Jeon Do-yeon (Korean: 전도연; born February 11, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She began her career in television before making her film debut withThe Contact (1997), a melodrama that established her as aleading actress. Jeon gained further acclaim withA Promise (1998), a romantic tragedy, andThe Harmonium in My Memory (1999).
Alongside her film work, Jeon has continued to appear in television dramas. In recent years, she starred in the seriesCrash Course in Romance (2023) andThe Price of Confession (2025). Jeon is considered a role model for many young actresses in South Korea.[5][6]
Jeon Do-yeon was born on February 11, 1973, inNamgajwa-dong,Seodaemun District,Seoul, South Korea.[1] She has two older brothers and is the youngest in her family. Born and raised inSeoul, she graduated from Bukgajwa Elementary School, Yeonhee Girls Middle School, Changduk Girls High School and Department of Broadcasting atSeoul Institute of the Arts.[7][8]
In 1990, Jeon made her debut in the entertainment industry as an advertisement model forJohnson & Johnson. She made her acting debut intelevision seriesOur Heaven in 1992. She then continued to play supporting roles inScent of Love (1994) andGeneral Hospital (1994) andLove is Blue (1995), but struggled to receive any significant attention.[9] In 1995, she gained some recognition after playing the heroine's younger sister inKBS2's hit dramaOur Sunny Days of Youth, which recorded its highest viewership rating of 62.7 percent. The drama's director, Jeon San PD, made a remark stating that Jeon Do-yeon is a "tough and ambitious newcomer".[10] The following years, she played major roles in multiple dramas such asProject,Way Station andUntil We Can Love in 1996, andStar in My Heart in 1997.[7] Jeon spent five years starring in television dramas before achieving instant star status with her feature film debut acting alongsideHan Suk-kyu in 1997 filmThe Contact, which became the second-highest grossing Korean film of that year. She won numerous awards through the work, including Best New Actress at the 35thGrand Bell Awards and 18thBlue Dragon Film Awards.[11]
From 1997 after the success ofThe Contact, Jeon emerged as a prominent actress in the Korean film industry and went on to establish a reputation as a "chameleon" who can take on a wide variety of roles, from her performance as a doctor in the hit melodramaA Promise, which won herBest Actress at the 35thBaeksang Arts Awards, to that of a schoolgirl in the 1999 filmThe Harmonium in My Memory, then a wife having an adulterous affair in the 1999 filmHappy End.[12] In 1999 and 2000, she received Best Actress awards at numerous award ceremonies such as the 20thBlue Dragon Film Awards and the 37thGrand Bell Awards for her performance inThe Harmonium in My Memory. She also won Best Actress at the 35thBaeksang Arts Awards for her role inA Promise and several other local film awards for her role inHappy End.[4]
In 2005, Jeon played a prostitute who contractsAIDS inPark Jin-pyo's hard-hitting melodramaYou Are My Sunshine.[17][18][19] The film was a box-office hit, and her performance received critical acclaim and won her numerous acting awards.[4] She then returned to the small screen withLovers in Prague, a drama that tells the love story between the president's daughter and an ordinary detective. The drama was a huge success, with average viewership ratings of over 27 percent.[20] For the work, Jeon won the Grand Prize (Daesang) at 2005SBS Drama Awards.[21] Commenting on her successful year,The Korea Herald noted, "It is rare for a movie and a drama with the same leading actor or actress to become major hits at the same time. And often, actors and actresses avoid such cases, due to the risk of confusing audiences, but Jeon managed to pull both roles off perfectly without causing any confusion in the audience."[22]
2007–2014:Secret Sunshine and international acclaim
Post-Cannes, she starred in 2008 filmMy Dear Enemy, playing an unemployed single woman who reacquaints herself with her ex-boyfriend.[31][32] After starring inMy Dear Enemy, Jeon gave birth to a daughter and rested for a while.[33][34][35] In October 2009, she was honored by the French government with theChevalier des Arts et Lettres medal for her contribution to the arts.[36] The following year, she returned to star inIm Sang-soo's 2010 controversial remakeThe Housemaid.[37] Jeon came back to Cannes once again as the film was chosen to compete for thePalme d'Or at the63rd Cannes Film Festival.[38]
In 2014, she was announced as one of the nine panel members of the main competition jury at the67th Cannes Film Festival, making her the first Korean actor or actress to receive the honor and the second Korean after director Lee Chang-dong in 2009.[45][46][47][48]
2015–present: Further acclaim and return to the small screen
This was followed by Jeon's second film with directorLee Yoon-ki,A Man and a Woman, a 2016 film about a forbidden romance that takes place in the snow-swept landscape of Finland.[55][56] Jeon then made a return to the small screen after twelve years in the 2016Korean remake of the American legal dramaThe Good Wife.[57] She was praised for displaying a wide range of emotions and agony of a housewife who is forced to become a lawyer again after her husband is mired in a scandal and put behind bars.[58][59]
After a three-year break, Jeon reunited withSul Kyung-gu in drama filmBirthday, marking her second collaboration with Sol eighteen years afterI Wish I Had a Wife. The film, inspired by theSewol ferry disaster, deals with the struggles faced by a couple who lost their son in a tragic accident.[60][61] The film had its international premiere at the 2019Far East Film Festival inUdine, Italy.[62] At the festival, Jeon was honored with Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award.[63] She once again won Best Actress at the56th Baeksang Arts Awards, the 6th Korean Film Producers Association Awards and28th Buil Film Awards for her performance in the film.
Jeon, a press conference for the movieBirthday 2019
In 2023, Jeon acts oppositeJung Kyung-ho intvN-broadcastNetflix-distributed romantic comedy seriesCrash Course in Romance directed byYoo Je-won, which marked her return to romance genre in 17 years. She played the role of a former national handball player who now runs abanchan shop, raising her high school daughter alone.[70] According toGood Data Corporation,[a] seriesCrash Course in Romance ranked first with a topical share of 23.8% in Top 10 of TV Topicality Ranking in drama division category in four weeks in a row.Jung Kyung-ho ranked first in the performer category for five consecutive weeks, while Jeon ranked 3rd.[72]
Jeon married businessman and professional car racer Kang Shi-kyu, who is nine years her senior, in a private wedding ceremony atShilla Hotel on March 11, 2007.[76][77][78] She gave birth to a daughter on January 22, 2009.[44]
^Good Data Corporation (굿데이터코퍼레이션은) is an online public opinion analysis service. It analyzes online information and public opinion by field, and provides TV topical broadcasting program, online topic ranking, and quality evaluation of performers and marketing effect analysis. TV topicality survey target series that were being aired or scheduled to be broadcast. Unlike the audience rating, which measures only the viewing time for the broadcast time, TV topicality is to diagnose the evaluation by examining, indexing, and analyzing the netizens' reactions that appeared in online news, blogs, communities, social media, and videos for one week after each program was broadcast.[71]
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Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Chevalier (2009)
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