Childhood & Early Life
Kim So-hyun was born on 4th June 1999 to South Korean parents, who were living in Australia at that time. Spending early few years of her life in Australia, her English was impeccable, and when she returned to Korea as a 5 years old kid, with her parents and her brother, they restarted a new life there.
Even since she was a little kid, Kim was always interested in acting and made attempts to join some acting school, but she was a natural and started auditioning at the tender age of seven without having any professional training.
Her father passed away when she was nine years of age and this was a massive blow to the family, but by then, she had started earning and the family had no financial trouble.
When Kim became an actor at such an early age, her mother had issues regarding her education, which she thought was very important. In order to cope up with her busy schedule, the mother decided to provide Kim with home education, which Kim said, she liked as it was a perfect middle way to carry on with acting and studies at the same time.
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Career
At the age of 7, Kim So-hyun got signed under the biggest talent management agency in South Korea by the name of Sidus HQ and under that, little Kim, accompanied by her mother, started auditioning for several roles and her first on-screen stint turned out to be ‘Ten Minute Minor’, a special episode of ‘Drama City’ in the year 2006. She played the lead female villain’s childhood version and it was a perfect start for Kim, who got a great exposure doing that role owing to her disciplined performance.
In 2007, she continued playing the child counterparts of the lead protagonists in the series’ such as ‘Que Sera Sera’ and ‘A Happy Woman’, and her performance kept earning praises for the natural portrayal of the seemingly complex characters.
In the 2009, CBS drama show ‘Ja Myung Go’, which was based on an ancient Korean fairytale, she portrayed the role of a young Myo-ri, for which she was further appreciated and around the same time, she had made her film debut with a small role in the short film ‘My name is Pity’.
In 2010, she made her big screen debut in the film ‘Man of Vendetta’, about a pastor, who experiences a massive change in his life once his daughter gets abducted. Kim played the daughter skilfully in the film, in a performance which was critically acclaimed. In the next year, Kim was seen in the film ‘Sin of a Family’, a crime drama film revolving around the life of a detective who was onto fighting the killers of a young autistic boy. These two back to back hard hitting films put her in the league of most-wanted female child actors.
However, she was becoming popular within the film industry circles, she was yet to have wide exposure among the public. And in the year 2012 started the best phase of her professional career and it began when she featured in the period drama ‘Moon Embracing the Sun’. She played the younger version of the main lead actress and for her performance she won awards at the Korea Youth Film Festival and MBC Entertainment Awards.
Her rising popularity was further enhanced by her two more roles; in the fantasy comedy ‘Rooftop Prince’ and a melodrama ‘Missing you’. For the latter, she won her career’s first major award in form of K-Drama Star award for Best Child Actor.
Her rising fame resulted in a few more stints other than acting and in 2013, she hosted ‘Music Core’ a musical programme. However, she didn’t like hosting much and seeing that it wasn’t doing anything good for her career, she left the show in 2015, after hosting it for two straight years.
In 2015, came the time for her to say goodbye to the child roles as she had grown into a well experienced, gorgeous and talented lady by then. She appeared as the leading lady in ‘Who are You: School 2015’ in the role of twins. The show although was a critical failure, but the youngsters loved it and the show kept running for 16 episodes, making Kim famous among the Korean youth.
Kim appeared as the lead actress in the 2016 film ‘Pure Love’, which was panned by the critics for being ‘too dated’, but Kim received moderate appreciation for her role. And later that year, she made a transition from light roles to a heavy one in the mystery web series ‘Nightmare Teacher’.
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In 2016, she also appeared in a horror comedy series titled ‘Hey Ghost, Lets Fight’ and ‘Page Turner’. For the latter one, she was nominated for quite a few awards as well, but didn’t win any.
In the mega budget fantasy drama ‘Guardian: The Lonely and Great God’, she had a recurring role and she later went on to star in the historical drama titled ‘The Emperor: Owner of the Mask’. This was probably her last project under the agency Sidus HQ, as she terminated her contract with them in August 2017.
Kim So-hyun played the character of Kim Jo-jo in the Netflix series ‘Love Alarm’ in 2019. Netflix has confirmed that she would reprise her role in the second season of the series. In the same year, she was also seen in the South Korean television series ‘The Tale of Nokdu’. For her performance in the series, she won the Excellence Award at the KBS Drama Awards.
In 2020, her travel reality show 'Because This Is My First Twenty' became a big hit on YouTube & Facebook.
Apart from acting, she also happens to be quite a beloved host and has hosted many major Korean award functions such as Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2015 and KBS Drama awards in the same year.
Her other stints include her appearance in the music videos for the artists such as Touch and Boyfriend for the songs ‘Lets Walk Together’ and ‘I.Y.A.H.’ respectively. She also worked as a voice actor in the successful Japanese anime film ‘Your Name’ in 2017.
Personal Life
Apart from her profession, Kim So-hyun is a very lively person and loves to have new experiences. She wants to go to college and says that while home education was a wise choice, she wants to interact with more people of her age in college.
In an interview, she has accepted that she has never had a boyfriend as she never found someone interesting enough yet to consider dating him.
She is planning to study acting in the college, as she openly says that she still has to learn a lot about the craft.
