정소민
Biography
Jung So-min often plays a woman whose quiet determination is overlooked by somebody louder. Her Oh Ha-ni in Playful Kiss is openly devoted and hopelessly awkward; Yoon Ji-ho in Because This Is My First Life makes a much more practical arrangement with a landlord; Mu-deok in Alchemy of Souls hides a dangerous identity behind an apparently powerless body. The contrasts help explain a durable career that has moved between intimate realism and ambitious fantasy.
Born Kim Yoon-ji, she made her acting debut in Bad Guy (2010) before becoming the lead of Playful Kiss the same year. Its school romance gave her early international recognition, though the demanding genre could also limit the variety of characters audiences expected from her. She expanded through Can We Get Married?, Big Man and The Sound of Your Heart, exploring family pressure, workplace romance and comedy. In My Father Is Strange (2017), she portrayed Byun Mi-young, a young woman whose family story becomes entangled with an actor entering their household.
Because This Is My First Life (2017) became an especially important role. As struggling writer Yoon Ji-ho, she enters a contractual marriage with a pragmatic homeowner played by Lee Min-ki. The drama uses rent, employment and social expectation to ask what contemporary partnership should mean. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (2018) took her toward a darker romance as Yoo Jin-kang, while Soul Mechanic focused on mental health and performance through the character of Han Woo-joo.
One reason Because This Is My First Life has lasted with viewers is that Jung allows Ji-ho’s practical calculations and private disappointment to coexist. She does not play independence as an uncomplicated triumph; economic pressure, family expectations and the need for companionship are all allowed to remain uncomfortable.
In Alchemy of Souls (2022), Jung played Mu-deok, a servant whose body contains the soul of a formidable assassin. The series blends magic, sword fighting and romance, and she had to sustain the tension between outward weakness and a fiercely independent inner self. Her later films include the body-swap comedy Daddy You, Daughter Me and romantic comedy Love Reset. Love Next Door (2024) placed her in contemporary romance opposite Jung Hae-in as Bae Seok-ryu, a woman reconsidering what success should look like. Jung’s best screen work repeatedly examines the difference between the identity a woman presents to the world and the decisions she is quietly preparing to make.
Dramas
Drama credits will appear here once they are connected.