# Kim Sun-a

Kim Sun-a (Korean: 김선아; born October 1, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her title role as Kim Sam-soon in the popular television series My Lovely Sam Soon (2005). Other notable series include City Hall (2009), Scent of a Woman (2011),The Lady in Dignity (2017), Should We Kiss First? (2018), Children of Nobody (2018) and Secret Boutique (2019).

## Early life

Kim Sun-a was born in Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea in 1973. She is the eldest of three siblings, with a younger brother and sister. When Kim was in middle school, her family immigrated to Japan, and she spent much of her adolescence in Chōfu, Tokyo, where she learned to speak Japanese fluently.
In 1993, Kim enrolled at Ball State University in Indiana, United States as a Piano major (she also became fluent in English).

## Career

While in South Korea for summer vacation in 1996, Kim stood in for a friend in a modeling job, thus inadvertently making her entertainment debut. Despite her inexperience in show business, she left college and subsequently appeared in a Hanbul Cosmetics commercial with the slogan "I felt his scent on a strange woman," which jump-started her career. She then appeared in a music video by Kim Hyun-cheol, and in 1997 began getting cast in supporting roles on TV but did not emerge as a star. Kim would first become well known as a film actress, debuting in the big-budget box office failure Yesterday, but going on to play a lead role as a student teacher in the unexpected hit Wet Dreams. Initially Kim had considered a singing career and successfully auditioned to join Park Joon-hyung and Park Jin-young's project mixed-gender group "GOT6" in 1997 but left the following year to pursue acting. The group then became the five-piece boy band g.o.d. Kim's identity as the anonymous female singer who was originally part of "GOT6" was only revealed by Park Joon-hyung and confirmed by Kim herself in 2015.
Following her film success, Kim began to establish a niche for herself in comedies, often appearing as a straight-talking and not particularly demure comic heroine. She appeared in three films in 2003: a memorable cameo appearance in the period comedy Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield, opposite Im Chang-jung in the commercially successful The Greatest Expectation, and together with Cha Tae-hyun in the little-watched Happy Ero Christmas. In 2004 she took the lead role in S Diary as a jilted woman who decides to get revenge on her ex-boyfriends.
The early part of 2005 saw her star in the action-comedy She's on Duty, but she would follow up by returning to the realm of TV dramas. It proved to be the best move of her career, as My Lovely Sam Soon ended up becoming the most-watched drama of 2005. The forthright, independent personality she displayed in her leading role as a woman who finds unexpected success in life as a baker endeared her to women across Korea, and later Asia, establishing her as a top star. Later that year, Kim decided to finish her college degree by transferring to Kyung Hee University as a Theater and Film major (she graduated in 2009 and received an Achievement Award from the College of Art and Design).
Her first post-Sam Soon project was supposed to have been the movie Thursday's Child, but the project ran into problems midway through filming. The film production company Yoon and Joon sued Kim for breach of contract and damages worth ₩1 billion, claiming that the actress was liable for their losses of more than ₩2.3 billion. She won the lawsuit in 2007, with the Seoul Central District Court ruling that Kim bore no responsibility for the shutdown of the movie. After undergoing script revisions and a change of director and lead actress (to Yunjin Kim), Thursday's Child was eventually renamed and released as Seven Days.
After a three-year hiatus caused by legal and contractual disputes, Kim finally got back to work in 2008, starring in the big-screen comedy Girl Scout, and the poorly received TV drama Night After Night (also known as When It's At Night). 2009's City Hall, where she played a low-ranking city official whose life takes a turn when she wins a pageant and later becomes the mayor, was a modest hit, with fans crediting its success to Kim's chemistry with her co-star Cha Seung-won.
Originally cast as the lead actress for 2010's I Am Legend, Kim quit before filming started due to issues with the production (she was replaced by her good friend Kim Jung-eun). Instead she chose the 2011 melodrama Scent of a Woman, which centers on a spinster who, after slaving herself at a travel agency for many years, is diagnosed that she only has six months left to live, and decides to live the rest of her life happily, turning in her resignation and leaving for a vacation of luxury. She next starred in the movie Pitch High (in Korean, Fighting Spirit), in which she played the supportive wife of a second string baseball pitcher.
In the 2012 romantic comedy series I Do, I Do, Kim's character is a workaholic shoe designer who gets pregnant after a one-night stand with a much younger newbie employee, then meets a charming obstetrician. She returned to the big screen in 2013 thriller The Five, based on the popular webtoon by Jeong Yeon-shik, in which Kim played a woman who plots revenge against the serial killer who murdered her family and left her crippled (her performance later won Best Actress at the 34th Golden Cinema Festival).
In 2015, Kim was then cast in Masked Prosecutor, about a prosecutor by day who turns into a masked vigilante by night; Kim plays the chief of a detective squad in the violent crimes unit. In October 2015, Kim signed an exclusive contract with management agency C-JeS Entertainment.
In 2017, Kim starred in the mystery thriller series The Lady in Dignity, playing a woman from a poor family whose ambition is to become a member of the upper class. The series was a commercial and critical success, becoming JTBC's highest rated drama with a single episode rating of 12.065%. In December 2017, Kim left C-JeS Entertainment and signed with new management agency Good People Entertainment.
In 2018, Kim starred in the romance melodrama Should We Kiss First?, playing a divorced flight attendant who finds a new love, and mystery thriller drama Children of Nobody.
In January 2025, Kim signed with the new agency Y1 Entertainment.

## Personal life

In early 2008, Kim was involved in another controversy. Na Hoon-a, a successful trot singer with a career spanning over 40 years, was falsely rumored to had been castrated by yakuza, because he was having an affair with the mistress of a gang boss. The mistress was wildly guessed at, with the names of actresses Kim Hye-soo and Kim Sun-a thrown around (both issued official denials). Na ended up holding a press conference in which he almost stripped in order to prove the rumor was untrue, and demanded that the media apologize to the two actresses.
In 2015, Kim won the lawsuit she had filed against a plastic surgery clinic in Busan for breaching her publicity rights by using her name and photos in their advertising without her permission; she received ₩25 million in damages.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2002 | Yesterday | May | |
| 2002 | Wet Dreams | Yoo-ri | |
| 2003 | Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield | Gyebaek's wife | Cameo |
| 2003 | The Greatest Expectation | Mi-young | |
| 2003 | Happy Ero Christmas | Heo Min-kyung | |
| 2004 | S Diary | Na Jin-hee | |
| 2005 | She's on Duty | Chun Jae-in | |
| 2007 | The Worst Guy Ever | Passerby | Cameo |
| 2008 | Girl Scout | Choi Mi-kyung | |
| 2008 | Sweet Lie | First love Sun-a | Cameo |
| 2010 | Attack the Gas Station 2 | Herself | Cameo |
| 2011 | Pitch High | Oh Yoo-ran | |
| 2013 | The Five | Go Eun-ah | |
| 2016 | Operation Chromite | Kim Hwa-young | Special appearance |

### Television series

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1997 | Bang-ul-i | |
| 1997 | Three Guys and Three Girls | |
| 1997 | New York Story | |
| 1997 | White Christmas | |
| 1998 | Winners | |
| 1998 | Love and Success | Lee Mi-ran |
| 1998 | Forever Yours | Hwang Ji-young |
| 1998 | MBC Best Theater: "Her Flower Pot No. 1" | Oh Hyun-ah |
| 1999 | MBC Best Theater: "A Scent of That Winter's Day" | Joo-yeon |
| 1999 | Jump | |
| 1999 | Love Story: "Sunflower" | |
| 2000 | Joa, Joa | Woon Jo-ah |
| 2000 | Golden Era | Lee Joo-young |
| 2003 | Pretty Woman | Cameo |
| 2005 | My Lovely Sam Soon | Kim Sam-soon |
| 2008 | Night After Night | Heo Cho-hee |
| 2009 | City Hall | Shin Mi-rae |
| 2011 | Scent of a Woman | Lee Yeon-jae |
| 2012 | I Do, I Do | Hwang Ji An |
| 2013 | Competition of Roses | Shen Wei |
| 2015 | The Man in the Mask | Yoo Min-hee |
| 2017 | The Lady in Dignity | Park Bok-ja |
| 2018 | Should We Kiss First? | An Soon-jin |
| 2018 | Children of Nobody | Cha Woo-kyung |
| 2019 | Secret Boutique | Jenny Jang |
| 2022 | The Empire | Han Hye-ryul |
| 2023 | Queen of Masks | Do Jae-yi |

### Music video

| Year | Song title | Artist |
| 2000 | "I Realized Too Late" | Yoo Ji-min |
| 2000 | "Serenade" | Jinu |
| 2000 | "I Didn't Go to School" | Ryang Hyun, Ryang Ha |
| 2000 | "Time Out" | J |
| 2007 | "Three People" | Lee Ki-chan |

## Musical theatre

| Year | Title | Role |
| 2000 | Guys and Dolls | |

## Accolades
### Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 2002 | 23rd Blue Dragon Film Awards | Best New Actress | Wet Dreams | Nominated |
| 2003 | 26th Golden Cinematography Awards | Best New Actress | Yesterday | Won |
| 2003 | 24th Blue Dragon Film Awards | Best Leading Actress | The Greatest Expectation | Nominated |
| 2004 | 2nd CGV Viewer's Choice of the Year Awards | Best Actress | The Greatest Expectation | Won |
| 2004 | 40th Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actress (Film) | The Greatest Expectation | Nominated |
| 2004 | 40th Baeksang Arts Awards | Most Popular Actress (Film) | The Greatest Expectation | Won |
| 2004 | 41st Grand Bell Awards | Best New Actress | The Greatest Expectation | Nominated |
| 2004 | 27th Golden Cinematography Awards | Most Popular Actress | The Greatest Expectation | Won |
| 2005 | 6th Korea Visual Arts Festival | Photogenic Award, TV Actress category | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | Korea Green Foundation | 100 People Who Brightened Our World | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | MBC Drama Awards | Grand Prize (Daesang) | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | MBC Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | MBC Drama Awards | Popularity Award | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | MBC Drama Awards | Best Couple Award with Hyun Bin | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2005 | 10th Asian Television Awards | Best Actress | My Lovely Sam Soon | Runner-up |
| 2005 | 18th Grimae Awards | Best Actress | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2006 | 1st Seoul International Drama Awards | Best Actress | My Lovely Sam Soon | Nominated |
| 2006 | 42nd Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actress (TV) | My Lovely Sam Soon | Nominated |
| 2007 | 19th Korean Broadcasting Producers Award | Best Performer, TV Actress category | My Lovely Sam Soon | Won |
| 2008 | MBC Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress | Night After Night | Nominated |
| 2009 | Kyung Hee University - College of Art and Design | Achievement Award | — | Won |
| 2009 | SBS Drama Awards | Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special | City Hall | Won |
| 2009 | SBS Drama Awards | Top 10 Stars | City Hall | Won |
| 2011 | 1st Hong Kong Cable TV Awards | Best Actress | City Hall | Nominated |
| 2011 | China Entertainment Television | Top Ten Hottest Asia Award | Scent of a Woman | Won |
| 2011 | SBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Weekend/Daily Drama | Scent of a Woman | Won |
| 2011 | SBS Drama Awards | Top 10 Stars | Scent of a Woman | Won |
| 2012 | 48th Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actress (TV) | Scent of a Woman | Nominated |
| 2012 | MBC Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | I Do, I Do | Nominated |
| 2014 | 34th Golden Cinema Festival | Best Actress | The Five | Won |
| 2018 | 54th Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actress (TV) | The Lady in Dignity | Nominated |
| 2018 | 6th APAN Star Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | Should We Kiss First? | Nominated |
| 2018 | 2nd The Seoul Awards | Best Actress | Should We Kiss First? | Nominated |
| 2018 | 31st Grimae Awards | Best Actress | Should We Kiss First? | Won |
| 2018 | SBS Drama Awards | Grand Prize (Daesang) | Should We Kiss First? | Won |
| 2018 | SBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Monday-Tuesday Drama | Should We Kiss First? | Nominated |
| 2018 | SBS Drama Awards | Best Couple Award with Kam Woo-sung | Should We Kiss First? | Won |
| 2018 | MBC Drama Awards | Grand Prize (Daesang) | Children of Nobody | Nominated |
| 2018 | MBC Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Wednesday-Thursday Drama | Children of Nobody | Won |
| 2019 | SBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | Secret Boutique | Nominated |
| 2023 | 14th Korea Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress | Queen of Masks | Won |

### State honors

Name of country, award ceremony, year given, and name of honor :
| Country | Award Ceremony | Year | Honor | Ref. |
| South Korea | National Tax Service | 2004 | Prime ministerial commendation | |