Ryu Seungryong is one of the most widely recognized faces in Korean cinema, with several commercial hits under his belt. Born in 1970, he entered the Seoul Institute of the Art Drama School in 1990, where he became close with other future big names such as Hwang Jungmin, Jeong Jaeyeong and Jang Jin. Together, they would participate in musical performances put up by the Dongnang Repertory Company, a troupe affiliated to their school, both of which having been founded by the fa...More

Ryu Seungryong is one of the most widely recognized faces in Korean cinema, with several commercial hits under his belt. Born in 1970, he entered the Seoul Institute of the Art Drama School in 1990, where he became close with other future big names such as Hwang Jungmin, Jeong Jaeyeong and Jang Jin. Together, they would participate in musical performances put up by the Dongnang Repertory Company, a troupe affiliated to their school, both of which having been founded by the father of modern Korean theater Yoo Chijin. In 1997, as part of the international event Theater of Nations, he collaborated with the off-off-Broadway theatre La Mama Experimental Theatre Club for a unique performance of their breakthrough production <The Trojan Women>, entirely played in Ancient Greek. But his first claim to fame was his participation as a member of the original cast in <Nanta>, the record-breaking hit non-verbal musical inspired by Korean traditional music that has been touring without interruption since its premiere in 1997 with more than 10 million audiences around the world.
It was his friend Jang Jin who helped him make his move to films when the director cast him in his short <Has the Shower Ended?> in 2004, soon followed by a supporting role in the romcom <Someone Special> (2004). After that, Ryu continued his collaboration with Jang and became known as one of Jang’s team of regulars as he appeared in the segment called <Someone Grateful> for the film anthology <If You Were Me> (2004), <Murder, Take One> (2005), and <Righteous Ties> (2006). Im Kwontaek was the first besides Jang Jin to offer him a film role, in <Beyond the Years> (2006). Long limited to supporting roles, he received his first lead role in <The Recipe>, by Lee Anna, which Jang co-penned and executive produced. After that, he joined the main cast of several historical films and thrillers, most notable among them <The Front Line> (2011) and <War of the Arrows> (2011), with the latter earning him his first accolades. It was however through a performance of a totally different kind that he broke through in 2012, playing a Casanova hired by a married man to seduce his wife so as to gain grounds for a divorce in the comedy <All About My Wife> (2012). Even though the movie sold an impressive 4.6 million tickets, no one realized, at the time, that this was only the beginning for Ryu and that this score would soon pale in comparison to what was to come. Just several months later, he starred in the critically acclaimed royal court drama <Masquerade> and headlined the prison drama <Miracle in Cell No. 7> (released in 2013), both of which ended with a total haul of more than 12 million admissions. <Miracle in Cell No. 7> in particular was significant as it also allowed him to pick up Best Actor at the Grand Bell Awards and the Grand Prize in Film at the Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2014, he played the Japanese navy commander Kurushima Michifusa in the war epic sensation <The Admiral: Roaring Currents>, which with 17.6 million admissions set a new record and remains today Korea’s all-time box office charts. With that incredible run, Ryu naturally started to be considered as one of the most bankable actors in the industry. Yet, his following titles failed to resonate with the audience. His fortune returned in 2019 when he was top-billing what many thought would be yet another comedy film, <Extreme Job>, but against all odds it became one of the most commercially successful titles in Korea, second only to <The Admiral: Roaring Currents>. Later that year, Ryu also starred in the Netflix period zombie series <Kingdom> (2019-2020). In 2022, he went full circle as he came back on the big screen in the musical <Life if Beautiful>, singing a repertoire of popular Korean songs alongside Yum Jungah.
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