Song Yoon-ah
Song in March 2011
Born	(1973-06-07)June 7, 1973 (age 51) Seoul, South Korea
Education	Hanyang University (Cultural anthropology)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1995–present
Agent	Snowball Entertainment
Spouse	Sul Kyung-gu ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1
Korean name
Hangul	송윤아
Hanja	宋玧妸[1]
Revised Romanization	Song Yun-a
McCune–Reischauer	Song yuna
Website	Official Website

Song Yoon-ah (Korean: 송윤아, born June 7, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for starring in the filmJail Breakers (2002), as well as the television dramasHotelier (2001),On Air (2008),Mama (2014),The K2 (2016), andSecret Mother (2018).

Song Yoon-ah was born in Seoul, but spent her childhood inGimcheon,North Gyeongsang Province.^[2] She has two elder brothers, the first one is a doctor.^{[citation needed]}

While studyingcultural anthropology as a freshman atHanyang University, she was recommended by an older schoolmate to amodeling agency.^[3] Song made her entertainment debut when she won three awards at theKBS Super Talent Contest in 1995, and began appearing in magazine advertisements and as anextra on TV shows.^[4]

In 1998, Song rose to fame as the antagonist inMister Q, playing the head of the design department in an underwear company who bullies the heroine; the trendy drama was a big hit, with a peak viewership rating of 45.3%.^[3][5] Over the next few years, Song became well known for her roles inTV dramas such asPaper Crane (1998),The Boss (1999), andHotelier (2001).^[4][6]

Her first few films did not make a significant impression at the box office. But in late 2002, Song starred in one of the bigger commercial hits of the year,Jail Breakers with actorsSul Kyung-gu andCha Seung-won. Her energetic performance inKim Sang-jin'scomedy was recognized with Best Supporting Actress trophies from theBlue Dragon Film Awards, theChunsa Film Art Awards, and theGrand Bell Awards.^[4] Song next played ananthropologist from the National Institute of Scientific Investigation in the 2004horror filmFace.^[7]

In 2006, she reunited onscreen with Sol Kyung-gu inLost in Love, a low-keymelodrama directed byChoo Chang-min about two college friends who drift apart and reconnect over the course of ten years.^{[8][9][10][11]}Arang followed, in which Song played a detective on the trail of aserial killer; this was her first time to get topbilling over a male costar (rookie actorLee Dong-wook).^[3] But likeFace, her previous project in the horror genre,Arang was a commercial and critical failure.^[12][13] Song returned to television withMy Beloved Sister, in the title role of a graduate art student who grew up wealthy but must suddenly take on the responsibilities as head of the family and take care of her younger brothers after their father goes bankrupt then disappears.^[3]

Her next hit drama came in 2008 withOn Air, a behind-the-scenes look at the Korean entertainment industry. Song was cast in the role of scribeKim Eun-sook'salter ego, a successful, acerbic screenwriter who clashes egos with a top actress (played byKim Ha-neul) while falling for a TV director (played byPark Yong-ha).^[14][15][16] Then in the 2009thrillerSecret, Song played the wife of a homicide detective—she becomes the prime suspect in a brutal murder he's investigating,^[17][18] while in the 2010 tearjerkerWedding Dress, her character is a widowed designer who is diagnosed with cancer and begins sewing the ultimate parting gift, a special dress for her young daughter's wedding, which she will never get to see.^[19]

After getting married in 2009 and giving birth in 2010, Song went on a five-year hiatus from acting. She became an adjunctprofessor and part-time lecturer atSeoul Arts College in 2010, as a faculty member of the Department of Performing Arts and the Department of Broadcasting, Entertainment and Visual Arts.^[2] Apart from occasional stints as an awards ceremony host (she hosted theKorean Film Awards from 2003 to 2010^[20]), in 2011 she also joined thecooking showFood Essay on cable channel Olive, and served as a judge on the first season oftalent-reality showKorea's Got Talent.^[21][22][23]

Song made her acting comeback in the 2014 drama seriesMama, which revolved around a terminally illsingle mother's quest to find a loving family for her son before her impending death, leading to her befriending the current wife of a former lover.^{[24][25][26][27]} Her performance won Best Television Actress at the51stBaeksang Arts Awards.^[28]

In 2016, Song played a villain in action dramaThe K2.^[29]

In 2017, she returned to the big screen and acted as a war correspondent in VR filmNine Days.^[30] The film is planned to exhibit inSundance Film Festival,Cannes Film Festival andVenice Film Festival.^[31] The same year, she was cast in the filmStone, her first feature film in 7 years.^[32] And the film has invited to the 23rdBusan International Film Festival.

In 2018, Song was cast in SBS mystery family dramaSecret Mother.^[33]

Song then starred inJTBC's 2020 pre-produced 19+ age-restricted seriesGraceful Friends.^[34]

Song was cast inChannel A's series for the first time with melodrama mysteryShow Window: The Queen's House.^[35]

In 2023, Song reunited with DirectorPark Hye-ryeong for web show Song Yoon-ah by PDC.^[36]

On February 13, 2023, Song donated 50 million won to help2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, by donating money through Korea's UNICEF Committee with participation in the Emergency Relief for Children Victims of the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria' programme along withSul Kyung-gu.^[37]

Song married actorSul Kyung-gu on May 28, 2009 in aCatholic church inBangbae-dong followed by a reception atThe Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company inSeoul.^[38] Both graduates ofHanyang University, they acted opposite each other inJail Breakers (2002) andLost in Love (2006).^{[2][39][40][41]} Their son Sol Seung-yoon was born on August 3, 2010.^[42]

In 2014, Song filed adefamation suit against 57 netizens who spread online rumors that she began having anextramarital affair with Sol in 2002 while he was still married to his first wife and was the cause of their divorce in 2006.^[43][44] Sol and Song have denied these rumors, stating that their relationship started in 2007.^[39]

• Song Yoon-ah at theKorean Movie Database
• Song Yoon-ah atIMDb
• Song Yoon-ah atHanCinema

• Best Supporting Actress Blue Dragon Film Awards winners
• Best Supporting Actress Grand Bell Awards winners
• Best Actress for Grimae Awards winners
• 1973 births
• Living people
• South Korean female models
• South Korean film actresses
• South Korean television actresses
• Hanyang University alumni
• Actresses from Seoul
• Actresses from North Gyeongsang Province
• People from Gimcheon
• South Korean Roman Catholics
• Best Actress Paeksang Arts Award (television) winners
• 21st-century South Korean actresses
• Eunjin Song clan

• CS1 Korean-language sources (ko)
• CS1 uses Korean-language script (ko)
• Articles with short description
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• Articles containing Korean-language text
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2016