Choi Ji-woo Biography

Choi Ji-woo (born Choi Mi-hyang on June 11, 1975) is a South Korean actress. She is most famous for starring in the television melodramas Winter Sonata, Beautiful Days and Stairway to Heaven.

Career

Choi Mi-hyang was first discovered when she won a talent audition organized by MBC in 1994, then made her acting debut in the drama series War and Love in 1995. Afterwards, she adopted the stage name "Choi Ji-woo."

She was cast in her first major role in 1996 film The Gate of Destiny, but due to her limited acting skills, she was replaced in the middle of filming. In the next couple of years Choi continued to star in both TV dramas and films, including The Hole (a Korean remake of Hollywood thriller Hush), as well as the romantic comedies First Kiss with Ahn Jae-wook and The Romantic President with Ahn Sung-ki. But it was her portrayals on TV of tragic heroines with a pure and innocent image"?notably in Truth opposite Ryu Si-won and Beautiful Days opposite Lee Byung-hun"?that boosted her rising popularity.

In 2002, she reunited onscreen with Bae Yong-joon (she previously had a supporting role in his 1996 drama First Love) that she would star in her most famous, iconic role. Directed by Yoon Seok-ho as the second installment of his "season dramas," Winter Sonata became a phenomenal hit throughout Asia and has been credited as one of the initiators of the Korean Wave. As a result, Choi gained wide pan-Asian recognition, especially a huge following in Japan where she acquired the nickname Ji-woo Hime ("Princess Ji-woo"). In 2009 she and Bae reprised their roles as voice actors for Winter Sonata Anime. She continues to be a lucrative star and brand in Japan, fetching high licensing/broadcasting rights for her dramas and selling out concerts and merchandise (tvN's E News compiled a list of the top Hallyu stars in Japan based on their approximate gross incomes for the first half of 2011, and Choi was #5 with approximately ).

After the success of her 2003 melodrama Stairway to Heaven with Kwon Sang-woo, Choi again attempted to break into film. She played a terminally ill heroine in Now and Forever, and a more risque character in sex comedy Everybody Has Secrets (a Korean remake of Irish film About Adam). Both films were poorly received by critics and audiences in South Korea, but performed well at the Japanese box office.

Choi then spent the next few years overseas, shooting the Chinese drama 101st Proposal with Sun Xing, and the Japanese drama RONDO opposite Yutaka Takenouchi. She returned to Korean television in 2007 in Air City alongside Lee Jung-jae; her role was the Chief Operating Officer of Incheon Airport.

In 2009, she starred opposite Yoo Ji-tae in the drama Star's Lover, playing a top actress who falls in love with an ordinary man. Choi received per episode, the highest salary for a Korean actress at the time (her record was later broken by Go Hyun-jung's for the 2010 drama Daemul).

That same year, she set up her own management agency called C,JW Company with her brother as CEO. She also joined the ensemble cast of semi-improvisational mockumentary Actresses, arguably her most significant film yet.

During the press conference for the 2011 series, Can't Lose, co-starring Yoon Sang-hyun, featuring a lawyer couple facing their own divorce suit, she was asked if she worried about shedding her pure and innocent image. Choi said, "I've had the same image for 15 years. Isn't it time for me to break out? I was a melodrama queen and now I want the title of romantic comedy queen." She added that she had gained more fans after showing her cheerful, easygoing side as a guest on the reality show 2 Days & 1 Night.

In 2012, Choi was cast in the Chinese drama City Lovers, in which she portrayed the CEO at an event management company opposite Qin Hao, a newly employed businessman at her firm.

Later that year, she became the host of Choi Ji-woo's Delicious Korea on food lifestyle cable channel O'live TV alongside fashion designer Jung Kuho. The 5-episode show, which aired from November 23 to December 21, 2012, aimed to promote Korean cuisine and culture to the world, and the two hosts traveled through South Korea and introduced little-known regional food to the viewers.

She next headlined the 2013 remake of hit 2011 Japanese drama Kaseifu no Mita. In The Suspicious Housekeeper, Choi played the titular character, an icy and stoic yet amazingly capable housekeeper who comes to work for a recently widowed father and his four children. Despite the difficulty of not being able to react to her costars, Choi said she chose the role because she "was really charmed by the way the heroine refrains from letting her emotions show."

In February 2014, Choi signed with the talent agency YG Entertainment. She then reunited with previous costar Kwon Sang-woo in Temptation; she played a rich woman who makes a dangerous offer to a married man.

Choi joined the fourth season of travel-reality show Grandpas Over Flowers in 2015, where she and Lee Seo-jin backpacked through Greece with veteran actors Lee Soon-jae, Shin Goo, Park Geun-hyung and Baek Il-seob. She was next cast in Happy Facebook, a film about three couples and Choi's first big-screen project in six years.

This was followed by the cable series Twenty Again, where she played a woman who became a wife and mother at 19 then decides to experience campus college life for the first time at age 38 when she becomes a university student alongside her 20-year-old son.

Personal life

Choi majored in aerobic dance at Pusan Women's College. She later enrolled in Hanyang University's Department of Theater and Film and completed her first year; however she had to withdraw from college studies due to her hectic work schedule.

Choi dated her Air City co-star Lee Jin-wook from 2009 to 2011.

Filmography

Television drama

Year	Title	Role	Network
1995	War and Love		MBC
1996	MBC Best Theater "??, ? ??????"		MBC
	First Love	Kang Seok-hee	KBS2
	Three Guys and Three Girls	(guest appearance)	MBC
1997	Happiness Is in Our Hearts	Seon Kyung-ah	SBS
1998	Love	Yoo Ji-young	MBC
1999	Love In 3 Colors	Eun Ji-soo	KBS2
	Love Story	Min-jung (episode 2: "Message")	SBS
2000	Truth	Lee Ja-young	MBC
	Mr. Duke	Jang Soo-jin	MBC
2001	Beautiful Days	Kim Yeon-soo	SBS
2002	We Are Dating Now	(cameo, episode 15)	SBS
	Winter Sonata	Jeong Yoo-jin	KBS2
2003	Stairway to Heaven	Han Jung-seo	SBS
2004	Full House	Herself (cameo, episode 3)	KBS2
	101st Proposal	Li Shao Rong	BTV
2006	RONDO	Choi Yoon-ah	TBS
2007	Air City	Han Do-kyung	MBC
2008	Star's Lover	Lee Ma-ri	SBS
2009	Winter Sonata Anime	Jeong Yoo-jin (voice)	SKY PerfecTV!
2011	Fuyu no Sakura	Inaba Tatsuki's Korean girlfriend (cameo, episode 2)	TBS
	Can't Lose	Lee Eun-jae	MBC
2012	City Lovers		AHTV
2013	The Suspicious Housekeeper	Park Bok-nyeo	SBS
2014	Temptation	Yoo Se-young	SBS
2015	We Broke Up	(cameo)	Naver TV Cast
	Twenty Again	Ha No-ra	tvN

Film

Year	Title	Role
1996	The Adventures of Mrs Park	Eun-jin
1997	Hallelujah	Bar madam (bit part)
	The Hole	Su-jin
1998	Alien	Kim's daughter (voice)
	First Kiss	Song Yeon-hwa
1999	Nowhere to Hide	Kim Ju-yeon
2002	The Romantic President	Choi Eun-soo
2004	Everybody Has Secrets	Han Sun-young
2005	Shadowless Sword	Female martial arts gosu (cameo)
2006	Now and Forever	Han Hye-won
2009	Actresses	Herself
2016	Like for Likes

Music video

Year	Song Title	Artist
1996	"Endless Love"	Kim Jung-min
1998	"Scenery"	Goo Bon-seung and Jang Dong-gun
	"Na Na Na"	Yoo Seung-jun
1999	"For Your Soul"	Jo Sung-mo
2003	"The Young Prince's Dream"	Cha Tae-hyun
2013	"Ziugae"	ALi

Variety show

Year	Title	Role	Network
2004	Hanamaru Market	Guest	TBS
	SMAPxSMAP - Bistro SMAP	Guest	Fuji TV
2005	SMAPxSMAP skit "Old Maid"	Guest	Fuji TV
2006	Masahiro Nakai's SMAP Friday	Guest	TBS
	The Tunnels' Thanks to Everyone	Guest	Fuji TV
2007	Sanma no Manma	Guest	Fuji TV
	Infinite Challenge	Guest	MBC
2008	Line to the Law Center	VTR appearance	NTV
2011	2 Days & 1 Night	Guest, "Actress Special" (episodes 193-195)	KBS2
	Saturday Across Generations	Guest	KBS2
	Healing Camp, Aren't You Happy	Guest	SBS
2012	Choi Ji-woo's Delicious Korea	Host	O'live TV
	Running Man	Guest (episodes 126-127)	SBS
2013	MBC Human Documentary - Love	Narration	MBC
2014	Three Meals a Day	Guest (episodes 7-8)	tvN
2015	Grandpas Over Flowers	Cast member (season 4)	tvN
	Three Meals a Day - Season 2	Guest (episodes 10-11)	tvN

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1995	Korea's Isabelle Adjani Contest
1996	KBS Drama Awards	Best New Actress	First Love
1997	18th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best New Actress	The Hole
1998	34th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best New Actress (Film)
	21st Golden Cinematography Awards	Best New Actress
1999	14th Golden Disk Awards	Golden Video Best Actress	For Your Soul
	20th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Nowhere to Hide
2000	37th Grand Bell Awards	Best Supporting Actress
	MBC Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actress	Mr. Duke
2001	SBS Drama Awards	Top 10 Stars	Beautiful Days
		Excellence Award, Actress
2002	38th Baeksang Arts Awards	Most Popular Actress (TV)	Winter Sonata
	Model Line Best Dresser Awards	Swan Award
	KBS Drama Awards	Popularity Award	Winter Sonata
		Top Excellence Award, Actress
2003	Andre Kim Best Star Awards	Female Star Award
	26th Golden Cinematography Awards	Most Popular Actress	The Romantic President
	SBS Drama Awards	Top 10 Stars	Stairway to Heaven
		Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special
2004	40th Baeksang Arts Awards	Most Popular Actress (TV)
	4th Proud Korean Awards (Journalists Federation of Korea)	Recipient
2005	41st Baeksang Arts Awards	Hallyu Special Award
	The Motion Pictures Association of Korea	Hallyu Special Award
2006	Dior Timeless Beauty Awards	Recipient
2009	International Cultural Industry Exchange Foundation Awards	Recipient
	4th Seoul International Drama Awards	Inducted into the Star Hall of Fame
	36th Tourism Day	Presidential Commendation
	SBS Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special	Star's Lover
2010	World Tourism Cities Forum	Top Popularity Award
2011	MBC Drama Awards	Best Couple Award with Yoon Sang-hyun	Can't Lose
		Popularity Award
2012	7th Asia Model Festival Awards	Asia Star Award
	Seoul International Social Work Conference	Social Welfare Award
2013	SBS Drama Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special	The Suspicious Housekeeper
2014	7th Korea Drama Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actress
	SBS Drama Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Drama Special	Temptation