Youn Yuh-jung

Youn Yuh-jung (; born June 19, 1947) is a South Korean actress. She started her career in Korean television in the late 1960s and rose to prominence with the film Woman of Fire. She retired in the mid-1970s and immigrated to the United States before returning to Korea in 1984 and rebuilding her career. Known as the "Godmother of Chungmu-ro", Youn appeared in The Housemaid (2010), The Taste of Money (2012), The Bacchus Lady (2016), and Canola (2016).

On television, Youn is known for her matriarch roles in dramas such as Men of the Bath House (1995), Be Strong, Geum-soon! (2005), Daughters-in-Law (2007), My Husband Got a Family (2012), and Dear My Friends (2016), as well as the reality programmes Sisters Over Flowers (2013), Youn's Kitchen (2017–2018), and Unexpected Journey (2022).

Youn gained international acclaim for her role in Minari (2020), becoming the first Korean actress to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as numerous other awards. She subsequently appeared in international productions, such as the Apple TV+ series Pachinko (2022–2024), the American film The Wedding Banquet (2025), and the Netflix series Beef (2026), the last of which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Early life Youn graduated from high school in 1966. She then enrolled at Hanyang University and majored in Korean language and literature. When she passed open acting auditions held by TBC in 1966, she dropped out of college.

Career After dropping out of college, Youn made her acting debut in the television drama Mister Gom in 1967. She shot to stardom in 1971 with two memorable portrayals of femmes fatales. Her first film, Kim Ki-young's Woman of Fire, was a critical and commercial hit, for which she won Best Actress at the Sitges Film Festival. This was followed by the MBC historical drama Jang Hui-bin, in which she plays the eponymous royal concubine. Kim was considered Korea's first style-conscious, experimental director, and Youn did not balk at playing risqué, provocative characters that explore the grotesque in the female psyche in collaborations with him, such as The Insect Woman (1972) and Be a Wicked Woman (1990). Audiences found Youn's fast way of speaking and atypical appearance refreshing and she frequently took roles in TV dramas depicting a modern woman of the new generation, notably in Kim Soo-hyun's Stepmother (1972).

At the peak of her career, Youn married singer Jo Young-nam and retired from acting to immigrate to the United States. The couple lived in St. Petersburg, Florida, for ten years until their marriage broke down due to Jo's extramarital affairs. Youn returned to Korea in 1984 and divorced Jo in 1987.

Youn struggled to resume her acting career because of the stigma attached to being a middle-aged divorcée in South Korea.

Youn reunited with director Im Sang-soo for the fourth time in The Taste of Money (2012), as a cruel chaebol heiress at the center of the drama that unfolds and touches upon themes of corruption, greed, and sex. Youn said, "I don't mind being called an old actress, but I do worry about how to carry on my acting career without looking like an old fool."

In 2013, she was cast as a loving mother to three loser children in Song Hae-sung's Boomerang Family. Later that year, Youn appeared in her first reality show, Sisters Over Flowers, in which she and other "sisters" travel to Croatia. She then appeared on several more reality shows, revealing a warmer, more approachable side of her personality.

Youn had two leading roles in 2015: in Kang Je-gyu's Salut d'Amour, about a romance between an elderly supermarket employee and a flower shop owner, and in Canola, about a Jeju Island diver who reunites with her long-lost granddaughter. Salut d'Amour was Youn's first collaboration with actor Park Geun-hyung since 1971.

In 2020, Youn made her Hollywood debut in the film Minari. She plays Soon-ja, a grandmother of a Korean-American family in rural Arkansas, and received over 40 American regional critics' awards, including wins from the National Board of Review Youn became the first Korean actress to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She is also the first Asian actress to win an acting award in the motion pictures categories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the first Korean actress to win an Academy Award, and the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award since 1958, when Miyoshi Umeki won Best Supporting Actress for Sayonara. In September, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most "Influential People in the World" in 2021. In October, she received the Order of Cultural Merit.

In December 2022, Youn's contract with Hook Entertainment ended, and she decided not to renew it. In January 2023, Youn signed with Creative Artists Agency.

Personal life In December 1973, at the height of her career, Youn and her fiancé, singer Jo Young-nam, immigrated to the United States, when evangelist Billy Graham invited Jo to perform at his crusades across the country. The couple married in 1974 and have two sons. They lived in St. Petersburg, Florida for 10 years, during which Youn worked at a supermarket to help raise family. She returned to Korea in 1984 and divorced Jo in 1987 due to his repeated extramarital affairs.

Youn has two younger sisters, one of whom is Youn Yeo-soon, a former executive at LG Group.

Filmography

Film

Television

Variety shows

Theater

Accolades Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result 1969 TBC Drama Awards Best New Talent Mister Gong 1971 Sitges Film Festival Best Actress Woman of Fire Blue Dragon Film Awards Grand Bell Awards Best New Actress 1992 Korean Broadcasting Awards Best Female Talent Grand PrizeBest ActressWildflower Film AwardsBest ActressChunsa Film Art AwardsBuil Film Awards Korea World Youth Film Festival Favorite Actress - Senior Actress 2020 Korean Film Producers Association Best Supporting Actress Lucky Chan-sil Boston Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress Minari Chicago Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Florida Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Indiana Film Journalists Association Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Sunset Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actress 2021 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress AARP Movies For Grownups Awards Best Supporting Actress Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards Atlanta Film Critics Circle Austin Film Critics Association Black Film Critics Circle Awards British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Chicago Indie Critics Awards Best Supporting Actress Columbus Film Critics Association Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Supporting Actress Denver Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress Detroit Film Critics Society DiscussingFilm Critic Awards Dorian Awards Georgia Film Critics Association Gotham Independent Film Awards Best Actress Hollywood Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Houston Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Female International Cinephile Society Best Supporting Actress Kansas City Film Critics Circle Latino Entertainment Journalists Association Music City Film Critics Association National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress New Mexico Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress New York Film Critics Online North Carolina Film Critics Association North Dakota Film Society North Texas Film Critics Association Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Online Association of Female Film Critics Awards Online Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress Palm Springs International Film Festival Spotlight Award Phoenix Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress San Diego Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture Seattle Film Critics Society Best Supporting Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress St. Louis Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Utah Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Chunsa Film Art Awards 2021 Best Supporting Actress Lucky Chan-sil Brand of the Year Awards Actor of the Year Visionary Awards 2021 Visionary Kino Lights Awards Actress of The Year (Domestic)Minari 2022 Peabody Awards EntertainmentPachinko 2026Astra TV Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV MovieBeef Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

State honors + Country Year Honor South Korea 2021 Golden Crown Order of Cultural Merit

Listicles + Publisher Year Listicle Placement Forbes 2022 Korea Power Celebrity 40 Gallup Korea 2021 Gallup Korea's Actor of the Year 2022 Korean Film Council 2021 Korean Actors 200 Sisa Journal 2021 Person Who Moved Korea — Culture Most Influential Person in Broadcasting & Entertainment Time 2021 100 Most Influential People in the World Variety 2022 Women That Have Made an Impact in Global Entertainment