans by surprise with her turn as the brilliant but morally complex neurosurgeon Jung Se-ok in Disney+’s medical thriller Hyper Knife. The role allowed Park Eun-bin to shed Young-woo’s and Mok-ha’s earnest optimism for a character driven by obsession, ambition and an unrelenting need to settle the score with the man who ended her career.

Park Shin-hye, known for roles in popular youth dramas and romantic comedies in the early years of her career—You’re Beautiful, The Heirs, Pinocchio—has recently begun branching out to other genres. She starred with Hyun Bin in the sci-fi thriller K-drama Memories of the Alhambra and shared the screen with Cho Seung-woo in the time-travelling mystery Sisyphus: The Myth.

She returned to familiar ground in the healing rom-com Doctor Slump, reuniting with her The Heirs co-star Park Hyung-sik, this time paired as the drama’s central romance. They play a couple who were once fierce high school rivals, reconnecting in adulthood as they navigate career setbacks and emotional exhaustion while rebuilding their lives. As they find solace in each other, their rivalry gradually gives way to friendship and romance.

In the same year, however, Park Shin-hye went in a strikingly different direction with the highly successful fantasy thriller The Judge from Hell. As Kang Bit-na, a demon from Hell inhabiting the body of a human judge, she traded the warmth of a healing romance for a merciless supernatural avenger who punishes criminals beyond the reach of the law. She is set to reprise the role in a second season, confirmed for 2027.

On October 9, 2026, Kim Ji-won returns to Netflix in the SBS medical K-drama Doctor X: Mafia in White, the Korean remake of the popular J-drama Doctor-X. In it, she plays Gye Soo-jung, an exceptional surgeon nicknamed “mad dog of the operating room” for her uncompromising skills with the scalpel and refusal to bow to the corrupt hierarchy of Guseo University Hospital.

While there’s a hint of Soo-jung’s steeliness in Kim Ji-won’s previous roles—from the tough-as-nails military medic Yoon Myeong-joo in Descendants of the Sun and the scrappy Choi Ae-ra in Fight for My Way to the formidable chaebol heiress and CEO Hong Hae-in in the swoony Queen of Tears—Soo-jung is singular in her refusal to compromise and apparent disregard for anyone who stands in her way.

Doctor X: Mafia in White also marks Kim Ji-won’s first outright medical noir, a genre she’s only brushed up against before as a supporting character in uniform. Here, she carries the entire operating room herself, trading the emotionally complex romantic heroines of her past for a role built entirely on skill and nerve.

Kim Tae-ri’s career has long been defined by her versatility, from her breakout performance in Park Chan-wook’s acclaimed period thriller The Handmaiden to her role as a determined independence fighter in tvN’s sweeping historical drama Mr. Sunshine, which became a huge Netflix success. In Twenty Five Twenty One—also a tvN and Netflix fan favourite—she surprised viewers with her portrayal of Na Hee-do, a bubbly and big-hearted teenage fencer whose dreams of Olympic glory unfold alongside a bittersweet romance.

From the spirited, determined teenager in Twenty Five Twenty One to the troubled young woman possessed by an evil spirit in Revenant, which is available to stream on Disney+, Kim Tae-ri demonstrated a dramatic shift from nostalgic coming-of-age romance to atmospheric occult horror. As Gu San-yeong, she portrayed a financially struggling civil service exam candidate whose life unravels after inheriting a mysterious object from her late father. The role demanded a performance that could move between San-yeong’s everyday vulnerability and the unsettling presence of the entity taking control of her body.

Proving she could switch from scene to scene, role to role and genre to genre, her contrasting performances also earned major recognition: she took home the Best Actress trophy at the 2022 Baeksang Arts Awards for Twenty Five Twenty One, and the Grand Prize at the 2023 SBS Drama Awards for Revenant.

These genre switches show why even the most recognisable K-drama actresses can still surprise audiences. Whether they are leaving romance behind for revenge, trading familiar warmth for psychological darkness or stepping into action, medical noir and supernatural horror, each role offers a fresh perspective on an actress audiences may think they already know.

From Son Ye-jin’s Lady Cho in The Scandal and Song Hye-kyo’s Moon Dong-eun in The Glory to Kim Tae-ri’s possessed Gu San-yeong in Revenant, these performances prove that versatility can be just as compelling as familiarity.

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