Moon Geun Young

Moon Geun-young is a South Korean actress. Affectionately called "the nation's little sister," Moon started modeling at the age of…

Moon Geun-young is a South Korean actress. Affectionately called "the nation's little sister," Moon started modeling at the age of 12 and appeared in the documentary film On the Way (1999) the following year. She came into the spotlight through her role as the young Eun-suh in the hugely popular television drama series Autumn in My Heart (2000). Her major breakthrough as a star was the horror film A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) directed by Kim Ji-woon. Later, she starred in such hit films as My Little Bride in 2004 and Innocent Steps in 2005. In 2008, she became the youngest recipient of a Grand Prize ("Daesang") which she won for the period drama Painter of the Wind. In 2010, Moon played a young woman running a makgeolli brewery in Cinderella's Sister, a modern fairy tale retelling of the contentious relationship between two stepsisters (opposite Seo Woo). Later in the year, she starred in the romantic comedy Mary Stayed Out All Night (also known as Marry Me, Mary!), in which she played Wi Mae-ri, a girl who enters into a fake marriage contract with a Hongdae indie rocker (played by Jang Keun-suk). 2010 also marked the year she made her theater debut, in the Korean staging of Patrick Marber's play Closer. She caused a stir as the strip dancing, promiscuous Alice, opposite Um Ki-joon's Dan. She then played a struggling young designer who decides that success will more easily be attained if she seduces a second-generation chaebol (played by Park Si-hoo) into marriage, in the TV drama Cheongdam-dong Alice (2012). Moon currently stars in Goddess of Fire (2013), in which she plays Yoo Jung, a character based on Baek Pa-sun, the first female potter and porcelain artist of the Joseon Dynasty. This is her second time to do a historical drama (or sageuk) five years after Painter of the Wind.