Gong Hyo-jin

Gong Hyo-jin born April 4, 1980 is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading role in Crush and Blush, as well as for her popular television series Pasta, The Greatest Love, and Master's Sun. After starring with close friend Shin Min-ah in the 2009 indie Sisters on the Road, Gong played an aspiring chef in romantic comedy series Pasta in 2010. Originally written as the usual brash and spunky rom-com heroine, Gong thought it would be boring and cliched to play her as such, and instead made the significant acting decision to play against type by creating the character as an ordinary girl who was seemingly meek, but had a quiet strength and slyly got her way. Her chemistry with co-star Lee Sun-kyun, and the drama's breezy atmosphere propelled it to the top of the ratings chart. Defying easy categorization into the actress dichotomies of innocent (Choi Ji-woo, Song Hye-kyo) or sexy (Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa), Gong belonged to a third, very minor group of eccentrics that also include Kang Hye-jung and Bae Doona. Though not a typical beauty, after Pasta the press gave her the label Gongvely, a portmanteau of her surname and the English word "lovely.

Gong Hyo-jin was born in Seoul, South Korea. When she was a junior in high school, she moved to Australia with her mother and younger brother, while her father worked in Korea to support the family. Gong attended high school at John Paul College in Brisbane. Gong has spoken fondly of her memories of her time there, and in 2011 she was designated as one of the goodwill ambassadors for "Year of Friendship," the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between Australia and South Korea. After three years in Australia, the Gong family moved back to Korea in 1997 due to the IMF crisis.

Strong performances in varied roles helped cement Gong's reputation as a serious actress, but Crush and Blush in 2008 would become her most high-profile movie yet. Hailed by critics as one of the most original Korean films in recent years, Lee Kyung-mi's feature directorial debut was divisive, and though its box office performance was a disappointment, it acquired a sort of cult status among Korean cinephiles. The black comedy was a showcase for Gong, who transformed herself into a misanthropic antiheroine with an unattractively blushing red face, frizzy hair, dowdy clothes, and a chronic case of inferiority complex and hopeless delusion. Gong had wavered at first when presented with the script, given the character's excesses. Reportedly urged on by fellow actress Jeon Do-yeon, she eventually accepted and threw herself into the role. Park Chan-wook, who produced the film, praised Gong's subtle emotional variations, and told her that she might never be able to top this performance, joking that she should retire. She won numerous acting awards in Korea, among them Best Actress trophies from the Korean Film Awards, Director's Cut Awards, and Women in Film Korea Awards. She also received nominations from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards, as well as a Rising Star Award from the New York Asian Film Festival.