South Korean actress (born 1999)
Kim So-hyun (Korean: ; born 4 June 1999) is an Australian-born South Korean actress who began her career as a child in 2006, initially gaining audience attention for playing pivotal roles in "Moon Embracing the Sun" (2012) and "Missing You" (2013).
She took on her first leading role in teen drama "Ma Boy" (2012) and since then has starred in many TV series including high-school drama ' (2015), horror comedy "Hey Ghost, Let's Fight" (2016), historical melodrama ' (2017), romantic comedies "Radio Romance" (2018) and "The Tale of Nokdu" (2019), teen suspense romance "Love Alarm" (2019–2021) and Korean folklore "River Where the Moon Rises" as an assassin. "Pure Love" (2016) was her first movie as a lead. She was the regular host of MBC's music program "Music Core" and survival reality show "Under Nineteen" in 2019.
Kim has been nicknamed in variety by the Korean medias as the "Nation's Little Sister", "Queen of Child Actresses", "Goddess of Historical Drama" and also the "Sageuk Goddess", after starring and appearing in various acclaimed historical period dramas throughout her career, and having gained experience working as an actress from childhood to the present day. Korean medias also recognised her as the next generation of "Nation's First Love" from her performance in "Pure Love" (2016) movie. 
She has established herself as a top Hallyu star. For her performance in "River Where the Moon Rises", she was nominated for Baeksang Arts Award for Best Actress – Television, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award.
Kim consistently promotes her television work on Instagram. She was awarded the '2018 Most Grown Instagram Account' with 7.1 million followers. At the age of 21, Kim became the youngest South Korean actress to have more than 10 million followers on social media, alongside actor Lee Min-ho.
Early life and education.
Kim So-hyun was born on 4 June 1999, in Australia, and has a younger brother. She moved to South Korea in 2003, when she was four years old. Her father died when she was nine years old.
Kim transferred from Hoeryong Elementary School in Gyeonggi Province to Towol Elementary School and graduated in February 2012. She then graduated from Yongin Munjung Middle School in 2015. She was subsequently homeschooled for secondary education, and passed her high school graduation exams by 2017. The same year, she enrolled at Hanyang University's Department of Theatre, through rolling admission. Kim attended the 79th entrance ceremony held at Hanyang University in Seongdong District, Seoul on 28 February 2018.
In 2016, according to Singapore's national newspaper "The Straits Times", Kim revealed in an email interview with the paper why she chose homeschooling instead of enrolling in high school. She said that while managing her acting career, she barely had time to study during her middle school days (which made her have to take her exams unprepared) and missed out in activities with her classmates, and this similarly occurred in her elementary school days. Kim chose homeschooling for her high school education because she did not want to give up her education and career. With this decision, Kim felt it would allow her to dedicate more time to both filming and studying.
Career.
2006–2011: Beginnings as a child actress.
Kim debuted as a child actress in 2006, playing a supporting role in the "Drama City" special "Ten Minute Minor". Then, she diligently increased her appearances from "A Happy Woman" (2007), "Que Sera Sera" (2007), "Hometown of Legends" (2008), "My Name Is Pity" (2008), "Wife and Woman" (2009) and "Ja Myung Go" (2009).
She signed a management contract with SidusHQ in 2010. That year, she would go on to be cast in "Becoming a Billionaire" and "King of Baking, Kim Takgu". Kim was confirmed to make her big-screen debut in "Man of Vendetta" (2010) as Joo Hye-rin, a daughter of a well-respected pastor who gets kidnapped. Kim was cast through a competition of 500:1. She continued to portray the child counterparts of the female protagonists in television series such as "The Thorn Birds" (2011), "The Duo" (2011) and "Sin of a Family" (2011). She then starred in a family comedy film, "Spy Papa", about parents and children's relationship during inter-Korean relations in 1974.
2012–2014: Rising popularity and teenage roles.
In 2012, Kim appeared in six works in the first half of the year: a romantic fantasy television series, "Padam Padam"; a historical comedy film, "I Am the King"; a fantasy-period drama "Moon Embracing the Sun", in which she gained recognition as the younger version of the second female lead, Kim received commend from the audience and the director of how well she portrayed the antagonist's desire realistically the drama came to rank number one in its time slot throughout its run and achieved a peak recorded viewer rating of 42.2%, thereby earning the "national drama" status Kim simultaneously became "Korea's little sister"; followed by a fantasy-comedy "Rooftop Prince" in the role as an evil sister; "Love Again" and a high school student whose roommate is a female idol star in "Ma Boy".
Kim reunited with co-stars from "Rooftop Prince" (Park Yoo-chun) and "Moon Embracing the Sun" (Yeo Jin-goo) respectively, in a melodrama "Missing You". Being dubbed the "Queen of Child Actors" () by the Korean press, she was one of the most praised child actors of her generation. She played the role of Lee Soo-yeon, bullied by her schoolmates and called "the daughter of the murderer", who gets kidnapped and sexually assaulted while trying to save her friend. Kim and Yeo shared the highest one-minute viewer rating scene of 10.4% in the drama. She received her first acting award as "Best Child Actress" at the 1st K-Drama Star Awards for "Ma Boy" and "Missing You".
In 2013, Kim made a surprise appearance on "" as the childhood counterpart of the female protagonist and starred in "The Secret of Birth" as a girl with a genius-level brain. Then, she played the younger version of Lee Bo-young's character in the popular Korean drama "I Can Hear Your Voice". On 20 June, Kim co-host MBC's music program "Music Core" along with Minho of SHINee and Noh Hong-chul. The three received much attention because of the combination of singers, actors, and broadcasters even though they initially showed a bit of immature progress, but amplified expectations of how they expressed their charms despite having different careers. She then was cast in "The Suspicious Housekeeper", a Korean remake of the Japanese drama, Kaseifu no Mita. In the same year, Kim was reported along with Kim Yoo-jung and Yeo Jin-goo as the top three child actors who earn above-average salaries for child actors. It was reported that Kim received 4-6 million won per episode.
In 2014, Kim was cast as a child actor beside Oh Yeon-soo in the MBC drama, "Triangle". Kim challenged her first dual role and first genre through OCN's new drama "Reset". Later, she was cast in KBS2 special drama, "We All Cry Differently", which won the 2013 KBS Screenplay Contest.
2015–2016: Transition to lead roles and hosting.
In 2015, Kim made a special appearance as the sister of the male lead in "A Girl Who Sees Smells", played by Park Yoo-chun, whom she reunited with for the third time after "Rooftop Prince" and "Missing You". On 18 April, Kim stepped down from her "Music Core" MC posts after two years. Kim starred in KBS's school series "", playing dual roles as twins Lee Eun-bi and Go Eun-byul. She was awarded "Star of the Year" at the eighth Korea Drama Awards for her performance. On 21 November, Kim held her first overseas promotion schedule at Sunshine City, Hong Kong. At the end of the year, Kim became the MC of the 2015 KBS Drama Awards with Jun Hyun-moo and Park Bo-gum.
In 2016, she returned to the big screen in a romance film "Pure Love" opposite Do Kyung-soo, playing the heroine of the film who has a beautiful voice but suffers from a leg injury. Kim then starred in a mystery-school web drama "Nightmare Teacher" alongside Lee Min-hyuk, playing a class president who discovers mysterious secrets of the school. The drama was filmed and featured nine students at Hosan University. The same year, Kim starred in Park Hye-ryun's three-episode drama special "Page Turner" opposite actors Ji Soo and Shin Jae-ha. She played the role of a "piano genius" who lost her sight after an accident. The number of video previews released in the web and mobile achieved 600,000 views which was considered "an unusual number" as a one-act play. Kim's first fan meeting Lovely Day in Taiwan was held at Ming Chuan University on 9 April. She was dubbed as the "Korean Wave Fairy" by the Taiwanese media. On 4 June, Kim hosted the 2016 Dream Concert with Leeteuk and Hong Jong-hyun. She made her next acting move in the horror-comedy "Hey Ghost, Let's Fight" with Ok Taec-yeon, and played as the 13-year-old Princess Deokhye in the film "The Last Princess", for which Park A-reum of "K-pop Herald" praised Kim for her in-depth emotional acting in the scene before her farewell to her mother (which Park called heartbreaking), as well as the high sync rate with Son Ye-jin. Also, Jung An-ji of "Sports Chosun" praised her for the historical accuracy of portraying the princess: citing she acted "perfectly" with the life of a girl during the Korean Empire. She had a recurring guest role in the hit fantasy drama "". Kim showed an overwhelming presence and increased audience immersion in the early stage of the show, making a big impact as a cameo.
2017–2018: Adult roles, career instability and taking other activities.
In 2017, Kim participated in Korean dubbing for the character Mitsuha Miyamizu in the anime drama film "Your Name". She switched back to live-action and co-led the historical and political drama "" with Yoo Seung-ho, which premiered on 10 May. This marked her first adult historical drama after five years since "Moon Embracing the Sun". Despite its high ratings, the time of the drama's original run coincided with her slump period — Kim expressed how she made efforts to understand her character as a heroine. She felt lost and started losing confidence in herself as an actress. As everybody was praising her acting and visual, she felt embarrassed because she could not come to a full understanding of who her character was.
Kim held her first domestic fan meeting "Lovely Day" on 3 June. She made a special appearance in drama "While You Were Sleeping" to show her support for scriptwriter Park Hae-ryun, who she worked with on KBS's "Page Turner". In August 2017, she ended her contract with SidusHQ after seven years. On 11 November, Kim completed her second Taiwan fan meeting "Sweet Dream" with Allets. In December, Kim launched her one-person agency, E&amp;T Story Entertainment, in partnership with LOEN Entertainment. The agency is currently led by Park Chan-woo, Kim's manager in her SidusHQ days.
In 2018, Kim was cast in the romance drama "Radio Romance", which began airing on 29 January. She played a radio scriptwriter who isn't exactly talented in writing. On 24 January, a photo was shared on SNS saying that Kim was shooting underwater. The photo shows a woman wearing a hanbok in the water on 21 January. On this day, the lowest temperature was recorded below minus 16 degrees. During the press conference for the premiere of "Radio Romance" held on 25 January, the PD addressed online criticism regarding the outdoor water filming, despite the weather warnings. He issued an apology stating that "Kim So Hyun's outdoor water filming wrapped up on Sunday [21 January]. We debated on it a lot since she would be getting in the water. We ensured safety equipment nearby and a camping car on set and finished filming in the shortest amount of time possible. Due to time constraints, an action stunt double filmed additional outdoor water scenes yesterday [24 January]. It was filmed by an action actor, not Kim So-hyun, wearing a winter suit and shot in a similar situation. The number of shots was done with one take and protection was taken right away. We apologize for causing concerns with this matter. The filming set is our lives. Naturally, safety is important." At the press conference, Kim's hand was visually seen red.
On the same day, she co-hosted the 27th Seoul Music Awards with Kim Hee-chul and Shin Dong-yup. She held her first Japan