Cover Take charge of our hearts, Kim Young-kwang. This versatile model-turned-actor is set to star in ‘Take Charge of My Heart’ (Photo: Netflix)
Take charge of our hearts, Kim Young-kwang. This versatile model-turned-actor is set to star in ‘Take Charge of My Heart’ (Photo: Netflix)
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Before he was playing serial killers, gangsters and lonely CEOs, Kim Young-kwang was one of K-drama’s favourite handsome second leads
Kim Young-kwang has spent nearly two decades proving that being cast for the way you look does not mean you have to keep playing the same kind of man.
Before he became the unsettling face of Somebody or the quietly devastated romantic lead of Call It Love, Kim was a runway model. His early acting roles leaned towards handsome second leads and warm, slightly awkward romantic characters. Then the parts started getting stranger: a morally compromised prosecutor, a face-blind executive, a serial killer who uses a dating app to find victims, a lonely man who can barely articulate what he wants and a former baseball player hiding a frightening streak of violence.
Now, with Kim Young-kwang returning to romantic comedy in Netflix’s upcoming Take Charge of My Heart, it is a good time to look back at the projects that made his career so compelling in the first place.
These Kim Young-kwang TV shows and movies trace the evolution from model-turned-actor to one of South Korea’s most versatile leading men.
In case you missed it: The rise of the antihero: 10 K-drama characters who played by their own rules
1. ‘White Christmas’ (2011)
Above Five future stars, one isolated school and a very early glimpse of Kim Young-kwang’s darker side
The role: Jo Young-jae, an insecure, volatile student trapped inside an isolated elite high school during a deadly Christmas break
Why it’s essential: this is where the Kim Young-kwang story begins to take shape.
White Christmas is an eight-episode KBS2 thriller about students stranded at their boarding school over the holidays after receiving anonymous, threatening letters, only to discover that a killer may be among them. Its young ensemble featured Kim Young-kwang, Kim Woo-bin, Lee Soo-hyuk, Sung Joon and Hong Jong-hyun—the quintet later celebrated as the “Model Avengers”.
Kim’s Jo Young-jae is hardly a conventional romantic figure. He is a classroom bully whose outward aggression masks deep insecurity, offering an early glimpse of the complex, morally fraught characters he would pursue later in his career.
The series also serves as a time capsule of Korean entertainment before its ensemble became industry mainstays. Kim Woo-bin went on to The Heirs and Our Blues; Lee Soo-hyuk became one of K-drama’s most recognisable scene-stealers; Sung Joon and Hong Jong-hyun built respected acting resumés of their own.
2. ‘Pinocchio’ (2014)
Above The wealthy second lead who arrived smiling—and left audiences wondering why they were rooting for him
The role: Seo Beom-jo, a wealthy chaebol heir who becomes a rookie broadcast reporter
Why it’s essential: Pinocchio established Kim Young-kwang as far more than a runway model trying his hand at television.
The SBS drama starred Lee Jong-suk and Park Shin-hye as young journalists investigating an incendiary media scandal that derailed both of their families. Kim played Beom-jo, a sheltered heir whose early naivety slowly gives way to a painful awakening regarding journalistic ethics, personal responsibility and his own mother’s corporate crimes.
Though occupying the classic second-lead slot, Kim avoided the standard two-dimensional chaebol tropes. Beom-jo evolves from an affable, protected son into a disillusioned adult forced to confront the harm wrought by the people who raised him.
Kim earned the New Star Award at the 2014 SBS Drama Awards for his performance. It also established an enduring dynamic: Kim could enter a drama looking every bit the polished romantic lead, only to infuse the supporting character with unexpected pathos.
3. ‘Lookout’ (2017)
Above Kim Young-kwang traded the sunny second-lead routine for a prosecutor with secrets, revenge on his mind and very little interest in playing nice
The role: Jang Do-han, a prosecutor who appears to serve the corrupt establishment while secretly engineering revenge against the figures who destroyed his family
Why it’s essential: Lookout (also known as The Guardians) gave Kim Young-kwang’s acting some crucial early foundation.
Jang Do-han is far from heroic in the traditional sense. He maintains a double life in his pursuit of corrupt chief prosecutor Yoon Seung-ro, manipulating legal mechanisms and allies alike to tear down the man responsible for his father’s ruin. Over time, he is revealed as the mastermind orchestrating the underground vigilante collective at the narrative’s core.
The role demanded an emotional register his earlier romantic assignments had rarely called for: total concealment.
Do-han must smile when he is seething, feign subservience while plotting sabotage and project a sleek, self-interested persona while bound to a rigid moral vendetta.
A signature moment came when Kim improvised a scene in which Do-han forces a chilling, hollow grin despite being completely broken inside. That calculated grin quickly became a defining weapon in Kim’s acting toolkit: charming on the surface, deeply unsettling underneath.
4. ‘On Your Wedding Day’ (2018)
Above A decade of first love, bad timing and the kind of heartbreak that looks suspiciously like real life
The role: Hwang Woo-yeon, a young man whose devotion to his first love spans a decade of near-misses and shifting life stages
Why it’s essential: this is Kim Young-kwang at his most disarmingly romantic—and the project that secured him major critical validation.
Opposite Park Bo-young, Kim portrays Woo-yeon from his adolescent high school years through university and into adulthood, capturing the awkward, bittersweet reality of two people who never quite align their timing.
The romantic drama was a certified box-office triumph, drawing 2.82 million admissions in South Korea. For his work, Kim won Best New Actor (Film) at the 55th Baeksang Arts Awards.
The accolade arrived at a pivotal juncture. Kim showed how he could carry a major commercial feature. Kim later noted in interviews that the project allowed him to unlock greater emotional nuance at a time when he questioned his artistic ceiling.
The performance thrives on vulnerability. Woo-yeon is messy, sincere, occasionally foolish and entirely genuine—making it the definitive romantic calling card of his filmography.
5. ‘The Secret Life of My Secretary’ (2019)
Above Face blindness, office politics and a boss who discovers that recognising one woman changes everything
The role: Do Min-ik, an exacting media executive who develops prosopagnosia (face blindness) following a violent assault
Why it’s essential: for Kim Young-kwang operating at peak romantic-comedy charm, this is the benchmark.
The premise is quintessential K-drama: Do Min-ik, a brilliant but demanding boss at a mobile-media firm, loses the ability to distinguish human features after being attacked, only to discover that the sole face he can recognise belongs to his secretary, Jung Gal-hee (Jin Ki-joo).
Rather than treating the condition merely as a high-concept gimmick, the drama uses it to explore intimacy, perception and trust. Kim balances the heightened, screwball comedic timing with genuine physical vulnerability.
The performance succeeds through tonal contrast. Min-ik begins as an insufferably meticulous superior, but Kim layers in enough physical comedy and insecurity to make his romantic awakening both earned and deeply endearing.
6. ‘Mission: Possible’ (2021)
Above Kim Young-kwang discovers that being a towering action hero is much funnier when he is also completely out of his depth
The role: Woo Su-han, a cash-strapped private investigator mistaken for a covert operative and drawn into an illegal firearms smuggling ring
Why it’s essential: it proves that Kim Young-kwang’s physical range includes orchestrating sharp martial-arts choreography while committing completely to broad, self-deprecating slapstick.
In this brisk 2021 action comedy, Su-han joins forces with rookie secret agent Yoo Da-hee (Lee Sun-bin) after a case of mistaken identity places him in the crosshairs of an international arms ring. The duo bicker through escalating brawls while trying to uncover the ringleader.
Kim uses his 188-centimetre (varies in other reports) frame for physical comedy as naturally as he had for romance or dramatic gravitas. Su-han is opportunistic, perpetually underfunded and motivated far more by rent money than heroism.
Mission: Possible is not designed as a heavy dramatic showcase; it exists to prove that an actor with leading-man looks can be thoroughly entertaining when refusing to take himself seriously.
7. ‘Somebody’ (2022)
Above Forget the gentle romantic lead: Kim Young-kwang turns his movie-star looks into something genuinely unsettling
The role: Sung Yun-oh, an architectural designer and calculating serial predator who utilises the dating application Somebody to select victims
Why it’s essential: this psychological thriller permanently dismantled any remaining assumptions about Kim Young-kwang’s screen limits.
In Netflix’s eight-episode noir directed by Jung Ji-woo, Yun-oh is introduced as a soft-spoken, immaculate architectural professional whose polished exterior masks an innate psychopathy.
What makes Kim’s interpretation chilling is his refusal to indulge in theatrical villainy. Yun-oh never postures or grandstands; the horror emanates from the jarring juxtaposition between his gentle, soft-spoken demeanour and his chilling, detached brutality.
Built on complex thematic dualities—intimacy and alienation, vulnerability and sadism—Somebody saw Kim physically alter his silhouette and drop his vocal register, delivering one of the most audacious antihero transformations in modern Korean streaming.
See more: 11 Gothic noir K-dramas that will haunt you long after the ending
8. ‘Call It Love’ (2023)
Above Revenge gets complicated when the man you’re supposed to destroy turns out to be heartbreakingly lonely
The role: Han Dong-jin, a desolate CEO whose routine is destabilised when the daughter of his father’s former mistress seeks retribution against him
Why it’s essential: directly following the violence of Somebody, Kim Young-kwang pivoted to quiet, melancholic restraint.
Directed by Lee Kwang-young for Disney+, Call It Love reframes a conventional revenge premise into a tender, slow-burn exploration of grief. Lee Sung-kyung stars as Shim Woo-joo, whose vendetta falters as she realises the man she aimed to punish is just as burdened and broken as she is.
Dong-jin does not dramatise his suffering. He is subdued, chronically overworked and visibly worn down by familial shame. Kim stripped away superfluous movement, anchoring the performance in quiet gazes, weary posture and expressive silence.
Lee Sung-kyung later revealed that Kim had deliberately avoided her at the beginning of filming to help maintain Dong-jin’s emotional distance.
9. ‘Evilive’ (2023)
Above Kim takes the menace of ‘Somebody’ and gives it a tailored suit, criminal connections and more swagger
The role: Seo Do-young, a former professional baseball player and second-in-command of an organised crime syndicate
Why it’s essential: if Somebody demonstrated that Kim Young-kwang could portray quiet menace, Evilive showed he could command the screen with electric, swaggering villainy.
The ENA neo-noir stars Shin Ha-kyun as Han Dong-soo, a struggling attorney who descends into moral ruin after taking on Do-young as a client. As the No. 2 figure in the Yoosung Gang, Do-young pairs an athlete’s physique and bespoke suits with sudden, explosive cruelty.
Unlike the introverted predator in Somebody, Do-young operates within a brutal hierarchy where dominance is everything. Kim plays him with magnetic, predatory confidence, revelling in the character’s volatile psychology.
By this stage, Kim’s evolution had come full circle: the former runway model whose career began in glossy second-lead parts had mastered the romantic lead, the compromised civil servant, the physical comedian, the quiet loner, the sociopath and the mob enforcer.
Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila and currently a marketing content specialist, she still dabbles in entertainment, beauty and dining coverage. She was the former managing editor of Esquire Philippines and was the food editor at SPOT.ph. She also edited several best-selling books about food.
She now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
